A/N: Response time!
Verucabeyotch, you're not going to find that out in this chapter, but stay tuned!
Gs33022, to answer your question, that was not a reference. Sadly, while reading that story was on my to-do list, the fic got deleted before I got around to reading it. Regarding your point about the foam, I knew about it being from fire extinguishers in real life, but in-universe, it was supposed to be soda, and hence could be inferred to be ingestible. It's a similar premise to the river in the Chocolate Room; we all know what that stuff really was, but within canon, it was melted chocolate, so I don't think that anybody would mind a drink being taken. XD
Violet went back to the lodging to relax during the time that Charlie was delivering Mr. Jopeck's newspapers after leaving the factory. It was only about a quarter past three when she got back; any signs of sunset approaching were nowhere around.
She decided to get out a book of small crossword puzzles and work on the first blank one in the sitting room, just three rooms down from the Wonkavator's entrance before one got to the hallway. The rolltop desk in there had plenty of unoccupied space. Plus, there was the added bonus of a window being just catty-corner. The fact of the sun being very much still up was reinforced.
Before too long, she stumbled across the puzzle's 24-Down clue, which caught her attention. The clue read, "To extend in length, as chewing gum", and the word itself was seven boxes long, the third and sixth letters being R and C, respectively.
Gleefully, Violet filled out the rest of the word, "STRETCH". She then decided, just for the sake of it, to attempt a long one on her own piece.
She gave it a good pull, without looking, and then let go. The gum bounced back to drape over her chin diagonally, twisting backwards at her teeth.
Oh! It bounced back despite the long stretch! To her excitement, Violet realized that this meant that the gum didn't snap in half when she pulled it that far back.
She just had to measure this. Estimating where her hand had been when she let go, she stretched her gum again and then opened her mouth. Catching the gum while it kept its linear shape, she set it on the desk and then went to her room to fetch an imperial ruler.
The long line of extended candy, Violet discovered, was eight-and-a-quarter inches long. This had cleared her personal best, by a long shot, and, in her opinion, was worthy to have on file. Quickly, she fiddled around the top of the desk for a camera, leaving the ruler beside the gum.
Upon finding said camera and making sure that the film inside was adequate, Violet snapped a picture right away. Unfortunately, processing the image would have to wait until she could get ahold of a developer on an errand in the next few days, before the original film could fade, but at least she had cleared step one of her proof. She made a mental note to write down "Sunday, October 24, 1971" on the back of the final, solid photograph once it was developed and ready, as this might be an impressive enough length to break records and to be made public. Even if it wasn't, she still could put it in her personal records.
Suddenly, it occurred to Violet. She knew that Cornelia had been chewing her gum for nearly two months (possibly a few weeks longer now) and had self-claimed a world record for doing so, but Violet never had been informed of what the longest Cornelia had stretched a piece of gum while having it stay in one piece was. Even if Cornelia didn't have a world record in that, if eight-and-a-quarter inches was longer than she ever had been able to do a stretch, then Violet still could one-up her for a long time.
She was about to pull out some stationery to craft a letter asking this but then decided against it. The return address would have to indicate Mr. Wonka's factory, after all, and Cornelia was not to know about this little lodging arrangement. Even if the postal service would be fooled into thinking that it was a business letter for the company, the destination's point of view would find it very suspect. Besides, if Violet actually could gloat about this in the case that she had just beaten Cornelia's personal best, then it would be a lot more fun to hear her distraught mood personally. As soon as possible, probably after school let out tomorrow, Violet would call the Prinzmetels and ask the critical question.
For the time being, she just put her gum back into her mouth, brushed aside the ruler and the camera, and resumed working on the crossword puzzle. She was only a third of the way finished, the point of which she hated because the remaining clues were usually quite hard.
Suddenly, Violet heard the Wonkavator arriving in the living room. Annoyed that she was being interrupted, she got up and headed to the living room to answer the arrival. This was too early for Mr. Wilkinson to show up, which she naturally assumed to be the case.
Rungdin turned out to be standing just inside the contraption. "Your friend is here again," he announced. "Mr. Wonka is too busy in his office to answer."
"My acquaintance!" Violet snapped insistently. "Not my friend."
Rungdin gave an acknowledging nod. "In either case, he'll need the gates unlocked."
Violet sighed and then entered the Wonkavator to head to the main foyer. She already had had to follow Charlie outside when he left the first time, in order to unlock and to relock the gates, so hopefully, there wouldn't be much foot traffic around the area right now. The most she could think was that Charlie had better remember his time limit.
...
"Hi!" Charlie greeted from the other side of the gate once Violet was at it. She had had to wait for about five minutes from the foyer because of other people walking nearby.
Violet just produced the key, without replying to Charlie. She made sure to lock the gates completely before they headed back inside.
"You remember that you have to be out of here by dusk, right?" Violet checked rather impatiently. "This remainder of the little visit will have to be cut really short."
"I do," assured Charlie. "I will be well at home in time for supper this way, too."
"Good," Violet replied.
The two of them then entered the foyer, hung up their winter clothes again, and headed to the Wonkavator to go to the lodging. Rungdin asked Charlie if he had been told when to leave, which Charlie answered in the affirmative, and then the Oompa-Loompa noted to the boy that the Wonkavator would be parked at the lodging the whole time, with Rungdin coming to fetch him on alert if he suspected that Charlie was taking too long to come back.
...
"Wow, this room is big!" Charlie remarked in awe, with a slight smile, once he and Violet arrived in the living room. "I feel kind of small this way."
"Well, I can't help that," Violet replied.
"Oh, no, really, I actually like it a lot!" said Charlie. "I would take all of this space over living inside a cramped shack any day!"
"Well, I'm glad you do," said Violet emotionlessly.
Charlie caught sight of the coffee table that had rounded corners. "I can see that Mr. Wonka has a bit of a fancy taste even in here," he noted innocently.
Violet grimaced. "Let's just change the subject, okay?"
They crossed through the extremely wide doorway side-by-side, and, after passing a few areas and going into the just as wide hallway, Charlie spotted the unusual doors.
"Are these doorknobs?" he asked.
Violet gave him an uncomfortable nod.
"How do you open them?"
Violet made a slightly annoyed noise. What would be next, his asking why they looked like that?
"You just extend an arm and use your fingertips to nudge down the bar," she answered. "The door has a weight that makes it open very slowly, and then it closes by itself a moment later."
"Oh, okay!" said Charlie. "Would it be fine if I tried it out?"
Violet thought for a moment. The door led to the leisure room that had a bunch of books and toys stored in somewhat organized areas. There would be no harm in him seeing this. Under no circumstances was he to see her room, since the bed had that odd design with the toddler rails. Having toddler rails discovered on one's bed long after toddlerhood would be a social death sentence.
"Sure, go ahead."
Charlie nudged down the outward T-bar ever so slightly and entered the room, Violet following him in. As was explained, behind them, the door continued to open and then swayed back very slowly on its own, closing itself once back into position. Charlie turned to look at the door as he heard it close, then faced the actual room again.
There was a bookshelf on the left-hand side of the room, from the door's perspective, with a floral-patterned seat, complete with a rocking footstool, placed next to the bookshelf. The right-hand wall had a small closet full of toys and games which Violet had opted to bring from home despite not having anybody else staying with her. Directly ahead, by the wall, was a spare, wooden chair. No windows were present. Most of the large room's floor space was empty to accommodate nighttime waddling room, but to Charlie, it looked like a luxurious alternative to his own, cramped living space.
The closet with several games was wide open. Charlie stepped towards it for a closer look.
"Do you want to play anything, Violet?"
Violet rolled her eyes behind his back. "With how late it is right now, we won't have time."
"Oh, yeah. True." The only toys in the whole closet were a jump rope, a set of jacks, a Twister set, a Yahtzee set, and a jar full of marbles, most of which would take until after sunset to play.
"I played jacks at a classmate's house once," Charlie remarked. "His name was Peter Goff. I went to his place only three times, and he never visited mine, so he never found out about my living conditions. The game lasted only about fifteen to twenty minutes, which was a bit disappointing, but I still found it exciting because I can't afford my own set."
"Wait…" Violet started to say doubtfully. "…did you say, 'fifteen to twenty minutes'?"
"Yes," said Charlie. "It was still really fun."
Violet thought for a moment. Reluctantly, she agreed to play with him because it most likely wouldn't interfere with the pre-sunset constraint. She would know because she had played jacks herself. She still hoped that she would win in order to save face, though.
"Well, okay…I guess one game couldn't hurt."
She led him to the kitchen to play at the table. In addition to the space, the table happened to be perpendicular to the kitchen's window, so she could keep an eye on it.
Once there, Charlie noticed not only how far apart the counters were, but also that they had rounded corners, as did the table. He paid the massive space no mind, as it surely was much more suitable than the sad excuse that his folks had that consisted of a tiny cupboard and a stove.
...
"Okay, this is my last turn, Charlie. See it and weep!" Violet boasted as their game was nearly over. They were on the last round, the tensies, and Violet had gotten much further than Charlie. Charlie had been able to get up to only five, with several failed snatches in a row, while Violet was now ready to snatch all ten of the jacks in one go on this turn.
"It'll be impressive if you do," said Charlie. "Peter never could get a higher score than mine."
Violet just stared at him for a moment. What on Earth…? He was just about to lose with a drastic difference in scoring, yet he was still humbled by it?!
She just shrugged and bounced the ball. Instantly, her reflexes kicked in, and she snatched up all of the jacks effortlessly, albeit with a little noise.
"Ha! What did I tell you?" she asked proudly. "Too bad, so sad!"
Charlie stuck out a hand to shake. "Good game!"
Violet gave him a surprised look. "What? You're not upset?"
"No! It was fun!"
Did he actually find it fun, despite the fact that he had just lost? This was new. Cornelia always got angry temporarily when it happened to her. Even Violet herself felt a bit of an attack on her ego if she was shown to have any sort of inferiority in her skills.
She sighed and took his handshake. "All right. Good game."
She leaned back in her chair for a moment, crossing her arms behind her head. "I hope that you won't take this the wrong way, Charlie, but you are quite a strange kid."
"Well, I like Mr. Wonka's strange things, so I kind of can see that."
Coincidentally, just moments after Charlie replied this, Violet got up and headed a few steps towards a rectangular, green cookie tin on the counter next to the refrigerator, pulling out a single Wonka Bar. She pulled out her gum to stick it behind her right ear after sitting back down, and then she peeled the wrapper partway and broke off the first column of rectangles on the chocolate.
She noticed Charlie looking at the bar subconsciously once the removed segment had been chewed and swallowed. What, was she actually supposed to offer him some?
Violet looked at the bar and then back to Charlie. She then groaned slightly. "Fine. Have half if you want." She broke off the next quarter and then slid the remaining half, still in its wrapper, to him.
"Thank you!" Charlie responded. He tore off the wrapper entirely and proceeded to give the chocolate very slow chews, doing his best to savor the taste for as long as possible. He usually got only one bar a year, after all, so he was not going to waste this one.
Violet couldn't help but notice how Charlie was eating the bar. To her, it was just plain weird.
She finished eating the last bit of her part of the Wonka Bar but waited for a moment to put her gum back into her mouth, as melted chocolate was very sticky and likely would stain the gum. She headed to the kitchen sink, cupped her hand under the tap, and swished and swallowed a bit of the water. Just a few minutes after the rinsing, and her mouth would be all clear for gum reentry.
Charlie was glancing out of the window as Violet sat down. He was finished with the chocolate but had yet to throw the wrapper in the trash.
"Wow…I've always loved the look of dusk in autumn," he commented, still looking outside.
Violet started. She looked in the window's direction, and indeed, the horizon was glowing.
"For some reason, I find it more beautiful than in the summer," Charlie went on. "It probably has to do with the coloration of the sky…"
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Violet looking extremely nervous.
"Charlie, you had better…" she began, but couldn't finish it from nerves.
"Oh, that's right. You wanted me out by now," Charlie remembered. "Are you now going to head outside and unlock the gates for me?"
