Little Wonka: Part 3

Willy was getting excited. Weldon would be turning 15 so soon, and he was starting to see more and more of himself in Weldon every day. Weldon had caused an explosion in the inventing room by mixing too much "cinnamon gunpowder" with too much "sour lemon-IDE, and while the explosion caused a mess, it was fairly small and Willy was glad to see Weldon experimenting with flavors. Grandpa Joe would comment on how much Weldon reminded him of Willy, back in the days when Joe was an employee. There was one major difference: Weldon always wore bowler hats...never top hats...always bowler hats. Weldon seemed to be a little shyer than Willy had been at that age, which led Willy to believe that there was a secret at hand.
Weldon was a transvestite, it was revealed one day as Willy found him wearing a long shapeless dress with his bowler hat. Willy had been understanding, and admitted to his fixation with striped socks. They both got a bit of a laugh out of that.

On Weldon's 15th birthday, a new candy of his design was released: Weldon Wonka's White Chocolate Rabbits, which made an excellent Easter candy, it was found. Weldon's birthday, however, was not in April, but July, and so Willy and Weldon worked for weeks beforehand developing Everlasting Gobstopper-flavored Ice Cream, which, thanks to its tendency not to melt and the fact that it changed flavors every minute, sold quite nicely.

Weldon eventually asked Willy about existence...something every 15-year-old seems to have a fixation with.
"Dad?" Weldon prompted.
"Hmm?" Willy said, looking up from his paperwork.
"I'm curious...and you're probably thinking that this is a rather delayed question...and..." Weldon began.
"You're pressure speaking, Weldon." Willy commented.
"Oh, right. Terribly sorry...but...you see, I was wondering...how did I get here?" He leaned forward in his seat, placing his hands on the desk as he said this. Willy took off his reading glasses -since, at age 57 his eyesight was starting to fail- and looked up.
"I've been waiting for 15 long years to tell you that, son. And you're probably wondering why you don't have a mother, either"
"Well...sorta"
"Well, here's why, Weldon: I'm not just your father...I'm your exact carbon copy, and, technically speaking, I'm also..." he grinned momentarily "you're gonna like this part...technically speaking, I'm also your mother..." he laughed a little bit. Weldon's eyes widened and he leaned forward again.
"I don't believe you..." he said. Willy sat up and laughed, then opened the filing cabinet, pulling out a pile of paperwork and thumping it on the desk in front of Weldon.
"Those are the papers that prove it; papers from the lab where they scraped some DNA for cloning, papers from the same lab that..." he hesitated. "now, please, promise me you won't get freaked out at this"
"I'll try my best, dad..." Weldon said, perusing the papers and listening to Willy talk at the same time.
"I went to the lab, had some DNA samples taken, and using that, they cloned you. After that you were..." he coughed nervously "as you can see, it's a touchy subject...but I'm proud of you... after that...you were implanted into the pad of fat protecting my intestines..." Willy finished, glad that he could complete the sentence for once. Weldon had long since looked up from a page of ultrasound stills. He looked a little creeped out, but the expression on his face changed as his hand fell to the skirt he was wearing and realized he was in no place to be disturbed by a breech in gender roles.
"So...I was...and...you were...and..." he continued to stutter silently for a few moments after that.
"Yes..." Willy said, putting his glasses back on. "Oh, and by the way, you can keep that, I have another few copies for safekeeping in other filing cabinets"
"Why?" Weldon asked.
"Because they're about you! I'm proud to have a son like you!" Willy said excitedly.
"But aren't I technically your twin?" Weldon asked, confused.
"No, you're 42 years younger than me, that's not twin-hood at all, 42 seconds maybe...but 42 years...that's quite a stretch..." Willy explained. Weldon went back to the pile of papers, looking for a journal of sorts, judging by what he mumbled to himself.
"The journal's on page 35." Willy said, pointing to the packet. Weldon flipped to the page and became deeply absorbed in the random thoughts and emotions of his father. He laughed in some parts, and from time to time, he could be heard saying "aw..." or "how sweet...". Willy smiled when he heard that, and when Weldon finished the journal, he looked at his statistics and read a small transcript written by one of the hospice nurses. This, he read aloud.
"Oh, yeah, she was so nice to me about it. A lot of them would crack jokes, but not her." Willy commented as Weldon read the transcript.
"Well that's good." Weldon said.
"Yeah..." Willy said, beginning to tune out to finish the paperwork.
"Shouldn't Charlie be doing paperwork?" Weldon asked.
"Yes, but he's out planning renovations at the show-off shop today..." Willy said, scribbling his name on one of the lines of a form.
"Show-off shop?" Weldon asked.
"Yeah, show-off shop...it was my first candy shop, and it used to be my factory, too. Now, since I've moved the factory and it's got a larger scale of production, that shop's more an advertisement than a factory...I think the only thing we still make there is customized candygrams..." Willy said. "That's also where the press found out about you"
"I...don't understand..." Weldon said, shrugging.
"Reporters heard the rumor -which turned out to be true- and came to me asking about it...I told them the truth...loudly and proudly..." Willy said, almost in a trance-like state at this point. Weldon quietly got up and went to his room to look at the packet again.

A few hours later, Charlie got back from the show-off shop, Willy had finished with all of the paperwork, and they all sat down in Willy's office for a business meeting.
"Everyone..." Charlie began. "I have an announcement"
"Well of course, that's why were having a meeting..." Weldon tactlessly said. Willy shot him a warning look and Weldon folded his hands on the table in front of him. Under the table, in his lap, rested the packet of all of his statistics. Charlie cleared his throat to continue.
"At the shop today while I was planning the renovations, I met a wonderful woman." Charlie said. Willy looked down at the table and sighed exasperatedly. Weldon laughed.
"Charlie..." Willy said. "I said to you on the day that I first offered you the factory that you can't run a factory with family hanging over you"
"Explain how you having Weldon was justified, then." Charlie said, a smug look on his face.
"Uh, I'm right here..." Weldon said, tapping the table. Charlie ignored him.
"By family I mean siblings and p..." Willy hesitated.
"Parents?" Weldon suggested.
"Yes, exactly, that..." Willy said, glad for having been helped out.
"Then maybe you should leave the factory..." Charlie said, his smug expression becoming more and more irritating.
"Bear in mind, Charlie," Willy said, getting angry and standing up "That Weldon came first!" Weldon shrank back in his chair. He hated seeing people argue.
"Why can't I bring my girlfriend to the factory?" Charlie asked.
"Because only authorized personnel and permitted visitors are allowed to come to the factory, and I'm not giving your girlfriend permission to come here"
"Well why not?" Charlie demanded.
"Because if you bring her here, she might steal recipes and ruin equipment, not to mention that a relationship will distract you from business." Willy tried to explain.
"Well then forget about the factory, I don't need candy!" Charlie said, standing up, grabbing his coat, and leaving. Willy turned to Weldon and smiled.
"Well, now everything's going as I had originally planned it..." Willy said. "My son and myself running our chocolate factory...". Weldon took the packet out of his lap and started reading it again. Willy got out of his seat and glanced over Weldon's shoulder.
"You're still reading that?" he asked of Weldon. Weldon turned around.
"...Well...yeah..." he said, turning back to it.
"Why? It's not like you're going to do what I did..." Willy said.
"What's there stopping me?" Weldon asked. Willy put his hand to his face and groaned.
"Listen, Weldon..." he said, sitting down in the closest chair. "It's not all that safe...turn to the back page." He continued, pointing to the packet. Weldon did. "Do you see that?" Willy asked as he tapped on the title of the page. "That's a precautionary will that I had to write"
"W-Why?" Weldon asked.
"Because...because...oh...I can't tell you, Weldon..." Willy sighed.
"Why not?" Weldon asked.
"Because...you're not going to do that, do you hear me?" Willy said. He moved away a little, ashamed of his hypocrisy. He realized that this was what his father did that always annoyed him. "Weldon...I-I'm sorry...but...you're young, you can get married and have kids that way...what I did was..." he sighed "it was a desperate measure...I was always too focused on my work to be bothered with a social life"
"But if I'm taking your place...how can I be bothered with one?" Weldon wondered.
"Because I'll still be running the factory too, you'll have more time to go out and do things...and"
"Dad...please...consider this: when girls find out that I'm wearing their clothing, they're not going to like me-" Weldon protested.
"If they do not love you for that, they never loved you. You will know who is right for you someday, Weldon." Willy said, hesitantly placing his arm around Weldon's shoulders.
"...Dad...I've always wondered...why were you always so nervous about touching people?" Weldon asked, turning to face his father.
"I...well...uh...I...I..." Willy struggled to build his sentence. "...I don't really know...but ever since you came along, it's gotten a lot less severe...You've...you've taught me how to love, Weldon..." Weldon looked at him for a moment, processing that statement.
"I must say, that sounded really sappy..." Weldon said. Willy sighed.
"I know...but it's true, Weldon...I was concerned about nothing but my candies...and then...that gray hair shows up and...well...we all know the rest of the story..." As Willy said this, Weldon yanked a gray hair from his father's head.
"It's a good story..." Weldon said. "It makes me feel great, because you did something so bizarre and untraditional just for...well...yeah"
"That's very true..." Willy said, slowly changing his grasp of Weldon's shoulder into a hug. A nice hug, purely emotional, without the slightest hint of negative feelings. Weldon reciprocated. They sat there in silence for a few moments, and then there was the sound of the doorbell ringing, startling their peaceful happiness. Weldon got up to answer it. Reporters were crowded around the gate, clamoring to get in. Weldon gestured to them to wait a moment and then went to Willy.
"Reporters at the door...I wonder what they're here about..." Weldon explained.
"Probably about Charlie walking out." Willy said, pulling himself out of his seat. As they opened the gates for the reporters, several questions were thrown at them, most about Charlie, but one question was posed at Weldon:
"Do you plan to have children the way your father did?" the reporter asked.
"Well, gee...that's a difficult question..." Weldon said "there's so many risks to it, you know? I guess if it becomes safe enough to be widely done, I'll go for it...but at the moment, I think I'll just do it the old fashioned way..." The reporter seemed satisfied with that. Eventually they were all shooed away so that Willy and Weldon could talk business.

"M-m-my name is...Weldon Wonka...a-and...I...I..." Weldon struggled to say his sentence. The girl sitting across the table from him, who had lovely, deep brown eyes like a squirrel and hair the color of the chocolate river at the factory patiently sat through the stammers.
"And my name is Lillian...I love your dad's chocolates...they're the best, he gets just the right mix of cocoa and milk...heh...anyway...what do you do in your spare time, Weldon?" She said.
"I try to invent flavors...I caused an explosion in the inventing room a few months ago by mixing too much "cinnamon gunpowder" with too much "sour lemon-IDE"...I was trying to make extreme gobstoppers..." he said, gaining confidence.
"Oh? That sounds like it was fun..." she laughed. "Did you get hurt"
"Ah, no, the explosion was pretty small and I was wearing goggles like I'm supposed to...all I got was a little cut on my chin from the exploding beaker." Weldon said. Lillian winced slightly at the thought. "It's all better now, though." Weldon assured her. She sighed with relief.
"...so I heard it told that your dad is also your...your mom?" Lillian asked.
"...well..." Weldon fought off a 'block'. "...you heard right...but before you ask, no, I've decided I'm not doing that...it's really dangerous...dad had to write a precautionary will, just in case I killed him..." he said.
"I guess you wouldn't be dating me if you were going to make that decision, either..." Lillian laughed. "Cause I wouldn't be needed, would I"
"No...I guess not..." Weldon laughed along with her.

"Dad...I've got good news and bad news..." Weldon said one morning while standing in the doorway of his father's office.
"And what would that be?" Willy asked, looking up from his mail.

TO BE CONTINUED