Chapter three: a glimpse of sanity
She walked through the chocolate room, following silently as Willy explained each and every thing about the room. She listened with a thoughtful expression on her face, but took no real interest in anything but the manner in which Willy spoke. This made her confused; can't he understand the old woman? She thought. Aleera had grown up with only a mother, one who was in an insane asylum. As a child, she had refused to leave her mother's side and so she grew up around strange and insane people. This caused he own mental state to be slightly altered. She wasn't insane, but neither was she sane. Rather, she stood on the border of insanity, able to follow the most random conversations and understand the most insane people. This Willy, as he was called, seems to be on that border as well, yet he seemed utterly lost and confused while she and the woman spoke. Charlie nudged her and she realized that Willy was beginning to notice that she wasn't paying attention.
Giving her an odd look, Willy continued, "and this is my chocolate water fall! It churns the chocolate and makes it light and frothy" he emphasized the statement by gesturing with his hand. He looked at her expectantly and was disappointed yet again as she looked nonchalantly at the falling chocolate. He cleared his throat and tightened his hold on his cane. His purple latex gloves causing a horrible squeaking sound. Aleera spun around to look at Willy curiously. Wide eyed and child like she asked "is something wrong?" he forced a smile "any ways the factory is the only one in the world that mixes its chocolate by waterfall." He giggled and pulled a ladle out of nowhere. Dipping it into the river of chocolate he handed it to her and said "here taste some of this, it'll do ya good."
Reluctantly, she did and then nodded to show that she liked it. The pink seahorse barge came up the river but before Willy could say anything Charlie asked him, "why don't we take the elevator?"
Willy shrugged "ok then…let's boogie!" They climbed into the elevator and Willy pressed a button labeled the inventing room. They whooshed to the left, Willy expected her to fall into him because of the sudden lurch, but she had some how managed to stay on her feet. Both Charlie and Willy looked at her curiously. "Sea legs" she said not looking at either of them, "that's all it takes."
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They visited several more rooms with little success in interesting Aleera. Willy was dismayed. Everybody loved his candy; everybody loved his factory, why couldn't he even get a gasp out of her! Throughout all the rooms, he'd seen a very logical side of the girl and quite frankly he like her babbling more. Her cryptic and riddle like remarks about every thing was beginning to drive him up the wall. In the hair cream room he'd almost lost it. He'd just shown her what the cream did when she asked "is it edible?"
"Of course" came his rely. But then she had asked "so is it in the hair care isle or the candy isle?" when he told her it wasn't on the market she looked at him and said "a star that shines brightly can feel alone in the spotlight, but the one who revels in solitude shall find himself with no one to share with" arg! He felt like grabbing and shaking her while screaming "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" instead, he settled for looking at her and saying "you're really weird"
They climbed back into the elevator "why don't you pick a room?" suggested Charlie. Aleera shrugged and looked at the buttons. She then pressed the only one without a label. And they were off. Within a matter of minutes what found themselves floating in empty space. Suddenly, fireworks began to shoot off all around them. They continued through the room as other oddities happened all around them. Both Charlie and Willy opened their mouths to explain the room when she turned around. Her eyes were filled with wonder. Black hair danced around her face in neat little curls (the hair cream having cleaned and detangled her hair). "This room," she said in awe "it has no purpose, no meaning," for a moment, Willy thought she was mocking the room when she added softly, "like candy."