That Saturday afternoon, Andreas slipped out of the factory's side gate. Charlie had invited him to come over and meet his family. After asking Willy if it was okay, Andreas had accepted the invitation. He walked down the street and up to the Bucket house and knocked.
Charlie opened the door, "Hi! Come in!" He turned around. "Mum! Dad! Andreas is here!"
Andreas walked into the house and removed his coat, looking around for a place to hang it. "Here, let me take that," said a female voice, causing him to spin around. A woman with curly auburn hair and green eyes like Charlie's stood in front of him, holding out one hand to take his coat.
"Are you Charlie's mother?" he asked, handing over his coat.
"I am," she replied, hanging it up on a nearby coat rack.
"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," Andreas said, bowing slightly as he had been taught.
"Well, don't you have good manners," Mrs. Bucket smiled.
A man with dark brown hair like Charlie's and brown eyes got up off the couch and came over to him. "I'm Charlie's father," he said. "You must be Andreas, right?"
"Yes, sir," he said, shaking hands with him.
"Ah, so you're the one Charlie's told us about," Andreas looked over towards the source of the voice and found it came from one of four old people sharing a bed. The one who had spoken, a man who wore glasses, waved him over. When Andreas came over to the bed, the man continued, "I used to work for your old foster dad, you know?"
"You did?" Andreas asked.
"I did," he confirmed.
"He did," the woman next to him said.
"He did," the man across from her said.
"I love grapes," the other old woman said.
Andreas shot her a puzzled glance before turning his attention back to the old man who had spoken first. "That must make you Charlie's Grandpa Joe," he said.
"So he's told you about me," Grandpa Joe said.
"Yeah," Andreas said. "He said you have some amazing stories to tell about working for Willy. I'd love to hear them sometime."
Grandpa Joe patted the blanket that covered him and the other three. "Come on up here, then," he said, "And I'll tell you a couple." He smiled over at Charlie. "You too, Charlie. There's plenty of room for both of you." Charlie and Andreas scrambled up onto the bed and got settled.
"Before you begin storytelling," the other man in the bed grumped, "How about introducing the rest of us, Charlie?"
"Sorry," Charlie said with an apologetic smile. "Andreas, this is my Grandpa George," he indicated the man who had just spoken, "That's Grandpa Joe's wife Grandma Josephine," he indicated the white haired woman next to Grandpa Joe, "And this is Grandpa George's wife Grandma Georgina," he indicated the grey haired woman next to Grandpa George.
"Birds are pretty," Grandma Georgina commented.
Andreas again looked puzzled. "Grandma Georgina says random stuff like that all the time," Charlie explained. Andreas nodded in understanding.
After the introductions were finished, Grandpa Joe started his storytelling. Mr. and Mrs. Bucket pulled up chairs and listened, too. "Willy Wonka began with a single store on Cherry Street," Grandpa Joe began. "But the whole world wanted his candy."
Andreas could easily imagine what it must have been like in Willy's store.
There were several workers wandering around. Andreas watched as a younger Grandpa Joe left the cash register and walked into the back room. Threading his way through several workers, he walked up to something that looked like a stained glass wall, behind which Andreas could see someone, and said, "Mr. Wonka?"
"Yeah?"
"We need more Wonka bars, and we're out of chocolate birds."
"Birds?" the younger Willy said. "Birds. Well then, we'll need to make some more." He handed Grandpa Joe what looked like an egg and put it in his mouth. "Here!" They waited a few minutes, and then Willy said, "Now open." Grandpa Joe did, revealing a chocolate bird sitting on his tongue, peeping. Willy laughed.
Grandpa Joe continued, "The man was a genius. Did you know he invented a new way of making chocolate ice cream so it would never melt? You could even leave it lying in the sun on a hot day and it won't go runny?"
"I believe it," Andreas said.
Grandpa Joe smiled and continued. "Before long, Mr. Wonka decided to build a proper chocolate factory. The largest chocolate factory in history. Fifty times as big as any other."
"I had no idea it was THAT big," Andreas said, eyes wide.
"Oh yes," Grandpa Joe said. "And I can even remember the day it opened, too. It was a perfect day. Mr. Wonka cut the ribbon and walked through the front gates for the first time, turning to face us. Cameras flashed and we all clapped. Josie was there with me that day and I took her in my arms and kissed her."
"Eeeeew!" Andreas exclaimed, making a face.
"Grandpa, don't make it gross," Charlie said.
"Tell the boys about the Indian prince, I bet they'd like to hear about that," Grandma Josephine said.
"You mean Prince Pondicherry," Grandpa Joe said. "Well, Prince Pondicherry sent a letter to Mr. Wonka, asking him to go all the way out to India and build him a colossal palace completely out of chocolate."
"Did Willy go?" Andreas asked.
"He did," Grandpa Joe said. "It had over a hundred rooms when it was finished, and everything was made out of chocolate. The bricks were chocolate and the cement holding them together was chocolate. All the walls and ceilings were made of chocolate as well. So were the carpets and the pictures and the furniture."
"What did Prince Pondicherry do with his palace?" Andreas asked.
"He lived in it," Grandpa Joe said.
"He WHAT?" Andreas asked, holding back a laugh.
"Mr. Wonka warned him it wouldn't last and that he should start eating it right away, but the prince ignored that," Grandpa Joe said, nodding. "But Mr. Wonka was right. Soon after that there came a hot day with a boiling sun."
"No more chocolate palace?" Andreas asked.
"Exactly," Grandpa Joe said. "Prince Pondicherry wrote to Mr. Wonka and asked him to build him a new palace, but Mr. Wonka was having troubles of his own."
Charlie shuddered. "The spies," he said.
"Yes," Grandpa Joe said before turning his attention back to the story. "All the other chocolate makers had grown jealous of Mr. Wonka and began sending in spies to steal secret recipes. Finkelgruber started selling an ice cream that would never melt. Prodnose came out with a chewing gum that never lost its flavor. Then Slugworth started making candy balloons you could blow up to incredible sizes."
"What did Willy do?" Andreas asked.
"One day, without any warning, he told all of his workers to go home," Grandpa Joe said. "He said he was closing his chocolate factory...forever."
"Poor Willy," Andreas said.
"But the good news is it didn't close forever," Charlie said.
"Obviously," Andreas smiled at his friend.
"Yes," Grandpa Joe said. "But it seemed like it would be. Then, one day, we saw smoke rising from the chimney. The factory was back in business. It was a mystery about how...until the Golden Ticket contest winners told about what they had seen inside." During the storytelling, the other three grandparents had fallen asleep and now Grandpa Joe stifled a yawn.
"We should let you get some sleep, Grandpa," Charlie said, climbing carefully off the bed so he didn't wake anybody up.
Andreas followed him off and then smiled back at the dozing off Grandpa Joe. "Thanks for telling me those stories," he said with a smile.
"You're welcome," Grandpa Joe murmured as his eyes closed.
"Come on," Charlie said. "I want to show you my room." With that, he climbed up a nearby chest of drawers and then up the ladder on top of that and into the loft. Andreas struggled up the chest of drawers and then scrambled up the ladder into the loft like a squirrel. He looked around. "Take a look out the window," Charlie suggested.
Andreas did, and smiled. "I love the view of the factory from here," he said.
"I do, too," Charlie said. "The factory is the first thing I see every morning when I wake up and the last thing I see at night when I go to sleep."
Andreas sat on the bed. "You have a great family, Charlie," he said.
"Thanks," Charlie said, smiling. "I wouldn't give up my family for anything."
"I don't blame you," Andreas said. "If I'd had a family like yours, there would be no way I'd ever leave them to go live at the factory with Willy." He looked out the window. "That's what I want most in the world," he said. "A family. A real family that will love me."
