In the end, it turned out that the two people Mary most worried about, almost didn't come. Willy, even though he had been the one to start the contacts necessary to organize a reunion… well, truth be told Carline do most of the contacting… was experiencing rather a change of heart by the day before the reunion. That was an awful lot of people to see… and while the children had mostly ignored him that day when they'd visited, he knew it was because they all assumed he had been there dropping Charlie off. The cold shoulder was standard treatment for adults dropping off their kids. This time it would be clear to them there was a party going on, and one of the guests was Willy Wonka, the famous chocolatier. If it had been unpleasant being accosted by 3 over eager youngsters in the factory tour (Mike could hardly be classified over-eager,) how was he going to deal with 60 of them? And then there were the adults invited… including Jason.
"You can go Charlie. You're the one who wanted to meet them, and you can come back and tell me all about them," he said, "I'll stay here with the Oompa Loompas… they can't be alone too long. They get upset."
"I don't think there's much that can upset them."
"Nonsense! They're my workers. I think I'd know these things. They get upset, start throwing things, disturbing the candy sheep, shooting off the candy bazookas outside the firing range! It'd be bedlam!"
He rattled of the list so easily, that one might have believed him, were it not for the Oompa Loompa a few meters behind him, who'd stopped harvesting marshmallow puffs long enough to give Charlie a meaningful look, shaking his head. While they were a little strange to Charlie, he'd rarely known an Oompa Loompa to lie, but Willy did. That's not to say that Willy was inherently untruthful, he was simply prone to flights of fantasy, and to was projecting. The Oompa Loompas weren't the ones who'd be upset at all. Willy was.
"But Mr. Wonka, they're your friends, not mine. I won't know who any of them are," Charlie replied, "And you told Mary you'd be there."
Willy scowled. The boy was right. He told Mary he'd be there, so if he didn't go, then he wouldn't be able to go visit her anymore. He'd have disappointed her, and he couldn't stand to do that. Mary had a way about her when she was disappointed, that was frighteningly compelling, even to Willy. He'd only just been able to go see her again, after several decades… and he didn't want to loose that opportunity again. He wasn't one to be pushed around, but he didn't like to loose opportunities.
"Oh alright. But just for a little while. Kay?"
"Good. You'll have fun," Charlie paused to swallow the grass he'd been chewing, "You said it yourself, they're good people."
"That I did."
This same conversation was repeated several times that night, and then again twice the morning of the reunion. Willy insisted on changing his jacket 3 times… and had to go back to his residence for extra gloves, and then for his sunglasses, and then for his hat. All in all, though both he and Charlie had been up and dressed by 9am, they did not leave the factory until ten after noon. They didn't arrive at the reunion until a half hour after that, it being a fairly long trip in the elevator, and Willy stopping it twice on the way there, wanting to go home. Some part of him must have wanted to go to the reunion though… because both times he allowed himself to be convinced to go on. If he was truly adamant… that wouldn't have been possible.
"Ohhkeee… Ohhhkaaay…." Willy took a few deep breaths, holding up a hand to silence Charlie, who looked as if he might be about to ask if he was alright. "Don't be scared Charlie. This'll be super cool!"
Charlie nodded in the affirmative. He wasn't the slightest bit scared. Willy was projecting again, this time onto Charlie… but if it made him feel better to pretend that it was Charlie who was scared, and not him, then Charlie wasn't about to ruin Willy's fun… at least he seemed a lot better now then when he was coming up with random reasons to go back to his living quarters in the factory. He'd seemed flustered then, but now, he seemed much more confidant. It seemed that though he was often on the verge of falling apart, Willy would never allow himself the luxury of completely loosing it, at least, not when others were present. So, with the elevator parked in the alley, where they had left it the last time, the two stepped out of the elevator. They had sent 4 Oompa Loompas the night before, with the decorations and food for the party, which was good as they were now 40 minutes late for the start of the reunion. It would have been a pity if there were no food or decorations simply because the organizer of the reunion had a disorganized mind.
The two peeked in the window as they walked along the front of the building. The event seemed to be in full swing indoors, but they moved so quickly toward the door that neither Willy nor Charlie had a chance to see who exactly was there, and who wasn't. Willy assumed of course that they had all come. It would never occur to him that anyone wouldn't come. Willy rapped on the door, and smiled down at Charlie reassuringly, reassuring himself in the process.
"Willy!" cried a the brunette who answered the door, delightedly.
"Annabelle!" Willy replied, darting thru the door before she had the chance to try and hug him. "How's Anthony! I heard you two married?"
"He's great! He works at the Dry Cleaners, and I'm home with the kids," she gestured across the room at a dark haired boy, about 10 years old, playing amongst the others. He clearly wasn't one of the Long Road children, based on the quality of his clothing and shoes. "Little Tony's over there… and Missy… well I'm not sure where she's gotten too. You know how teenagers can be."
"Willy!" another voice from behind him, startled Willy and he whirled around to see a scruffy man, holding a bar of Fickelgruber's Chocolate. "How's the chocolate business?" he asked snidely.
"Jason! What a pleasure to see you!" Willy replied in a tone which had gone so far past sarcasm as to almost sound sincere again. "The Chocolate business, is terrific."
"That's good to hear," Jason replied, peeling the label off the end of the Fickelgruber Chocolate bar and taking a bite out of the end, making a great show of chewing it with his mouth wide open.
"Don't you mind him in the slightest, Willy," Annabelle sighed as her brother wandered off to mingle with the other reunion guests, "The little git stopped off to buy that chocolate bar on the way here. He's just trying to get your goat…. Oh Willy… who's your guest?" she asked, noticing Charlie.
"Charlie Bucket. Charlie, this is Annabelle Miller."
"Figliozzi now," Annabelle corrected, leaning a little toward her husband, taking his hand in hers.
"Annabelle Figliozzi," Willy corrected himself. "And that… git was her brother Jason Miller."
"And I'm Anthony Figliozzi," Anthony smiled, "But you can call me Tony, ok champ?"
"Thank you Tony," Charlie replied, "It's nice to meet you and Annabelle."
"Will!" a familiar voice called out of the crowd. Willy didn't even need to look to know who it was. There was only one person from Long Lane who ever called him Will, and that was Bobby. Willy was of course the only one who called him that, with everyone else calling him Bob. "Will! This is a great shindig you've put together!"
"Why thank you!" Willy responded, without mentioning that Carline and Mary had done a great deal of the putting together as well.
"Chocolate business is booming I see!"
"Yep," Willy replied, with a grin, "And what about you? Ever get that farm?"
"Fraid Not. Closest I get to live stock now is word problems." He paused for a moment, but explained further after noting Willy's puzzled head tilt. "I'm teaching Math now. Live stock in the word problems… you know… if I have 50 chickens, and 75 percent of them lay an egg each day, how many eggs do I have each day?"
"I don't care."
"I wasn't asking you," Bob laughed, clapping Willy on the back, before wandering back off into the crowd, "Good seeing ya Will!"
"Thank you for the candy bar's Mr. Wonka!" several small children chorused, sidling up to the conversing group. They were clutching ribbon wrapped Wonka Bars, from a table on the far side of the room and smiling from ear to ear. They laughed and ran off again, grateful for their candy. This made Willy quite pleased. They loved him, and they weren't asking for anything from him that the chocolate bars they already had. They were good kids… good like Charlie. This wasn't going to be so bad after all.
"You have weird hair," a teenaged boy said, and then ran off.
"I do NOT!" Willy called after him as he ran off into the throng. Had he been the sort that thought that way, he might have realized that the boy had been dared to say that… but Willy wasn't. He huffed, and sulked against the wall. They were NOT good kids… not all of them. There were still Justins and Wendys in the bunch. Petulant, irritable, mean spirited and just plain not good. At least she wasn't here too.
Carline had invited Wendy, as Mary had asked, but 2 hours into the reunion, she still had not arrived. It didn't really surprise either of them. Wendy was almost more adverse to human contact than Willy was. Heaven knew, she did not have his phobia of germs, no… Wendy was adverse to the social aspects of human interaction. People always wanted something of you, weather to push you around to make themselves feel bigger, or to 'help' you so you are in their debt, and they can call on you later, and press you into service for them, and god forbid someone might want her to love them like her mother had loved all those men, and that, as she had been shown time and time again, could only lead to disaster. Romance destroyed people… and yet they were obsessed with it. Carline, however did not have this aversion. She had grown lonely over the years, despite the companionship of the children and Mary… she wanted something else, and when Charlie had gone to play with the other children, and Annabelle and Anthony had wandered off she saw her chance to get it.
"I'm glad you came Willy," she said, sidling up to him as soon as she saw him alone, "I've missed seeing you." She did not flirt or flaunt as she had a week ago. She measured her response to be as unthreatening and gentle as possible.
"It's nice to see you too Carline," Willy replied uneasily, suddenly wondering where Charlie had gotten to.
"Sorry about the other day," she said, staring at her feet, and shuffling them a little uneasily. She was not in fact uneasy of course, but simply trying to make Willy at ease. Carline was a calculating woman. She had never known her parents, having been abandoned on the doorstep of an orphanage when she was an infant. She was raised there, and transferred to the Log Road home when the was 8, too old to stay in the Orphanage any longer. They didn't have the room for her there, and all of her peers had been adopted by other families. Only Carline had remained, and it galled her. She was not a cold woman, but she knew how to manipulate others when she had to, to get what she wanted.
"Kay," Willy took the apology into consideration, before looking away from her, watching the crowd.
"It's just… I've been lonely here, and I thought… maybe you'd been lonely up there in that factory… all by yourself."
"Not really."
Not to be so easily dissuaded, Carline, simply took up a spot next to him, watching the children and adults mill around, children discovering new playmates in the forms of the adults children, and the adults catching up on old times. These people had grown up together, so there was little focus on Willy. Mary had given the kids fair warning not to expect much, and the majority of them knew better than to cross Mary. This was probably for the best, as Willy would have been long gone by now were there too much focus on him.
"Wendy!"
Willy looked up at the voice. Annabelle was at the door again, and so was a diminutive figure dressed entirely in white, at least from what he could see. It's face was obscured by gauzy white cloth draped over the wide brimmed white sun hat perched atop it's head. Based on the name he assumed it was female, but he hoped it wasn't the Wendy who sprang to his mind.
"Annabelle!" the figure replied, wrapping her arms around the girl in a friendly hug. Only after the door had shut behind her, did the girl remove her hat, and then there was no mistaking her for anyone else. While she had traded in plaits for chin length flip, Wendy's hair hadn't lost any of it's bright coloring. If there was any question, with that hair, her eyes dispelled them. Few people had eyes such a vivid shade of green. It was in fact, Wendy Applegate.
"Who invited HER?" Willy scowled at Carline.
"I had to!" she replied defensively. "Mary made me."
Wendy hung her hat on the hat rack with some difficulty, straining from her height to get it on the hook, before unbuttoning her thick white wool coat. She stuffed white angora gloves in the right front pocket, and a matching scarf in the left, before hanging the rack as well. Underneath she wore, a black knee length pinafore, over a candy apple green button down shirt. On top of this, she had on a think forest green cardigan. Her legs were covered in opaque white tights, and black leg warmers, above black mary jane flats. The stiffness in the fabric of her un adorned black jumper made it bell out at the bottom hem, and combined with the apparently gravity defying outward flip of her hair, gave her a rather cartoonish appearance.
"Well if it isn't Wendy Wonka!" Justin crowed, swooping down on the woman.
"Don't make me hurt you," she replied, calmly, skirting the outside of the room. Claustrophobic by nature, Wendy did not want to advance into the crowd, but she didn't want to be around Justin any longer than she had to. Unknowingly she was making her way directly toward the same less crowded area where Willy had taken refuge. Willy, however was quite aware that she was coming toward him, and immediately started looking for somewhere else to go.
"Wendy Wonka! Wittle Wendy Wonka! Mrs. Wendy Wonka!" Justin continued to taunt, following her.
"MCINTOSH," she replied, with a similarly scathing tone as she had used against Willy all those years ago, "My name is Wendy McIntosh."
Willy might have noticed at this point that Wendy was not, as he assumed, a brat like Justin, that she in fact hated him, despite his apparent concern for her when she was ill, were he not busy noticing something else. He had known her name to be Applegate… but now she professed to be Wendy McIntosh. He knew a Wendy McIntosh… but she wasn't a chocolate hating brat. Wendy Applegate was a chocolate hating brat… this of course, was an entirely baffling situation for Willy… and an embarrassment for Wendy as soon as it left her mouth. She had intended to go by Applegate at the reunion, though she'd changed her name not long after she had aged out of the Long Road Home.
Many years after that, she struck up a business relationship with Wonka Candies, at the time of the re-opening of the great factory. It was a business arrangement held for over a decade, now, and in that time not once had she mentioned to Willy what her name used to be. Communicating only by post, he had no way of recognizing her, and Wendy, for her part, was not entirely apt to tell him. She had embarrassed herself thoroughly with her behavior at their first meeting, and she would just as soon prefer to leave that in the past. Nothing good had ever come of the name Applegate, the name of the woman who'd dropped her off, in person at the Long Road home for Lost and Unwanted Children, the same day Willy had left. Granted it had been Wendy's big mouth which had gotten the both of them expelled from her mother's boyfriend's house, but the girl could not really have been expected to put up with his constant harassment over her unfortunate habit of thumb sucking. Mother would find another man to live with soon enough, but this time, without Wendy to "screw things up." Her mother never returned for her, which may have been for the better, given the woman's deplorable habit of locking her daughter in the trunk of the car in which they lived when she was between boyfriends, whenever she needed to leave Wendy alone.
When she looked up then, to find herself not 6 feet from the very confused chocolatier, her pale freckled face, took on a similar pink to the one it had that Christmas, decades ago. But this time it was not a flush of anger… but the blush of embarrassment. Though she would tell anyone who asked, that she held a very low opinion of the man, she was always lying… she just wasn't self aware enough to know it. Or perhaps on some level she was, and she was just in denial. Either way, she had very little grasp on what to do in this situation. The clever, obstinate part of her had already formulated a scathing insult, ready to fling it at him, of only the other part of her would let her. But that part, the other part of Wendy McIntosh, remembered what it was like waking up in his arms, and for once in her life, not feeling an instant repulsion to the touch of a boy. So… with this dilemma rattling around inside her head, Wendy did the only thing she could do. She fled.
As she darted around Willy and up the stairs… his first thought was that she was going back to the second girls ward. But she couldn't be. She didn't live here anymore. She was in fact going to lock herself in the bathroom, but as it stands, that is entirely inconsequential, because Willy was not about to follow her. He was busy with a very disturbing thought. Wendy Applegate, weather or not he would admit it now or then, had struck him in the photograph, as a perfect porcelain doll, so clean and pale, a kindred spirit who knew what it was like to live under the oppressive thumb of Wilbur Wonka, but her personality had been her downfall. Who would want to be around someone so angry? Wendy McIntosh on the other hand was a faceless specter, with a pleasant personality, whose letters he looked forward to receiving. Taking the appearance of the one, and the personality of the other, he found a very pleasant person forming in his mind… a person labeled with a word he had long ago come to disregard "impossible." But this time… he suddenly felt the word had meaning, and weight. That person was impossible. What he had just seen was only the Applegate girl, masquerading as Wendy McIntosh.
"Despicable," he muttered to himself, turning his attention back to the room, "Brat."
"Freak," Wendy muttered, to herself, upstairs in the bathroom, "Lunatic."
"Good Riddance," they muttered, to themselves.
Author's Note: Still no beta, so sorry for the grammar. And thank you to the 4 people who have this story on Alert. It's nice to know somone's reading.