Once again, thank you to all my readers, especially to Turrislucidus for taking the time to comment on some of what went before. It's good to see what you think. :)

This is a short section which concludes the afternoon visit.

If you recognise it from elsewhere, chances are it doesn't belong to me!

Down to Business

Having calmed Charlie down enough from his shock, Willy took one more sip of his mug before putting it to the side and picking up his pen and pad again. Focusing completely on his task now, he pondered a few minutes before putting a number one at the top of his column and adding 'teach Charlie languages' beneath it, before reading this out to his apprentice. "As I said in the inventing room, the more languages you know well the better you'll be prepared to conduct phone conversations with the various companies and people we do business with. We may start you with Latin again as despite it being no longer in use throughout the world it forms the basis for many of the other common languages and it may be easier for you to understand them once you've got a grounding in that."

Charlie, gazing about himself in wonder even as he sipped on his chocolate, agreed with this suggestion, suppressing a groan as he remembered how he had struggled with the language in the past. Hopefully it wouldn't be so complicated if Wonka taught him the basics first though. A few minutes later Willy wrote a number one at the top of Charlie's column, hoping this would prompt the boy to make a suggestion of his own. As this didn't have much of an effect, he finally decided to break the silence and ask the boy for an idea.

Charlie, not being too sure what he would like to see happening during the apprenticeship at this point in time, hesitantly suggested that it might be good if Wonka would agree to meet up with the important people in his life, maybe visit some of his classes in school, and Mr Joepeck as his current employer for starters. Charlie thought that Wonka might gain a better idea of exactly how much the town people, particularly those of his age, revered him if he were to spend a little more time socialising with them. Despite some initial nerves on the matter of meeting so many different people, and being known to be out of the factory, Wonka agreed that this might be a good idea –though for very different reasons to the ones Charlie had.

After this, Wonka wrote a two next to his name and wrote down that Charlie should be helped to understand the various processes the factory went through in the production of various different candies so that he would be able to join in conversations Wonka had with the Oompa Loompa's about how best to improve different recipes. Wonka thought the best way for him to learn might be by having Charlie apprentice to the different departments, spending at least one morning a week learning on the job. In time this would help him learn the jargon and understand exactly what was going on in the production of the various candies. Wonka would also try to spend part of an afternoon or evening with him each week discussing what he had experienced in the department. This would enable him to judge when Charlie was ready to move onto a different part of the factory. If it came to it, Wonka was perfectly happy for that to become part of Charlie's homework club time. It was at least as important as anything he did for school, and would have an important part to play in his life as he grew older.

Once again Charlie agreed, though he did wonder what his Mom would have to say about the injunction that Chocolate Factory learning stuff took precedence over homework at times!

Once Wonka had noted his ideas about that down he wrote a 2 on Charlie's list and looked to him to come up with another idea of what he would like. After humming and hawing for a while Charlie suggested they instigate a question time, where each of them would be able to ask questions about things which intrigued them about the other and the other would give as detailed an answer as possible – with the only exception being if the answer was maybe too personal for sharing at that point in time and was maybe better being left until it came out naturally.

Wonka grinned at him. "oh, does that mean you're wondering about what secrets I might have?" he asked with a teasing smile. Charlie smiled back at him, "Lots! But actually, I'm currently thinking of things like what your thoughts were as the results of who found each of the tickets came in? What lead to the ticket hunt in the first place? What would you have done next if none of us had passed the test? Things like that." Willy glanced affectionately at Charlie. "I can see we're going to be at this for months if all your questions are like those ones Charlie!" he responded. "Those are good questions." Then he noticed a troubled look on his apprentices face. "What is it?" he asked. "It's just another question I've thought of." Charlie told him It did take a little more gentle prodding, but eventually Willy managed to get him to explain the question. "It's just... Could any of the others cause trouble for the factory for any reason? I remember Mr Salt talking about what environmental health would say about the state of the inventing room for example?" Willy laughed at that one for a moment. "Yes, he did rather throw that around as a fear tactic didn't he?" Willy commented. "Truth be told, as nothing in the room goes on sale, and only myself and those who are specifically allowed to test the experiments ever eat the produce in that room Environmental health really couldn't say much at all. Unlike the river when it was contaminated by Augustus. As you know, we had to drain and sterilise it. Very different things. However, this is another precaution of mine that I'm quite proud of. None of those involved in the tour could cause us any problems due to the tales they told about it – it doesn't mather whether the subject was the Oompa Loompa's, the conditions they saw in the inventing room, or the fates of the various children. You see Charlie, the contract I had you all signed created a rule that meant the children and their parents aren't allowed to speak negatively about their trip to anyone outside of a specific group that would later be designated.

"This was then taken to another level when we went into the first room lock. The agent in the cleanser which took the worst of the bacteria off of our clothing , hair, and footwear created the group parameters – anyone inside of the room was included in it, and those in the room wouldn't be able to say anything negative about the tour to anyone not in that room. As it fell onto them, it created a link for the benefit of the contract. Then, when each person tasted something in the chocolate room (and everyone had tried something) it became impossible for them to go against that directive."

Having explained matters Willy went back over to the fireplace and used his whistle to call up one of the Oompa Loompa's. With her (Hetty) in the room, he then challenged Charlie to try and say something bad about the factory trip, just to test the directive. After a few moments of thinking, Charlie said "Mr Wonka's workers are absolutely wonderful. So kind and considerate. Why they even acted as tour guides if our party got separated." With a smile, Willy soon guessed that to be a comment about how strange Mr Wonka's workers looked, and that they must have been illegally brought into the country.

Having verified that, Willy next invited him to try writing something negative about the tour down, and after a little more time sitting thinking he scribbled something down, frowning at the page. Eventually he handed the result to Wonka, who read out "there were a few spots of bother, and some of the children in the tour did have slight accidents, but nothing which couldn't be quickly sorted, and maybe they would learn that when they were told not to do something that it was generally a good idea to follow the instructions they were given." This, with careful questioning, he soon discovered to have been an attempt at talking about the various adventures the children had experienced, and how little Willy had done to avoid the situations.

Having given it a bit of thought, Charlie decided to query the ethics of this trick, speaking most especially on his own part, as he would never choose to speak negatively about the tour to outsiders. Wonka smiled at him, and admitted that this was correct, but then went on to point out that he didn't know Charlie when these precautions were taken – Charlie hadn't even found his ticket by that stage, only the others had, and Willy had been getting more and more concerned about what the children who had found the tickets would do to his factory. Then, as Charlie was conceding the point, and admitting that given the way the others had acted it had been a sensible precaution, Willy continued with the thought that d if he'd done something similar when he employed the town people, then no one would have been able to steal his recipes.

He explained that he had made the plans during a paranoid stage soon after he closed the factory, just in case it was needed in a classic case of bolting the stable door once the horse has vanished, and as the various ticket finders were revealed he had decided that it was important to implement the scheme as he realised he didn't trust any of them.

Having detoured for a while Willy wasn't too sure what else to put on his list, so he paused in the writing of it, suggesting that the two of them write ideas down over the course of the week and they could discuss any fresh ideas the next time they met. As Charlie was agreeing with him, he suddenly slapped his thigh. "And we really need to get you some better clothing. More durable, warmer, better suited to the winter months, and some which will work for your time in the various confectionary departments."

Charlie had smiled at him on hearing this. "New clothing would be lovely Wonka, though I do want to keep some of this, Mom and my Grandma's knitted some of the jumpers and my scarf for me." Then he paused for a moment. "You said yesterday it would be alright for me to dress like you somewhat." He paused and took a deep breath, as this still felt a pretty big 'ask' to him. "Can I get a coat like yours?" Wonka looked up and smiled at him gently, giving his shoulder a squeeze across the table while he was at it, understanding something of how difficult that must have been for Charlie to ask. "A frock coat? No reason why not. Maybe in a bright blue this time rather than purple. What about a top hat as well? I don't think you'd quite manage to carry off the cane quite yet, but the frock coat and top hat would be good for any publicity days we end up having to deal with."

Charlie had sat stunned a little at the fast flowing ideas as they poured over him. "A top hat?" he questioned, thinking about it when Wonka stopped talking. "Yeah, I guess that would also make me feel a little closer to you." He commented, his mind elsewhere. That comment caused Wonka to frown in concern. He hadn't really expected that Charlie had asked for the clothing to 'feel closer' to him He made another note to have the Oompa Loompa's create some comfort and protection safety toys for Charlie, writing it down on the paper this time so he wouldn't forget.

Then Charlie came out of his thoughts. "Publicity Day's Wonka?" he asked. Willy smiled at the boy, picking up on the important sliver of information once again. "Oh! Well, now that we've become more part of the public world, what with the ticket competition, and your becoming my apprentice, and this meet and greet stuff you've got me to sign up for, I figure we could look into having publicity events and days – get both of us out there into the community a little more. It would only be a little at a time, but if we both dress alike, that would stand out to those attending – they would all know at once that 'there goes Wonka's' – which might be quite good!" he explained with a smile. "Then if we ever need to go out and not be recognised, we just leave the frock coats and top hats at home..."

Charlie had to admit that it was a good plan. A few minutes later the clock chimed five, and so, rather reluctantly, the two headed towards the personal apartments, where Willy dropped Charlie off. In some ways though, each had to admit that it was a bit of a relief. So much had happened in their time together, and so much ground had been covered that both of their heads were spinning rather.