A/N: Response time!
Gs33022, thank you for suggesting the clarification! I have gone into the document for the previous chapter and added a little bit of description to the cane to make it sound less unintentionally like one used for casual purposes. I actually never have read "Boy: Tales of Childhood" (although I am interested in doing so), but I did get a moment of "Fridge Brilliance", as a website called TV Tropes calls it, when I was reflecting on what a rattan cane looked like. In Roald Dahl's short story "Spotty Powder", the pipes that deliver the powder are described as being bent at the top and looking like large walking sticks. Ill-fated Miranda Piker, who is made a headmaster's daughter just for the purposes of the short story, is a brash kid who meets her comeuppance in the room. Could it be that Roald Dahl intentionally designed the pipes of Spotty Powder to make a sort of resemblance to the canes that were used in schools in his time to keep pupils in line? It's just something I pondered. "Fridge" pages on TV Tropes discuss these sorts of things all the time.
Guest, it's too bad that Violet didn't know that "book trick" you mentioned, huh? Then again, when the hand is involved, using a book to soften the blow would be impossible to do, especially without getting caught.
As the next morning was Saturday, Violet hoped that it would go over better than yesterday did. She slept in for a while (not that that's saying much) and decided, after eating a light breakfast and listening to the radio for about an hour and a half, to go over to the Wonkavator and see what rooms she was allowed to explore for the time being.
As was expected, Rungdin turned out to be standing in the device. Violet stepped in and, walking around him, stared at the nearest button panel to read a few of the labels.
"Fizzy Lifting Drinks?" she asked out loud. "Did Mr. Wonka permit that room?"
Rungdin shook his head firmly. He pantomimed the reason by spinning one index finger and lifting the other towards it slowly. "They're too strong. There's a fan at the top of the room, and if you drank one of those sodas as they are currently, there's a good chance that you would float too high, and then the fan could pull you in. If you haven't guessed already, they're drinks that make you as light as a feather and float in the air, but Mr. Wonka doesn't have them quite right yet."
Violet rolled her eyes and groaned. "How about this?" She pointed to a button just to its right, marked Cows that give chocolate milk.
Rungdin shook his head again. "That's a production facility."
"What about Mint Jujubes?"
"Those are prank candies in production. Do you want to have green teeth for a month?"
"Fine. I'll just head to the foyer and do something in town." Violet had to be at Bill's Candy Store in approximately two and a half hours anyway, so she figured that, if she couldn't find anything to do here, she could at least look around the area. In her irritation, Violet had failed to keep searching the Wonkavator and did not realize that a few rooms listed very nearby, such as the Chocolate Room, Fizzy Lemonade Swimming Pools, and Lickable Wallpaper, were in fact interactive rooms that Mr. Wonka had allowed her to explore with supervision.
"Okay. Mr. Wonka is in the Inventing Room right now, so I'll let him know that you've left."
Violet was so peeved at the limitations that she fantasized sticking her wad of chewing gum over the button for the main foyer (they were nearly the same off-white hue) when Rungdin wasn't looking so that he would press the gum by accident. In her mind, this would have been the perfect case in which to do this, as all of the Oompa-Loompas whom she had seen up to this point had been wearing gloves, and Rungdin no doubt would throw a fit and have to wash the affected one. She refrained, however, for two reasons. One, he never turned around to give her time in the first place. Two, she very obviously would have been the only culprit, and she probably would be told on and given a severe lecture, very likely with subsequent consequences, by Mr. Wonka. As it was, Rungdin just pressed the button labeled Main foyer, without incident, and the contraption went on its way.
...
Violet paced around the area aimlessly, not having a clue where exactly to go. Not having a vehicle of any sort on hand certainly didn't make things any easier. Violet certainly would have needed a car or taxi to get anywhere outside of the downtown area, and she assumed that most of the fun stuff was located there. Besides Bill's Candy Shop, she saw only her school, another school that was less fancy, a travel agency, a laundry service, and a few odd shops here and there. She almost wished that she hadn't spent most of her money on gum for the past few weeks—almost. It still scared her even to think of possibly having to go without any of it in her possession.
Back in the United States, she and her parents once took a day trip to a town called Forsyth, about 45 miles away from Miles City. Violet remembered Forsyth most vividly for being very, very tiny, even by Montana's standards, and nearly in the middle of nowhere. It was so tiny and remote, in fact, that Sam had parked the car at a rest stop and spent most of the trip walking the family everywhere. The local park, the post office, the grocery store, the indoor swimming pool, and even the residential neighborhoods had been so close together that heading between them had been almost like taking a stroll, only longer, and the locals had seemed to know each other so well that the Beauregardes had been recognized almost instantly as being from out of town. Of course, they had had to head back to Miles City before nightfall and had done so successfully, but they still had been in Forsyth long enough for the scale to imprint in Violet's memory. For convenience, she wished that London was like Forsyth in size, rather than one of the largest cities in the world.
Eventually, Violet came to a rather shabby area. The first things she spotted were an alleyway and a dark tunnel curved over it. She walked through the tunnel just to see where it possibly could lead, but when she saw that there was nothing more than a run-down area beyond it, with a ramshackle little cottage most prominently displayed, she turned around in disgust and cut directly back through the alleyway. She had heard about the slums of London before, and this, she assumed, was probably it.
Violet found herself at an outdoor café before too long. Seeing as it was about lunchtime, she figured that she ought to get something to eat before her shift at the candy store was due to start. Entering, she ordered a simple turkey sandwich with mayonnaise, which, luckily, was affordable. Upon receiving it, she headed outside, spat out her gum to tuck it behind her ear, and sat at one of the al fresco tables by herself. The seat she had chosen just happened to face in the direction of the Wonka factory, and Violet watched the smoke curling out of its most prominent chimney in the distance as she ate the sandwich. Violet noted that the clock tower on a nearby building was reading 12:17 when she sat down, so she knew that she was in a bit of a time crunch.
Fortunately, she had plenty of time left by the time she finished. Since she had a fairly good idea by now of where Bill's Candy Store was located in relation to the factory, she got up, stuck her gum back into her mouth, and walked off towards the shop, using the view of the factory as a relative guide.
...
"Hello, Violet!" Bill greeted upon seeing her entering just in time. "Is your hand any better?"
"Mostly," she answered him. She held up the affected palm to show him. While the mark was still there, it was starting to heal.
"Well, that's good! If you haven't guessed already, Saturdays are usually quite busy for me. What with school not taking up children's time, I tend to get a lot of them, especially in the mornings!"
Violet lifted the flap in the counter and headed to the storeroom behind it. "Does the same apply to weekend afternoons?"
"Certainly! Expect for there to be more activity than yesterday. I'm not running low on anything quite yet, but from an observation I made a moment ago, I have a feeling that the candy tape may be the first to need restocking." Bill pointed to the roll of it on the far side of the shop, behind the counter area. Only a few millimeters in thickness were remaining.
A pair of identical twins came into the shop and asked for Sweet Lips right as Bill said this, and from there, the two and a half hours went much like yesterday's shift had, only with some more children in the mix. Violet kept her eyes peeled for that Wonka-obsessed kid whom she had been seeing like clockwork, but he didn't show up. She started to assume that, this being a Saturday, he might have something else besides school going on and therefore wouldn't be in the area. Then again, she was here much earlier than usual, so maybe this was too early for him. She brushed aside the curiosity and focused completely on the task at hand. If he came in, then he came in.
Just like yesterday, Violet ended the shift by sweeping the storeroom and receiving the £6.25 in cash from Bill. They promised to see each other on Friday, Violet heading out of the door.
...
No sooner had Violet taken a few steps out of the building and turned than when she caught sight of the blond boy peering into the window. He was just getting ready to walk away from it, so she nearly bumped into him on her way out.
"Oh, excuse me!" they said nearly in unison. Violet examined him for a bit, confirming that this was indeed the boy who had been glancing at the factory nearly every afternoon.
"So, uh, were you going to come inside?" It seemed odd to Violet that somebody would just peer in without entering, as he had been doing, especially since sweets were rather cheap.
"Oh, no; I'm just looking." He had a strangely forlorn look on his face and turned to glance into the window of the shop once more. Violet took advantage of the boy's quick attention diversion to pick her nose and smear it on her pants.
"That's kind of an odd thing to do," Violet remarked like a know-it-all once the kid had his head turned back to her. "Candy is really cheap."
"Well, it's just that I…" He appeared to be really embarrassed. "…well, I'm usually on constraints and can't usually spend a lot of extra time."
"Really? Even on the weekends?" Violet felt like this kid was making an excuse. She observed that he had kind of a plain outfit on (just a jersey and long pants), like the sorts of clothes that one could buy cheaply.
"Yeah, I'm actually the paperboy around here. The newsstand is just nearby, in fact." He pointed to a newsstand off in the mid-distance.
"I see. I actually just started working here, so I've been seeing you around." Violet pointed to the door of Bill's Candy Store as a visual aid.
The boy raised a focused eyebrow. "That's interesting. I take it that you don't go to my school, then? I haven't been seeing you around."
"I don't think so. I have to wear a school uniform there, and I've never seen you in one."
The boy looked a little upset at Violet's answer, particularly when she said, "school uniform". She definitely never had seen him in anything fancy like that. "You look a little older than I am, anyway," he said finally. "How old are you?"
"Fourteen. I just got transferred recently."
"That would explain it, then. I turned twelve just shy of two months ago. You must be in the early stages of secondary school; I'm finishing primary myself."
Violet snapped her gum loudly instead of answering. She wasn't quite familiar with the system.
"I'm Charlie, by the way." He stuck out his hand to shake.
Violet looked down at Charlie's extended hand questioningly. This shabby-looking kid was trying to greet her? They barely even met and, in her view, likely never would again. Slowly, she stuck out her own hand (luckily, her right) and locked it. "My name is Violet."
To Violet's relief, the shake didn't last but a second. She assumed him to be not very well-off, and if that was the case, her pride would go out the window if she associated too closely with him.
"Nice to meet you!" said Charlie pleasantly. "Well, I have to head to Mr. Jopeck to get the newspapers. He's right over there." Mr. Jopeck, Violet assumed, was the man at the newsstand.
Charlie started to hustle away. "Bye!" he called out behind him. Violet turned her neck very slowly to trail him but did not wave back.
"I see you frequently outside of Willy Wonka's factory, by the way! What's up with that?" Violet called after him, but he apparently was out of earshot. Instead, she got a few confused looks from overhearing adults who were standing on the same area of the sidewalk.
Violet had the encounter linger in her mind as she walked back to Mr. Wonka's factory. A kid who was able to spare enough time to talk to her at his own accord really never could find the time to enter a candy store quickly to get a few sweets that obviously seemed to fascinate him? Something must have been up. She decided not to worry about it anyway.
As she got inside the foyer of the factory, she caught sight out of a window of Charlie delivering newspapers hurriedly to the businesses nearby, but, as usual, nobody could see her because the building was a walk beyond the gates.
A/N: Although this fic is set in the Gene Wilder movie, I hid an Easter egg alluding to the novel in this chapter. Can any eagle-eyed readers spot the segment of text?
