It was a good five minutes before either Wonka or Veronica made a move to get off the floor. They both, slowly, became extremely conscious that he was still on top of her, and when it finally hit him, Wonka practically leapt to his feet, smoothing his frock coat and fishing his cane and hat out of the pile of eggs. Next he turned and pulled Veronica up off the floor. She swayed slightly as the blood rushed out of her head, and she leaned rather heavily on Wonka's shoulder, head spinning. The Buckets were still looking at them. The Oompa Loompas had just finished making an intricate series of hand gestures, and one of them ran off, presumably to spread the latest gossip. Charlie looked an odd combination of revolted and highly amused. Mrs. Bucket had turned red, sympathy embarrassment for the two, and Mr. Bucket finally tried to ignore what he had seen and looked at the ceiling, whistling.
"We should really get this mess cleaned up…" muttered Wonka. Veronica nodded fervently in agreement.
The mood had barely changed by dinnertime. Mrs. Bucket had whipped up a delicious smelling Easter supper, and everyone gathered in the little house in paradise to eat, but the meal was conducted in a silence that was starkly different from most mealtimes. Wonka had the distinct feeling that this uncomfortable silence wouldn't go away soon enough. Veronica was red faced to the point that her ears might have been radioactive as she nibbled on ham. Charlie was barely touching his food, but instead was staring pointedly away from both his mentor and Veronica, stricken. Veronica had the impression that Charlie could still see the events in the hallway playing out in his mind like a video on repeat. In any case, she certainly could.
She wanted very much to find some place in the factory where she could be alone with the chocolatier. She wanted to talk… or something like that. They hadn't been able to even look at each other properly since it had happened.
Wonka had tucked away his dinner as quickly as usual, though today there was no work to return to afterward. He couldn't run and hide behind some invention now, but he hardly felt like doing that anyway. He found a stray chocolate egg hiding in one of his pockets and grasped it for a moment, then dropped in back into the depths of the pocket. It would be there for later. He was trying to think of a way to corner Veronica alone. Certainly they would be on their own when he showed her the door, but he WASN'T repeating the Valentine's Day fiasco, not this time. He couldn't accomplish what he wanted to accomplish if he was already shooing her out the door at the same time. He watched her intently for awhile, everyone else looking intensely down into their plates as if this dinner was a particularly interesting looking one. Finally, Veronica stood up, looking uneasy. Wonka jumped to his feet too.
"I think… I'm gonna go take a walk. Come with me?" He asked her quickly. She nodded silently and the two shuffled awkwardly out the door. The entire Bucket family breathed a sigh of relief, and then conversation began in earnest.
Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka, the amazing Chocolatier...
"Willy, it's my fault, if I hadn't—" Veronica began, but Wonka pressed a gloved finger to her lips.
"Shh."
"But…" She mumbled through his finger.
"Shh!" He shushed her insistently. She fell silent. "What's done is done and you can't change it, not one little bit." He said, looking at her significantly.
"I know, I know," Veronica said, once again through Wonka's gloved finger, before snatching it away from her face. "So I might as well just put it out of mind and…"
Before she could finish, he swooped in and kissed her.
"You just never shut up, now do you?" He asked cheerfully, walking away and leaving her behind.
"Would you rather we repeat the Valentine episode?"
Wonka had a brief image of himself groveling and begging for her attention as she just stood there, grinning. He shivered and shook his head.
"Then let me talk."
He turned to face her, blue velvet eyes scanning her face.
"When are you gonna learn that talking never solves anything? What happened, happened. You can't change that, nor do you want to, I think. So stop talking about it and move on to the present." Wonka grabbed her by the wrist and began dragging her along. "Now if you're gonna walk with me, you have to move those feet!" Veronica trotted after him, barely keeping up.
"Where are we going?"
"Same place we were earlier, the Hall of Holidays. I wanna show you something." This last bit sounded reminiscent of an eager child, and he began to walk faster still, somehow not breaking his stride. Eventually, they made it into the long narrow hallway, with doors crammed along its sides. They passed a few, the minor holidays, with tiny round doors. Veronica wondered just how big they were inside. She envisioned a broom closet stuffed with his inventions and an Oompa Loompa or two for good measure. He came first to the Room of Roses and flung open the door. There, the chocolate rosebushes were bursting with blooms, more than Veronica could even have imagined. Wordlessly, Wonka shut the door and approached the next down the line, the Chocolate Egg Room. Veronica cowered when he opened the door, but nothing came tumbling out. There were several roosts for chocolate colored chickens, all bearing enormous clutches of eggs. Again, Wonka closed this door without a word. They continued on, the Candy Corn room yielded cornstalks bearing so many ears of candy corn that they were bending with the weight, creating bizarre crop circles. The gingerbread room saw several Oompa Loompas chasing about even tinier little men, all laughing and giggling uproariously and trying to escape the panting Oompa Loompas. Finally, they entered a room at the very end of the hall. There was nothing in this room, save one thing; a Christmas tree of enormous size, bearing sugared plums and marzipan fruits, all to be hung on someone else's holiday tree. He had not said a word during all this, but watched as Veronica's eyes widened. These rooms had not been part of her initial tour and, if they had, she certainly didn't remember them looking like this. As he shut the final door, he turned to her, eyes boring into hers.
"These rooms were neglected and left to the Oompa Loompas to care for before you came. And every year they produced more than enough candy to keep the world satisfied. But after you came, I started walking this hallway a lot more. I don't work down here, I just walk the halls. But since I have done that, the production of these rooms has risen 400 percent. It's not even the holiday season, and the Christmas tree is putting out plums. So don't ever think that anything you've done since you've been here is bad for my business." Veronica stared. All this—because of her? "So I don't want you coming in and second guessing your decisions. After all, I never have, and look at me!" His face split in a quirky grin, and he snatched up her wrist again. "Ok, time to go now! Don't forget, face your fears, it builds character!" And he dragged her to the front door.
"Happy Easter Veronica."
"Thank you, Willy." And as she walked down the steps, she had no idea that this would be her last happy night for a long time to come.