Charlie concluded his story by recanting what happened after the effects of the candy wore off, like how Wonka begged him to keep everything that occurred a secret from his family and how the amazing chocolatier always made sure to hide his box of special candies from then on out so that this event wouldn't happen again. Not that Charlie would ever be in the mood to have more of those candies again after seeing what they did to him; and in a weird way, it prepared him for those times as a teenager when other kids would try to peer pressure him into trying the many illicit items they brought with them to school. Needless to say, the entire encounter was a terrible one and the Good Boy had prepared himself to be the focus of the little brute's sadistic ridicule, but amazingly, she was actually incredibly silent with an expression of pure terror frozen on her face. Even though Charlie could understand how someone who did not experience what he did could see the event as a humorous one, he was genuinely surprised to see Veruca not bawling with laughter at his misfortune, but instead, grasping the severity of the event and experiencing the same fear that he did. It was almost as if she had also experienced having to listen to a tortured girl scream for help and knew how horrific it felt to hear such screams yet not be able to do anything about it, so much so she could not move.

With his guest seemingly parlayed by fear, her mouth hanging wide open and eyes bulging out, Charlie waived his hands in front of her eyes, asking, "Veruca, Veruca, are you still with me?"

"Oh, what?" Veruca uttered as she snapped out of her trance.

Aware that the little brute had a history of ignoring others when they spoke, Charlie asked the follow-up, "Did you hear what I just said?"

As it turned out, Veruca had surprisingly been following along to Charlie's story, responding, "Yeah, about the time you had a bad trip."

"If that was your darkest moment, I'm not impressed," the little brute added, dismissing Charlie's personal horror story, but not out of disbelief but simply out of wishing to have the heir stop talking about it.

Not wishing to upset his guest by contradicting her but also wanting to get the message across that he considered that event dark, Charlie slyly rebutted, "Well, I say it was really dark. I mean I heard a girl being tortured."

There's so much this sweet boy didn't know about the dangers of the real world, Veruca thought, before replying with no hint of jest in her tone as usual, "Charlie, there are things in this world that are scarier than hearing a girl being tortured."

Unsure of what to make of that comment, Charlie hoped to get some more information by pressing the brat to elaborate, asking, "Like what?"

"No," Veruca mumbled back as she began looking down at the table and buried her face behind her right hand, it seemed she would not be opening up about her supposed knowledge of what is scarier than a horrible hallucinogenic experience.

Despite her only response to his question being rather short, Charlie got all the information he needed; Veruca really was terrified by his story, but instead of admitting that, she denied Charlie struggled all together. While it wasn't out of character for the little brute to ignore the strife of others, her outright dismissal of the terror and unwillingness to elaborate on her response indicated something else was going on. It was almost as if Charlie's story had struck a nerve with the second Golden Ticket winner, but he would have to observe Veruca some more in order to get to the bottom of what about his tale was causing her discomfort.

Unfortunately, those observations would have to be put on hold because, finally, after about 20 minutes of waiting, Doña Rosita and Benito reemerged from the kitchen carrying Charlie and Veruca's hot dinner. Charlie had ordered Carpa al Mojo de Ajo, one of Doña Rosita's specialties; an entire carp had been gutted and descaled, marinated in butter and garlic, fried until it was all brown and crispy, and then served atop an arrangement of lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and onion and a mound of Spanish rice on the side. Charlie could already feel his mouth drooling as he smelled the scent, but all hopes of eating something worthy of descending into her body disintegrated as Benito placed the dinner plate in front of the brat and her meal appeared to be staring back at her as the fish's eye was still intact.

Doña Rosita focused on Charlie rather than his snobby friend as his face secreted joy at the meal she'd produced for him, and told him, "Bien, aquí están sus órdenes de Carpa al Mojo de Ajo. Si necesitan algo mas, nomas pregunta, Carlitos."

(Well, here are your orders of Carpa al Mojo de Ajo. If either of you need anything else, just ask, Carlitos.)

The meal was as perfect as ever, and like the well-mannered, thankful man he grew up to be, Charlie complimented the cook, "Gracias, Doña Rosita, por supuesto que sí."

(Thank you, Doña Rosita, of course I will.)

Doña Rosita and Benito left the two to eat in private, but while Charlie was all too ready to dig in, Veruca picked at the meal with her fork as she examined the unconventional food placed right in front of her, and asked Charlie, "What in God's name is this?"

"It's Carpa al Mojo de Ajo, Garlic-Buttered Carp," Charlie replied gleefully as the wait had paid off and he could finally bite into the fish's tasty goodness.

From the look of confusion on Veruca's face, Charlie could tell such a dish was not one she expected despite mentioning it was a seafood place, something he was sure many Londoners had also experienced, leading him to say of the dish, explaining, "When it comes to Mexican food it's less popular than Tacos, extremely less American than Burritos, but all of that is a good thing."

"You say it's a good thing, but you expect me to eat this thing?" Veruca snickered back, sticking her nose up at the strange-looking creature lying before her.

A bit shocked that the wealthy Veruca seemed to not have experience with foreign cuisine, especially with those on the more exotic side of the comfort spectrum, Charlie elaborated on his reasons for picking this dish as their dinner, saying, "It's different, I thought you'd have fun with it."

At this point Veruca was in no mood for fun, she rolled her eyes up to face her fellow Golden Ticket winner, and commented of her meal, "The fish is looking at me, Charlie."

The heir realized that eating a whole fish, head intact, might come off as odd to some people, and so to prevent a tantrum like that of a child refusing to eat their vegetables, Charlie leaned over, and proclaimed, "Here, let me help you with that."

Charlie reached across the table and pulled Veruca's plate closer to him and tore off the carp's head from the rest of the body, so the brat could eat in peace without having her dinner's fried eye staring back at her. But, with the carp's head in his hands, Charlie remembered another dish he savored on many of his travels, claiming, "You know, they also make some great soup out of fish heads."

"Well, if you say it's good then I know it must be minging," the little brute replied after merely lifting her eyes up to stare at the person across the table from her, letting him know that his opinion on issues of leisure, like exotic foods, meant nothing to her.

There was no point in arguing with Veruca on any matter as she lived in a world where she was correct one hundred percent of the time, but it was especially useless to argue with her over a dinner plate. No matter what, Charlie had a delicious meal in front of him, which he was ready to dig into, regardless of what the brat thought of the food. While Veruca unrolled the cloth containing her knife and fork and placed the napkin on her lap to keep her skirt and lower part of her blouse clean if she dropped a bit of her fish, Charlie on the other hand took a much more juvenile approach. After separating the silverware from the napkin, Charlie tucked an end of the white cloth behind the collar of his plaid shirt, sporting it like a bib.

The sight of a grown man wearing a bib, accompanied with Charlie's cherub-like expression of glee as he prepared to bite into his meal, really rubbed Veruca the wrong way, causing her to lash out, and snipe, "That has to be the least attractive thing I've ever seen a man do."

Charlie didn't know why but that comment really struck a chord with him, he immediately drew the napkin from his collar and placed it on his lap just like his guest had done, just like a grown man should do. Their dinner was silent, all either of them heard was faint chatter coming from the other patrons, sounds coming from the kitchen and the noise caused by their forks and knives clanging against the dinner plates. Surprisingly enough, Veruca did find herself digging into the whole fried fish, albeit she was picking fish ribs she accidentally got in her bite out of her mouth throughout the entire meal. Charlie, on the other hand, had enough experience eating a whole fish that he knew how to avoid the ribs and he enjoyed every single bite he took, but not as much as he enjoyed the opportunity he had to sit down and talk with one of his fellow Golden Ticket winners, and one with many interesting stories, too.