Chapter 17 – Voyage into the Unknown
To all my lovely reviewers – a sincere thank you. I appreciate your comments, concerns and criticisms.
Sorry I can't respond to you because of the rules. Also, I'm still learning how to work with this website ha ha.
I admit, I absolutely HATED this part in both of the movies and wanted to cut it out completely. However, the more I thought about it, the more that this scene fitted into this world. Hopefully it's tolerable.
"Mesdames et messieurs, maintenant nous allons faire grand petit voyage par bateau." Wonka nodded with pride at the approaching vessel.
At their collective blank stares, he graciously repeated himself in English.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are now going on a fantastic boat trip. All aboard please." Mr. Wonka grandly gestured towards the boat.
Charlie gasped in wonder as the 'Seahorse' bobbed into view. He marvelled at how a boat that garishly pink could be so imposing. It fairly loomed over them all. The delicately carved head of the seahorse looked so real, he could almost imagine it coming alive right in front of them. He wished Izzy was there to share his observation with.
"Ladies first, and that means Veruca." Mr Salt pushed his way to the front and blocked the others from boarding until Veruca was settled into her chosen seat at the front.
Charlie noticed that she had carelessly thrown away the string of blue gummies she had been wearing as a necklace a few minutes earlier. They now lay in a sad heap on the floor. Mike viciously kicked them further away when it was his turn to board.
"Daddy, I want a pretty boat like this, a beautiful pink one that's what I want!" She said primly, confident that her daddy would do just as she wished.
Charlie sighed; she was really irritating.
When it was his turn to board, he had to push past everyone else and sit at the rear by himself. He didn't mind at all. The boat was carved in such a way that the front and back were higher than the middle, which meant that he had an excellent view over everybody.
He really wished Izzy was with him right now. He felt very alone.
"All I need is a tall ship, and a star to sail her by." Mr. Wonka greeted the captain and first mate before climbing aboard. He perched himself precariously at the front, facing everybody.
The Oompa-Loompas cast off and began rowing. Charlie marvelled how they all managed to row together in perfect harmony. They were dressed in matching uniforms again, but this time in blue sailor suits with matching hats. It was a jarring contrast to their neon pink surroundings.
As the boat floated along serenely, Mr. Wonka explained the importance of his waterfall, the river and how no other factory in the world was like it.
"How can you even call it a waterfall when there's no water?" Mike's obnoxious attitude was grating on Charlie's every nerve, so he vaguely tuned out of the conversation, instead focusing on memorising as much scenery as he could to tell Izzy about later.
He had seen enough of her paintings and sketches to know that she liked beautiful flowers and colourful landscapes. She would love all the tiny details to be found. She had always taught him to look deeper, to really focus on the tiniest detail and to see the beauty. He tried his very best, and finally noticed that some of the high banks of the river were not all the same colour brown, but were in fact, created by many layers of different shades of brown.
Charlie tipped his head to the side and thought about it. It would make sense that the chocolate river would have chocolate sides, wouldn't it? Maybe all those different brown layers were made from different types of chocolate. But then, why didn't they melt from the warm steam that was everywhere? He wished Izzy was there so he could point it out. She always had an explanation, even if she had to invent one.
He was startled out of his musings as Mr. Wonka settled beside him with his red hat balanced on one knee. Charlie looked up in surprise and couldn't help grinning. The man's positivity was infectious.
"Would you like to try some Charlie?" He produced a tea-cup, decorated with cocoa beans, from seemingly nowhere and dipped it into the river. After wiping off the drips, he offered the dainty cup to Charlie, who looked at him questioningly.
"I thought we weren't supposed to touch it?" He asked hesitantly.
"Drinking is acceptable, go on, try some." Mr Wonka handed over the cup and Charlie drank it down.
"Mmm, it's delicious and really warm." Charlie smiled happily and handed the back the cup. He felt warm and tingly inside.
"I promise you, Charlie, Isabelle is perfectly fine and will join us very soon." Mr. Wonka's reassuring words helped calm Charlie's nerves. "No lasting harm will come to anyone in my factory, I assure you."
"Tell that to the Gloop kid." Mike scoffed without turning around.
"I believe you Mr Wonka." Charlie looked up at him and he received a small smile in return.
The boat floated peacefully along for almost half an hour. Every now and then, Charlie would receive a tap on the shoulder as Wonka pointed out some tiny detail or other and made a little comment.
The chocolatier had removed his red top hat at some point, exposing his unruly curly hair. As the mans excitement grew, he became more animated and the wild frizzy mess bounced around his shoulders.
Charlie couldn't hold back his laughter. His hero seemed so much less intimidating without his hat or his snide remarks and Charlie was genuinely enjoying the company and became relaxed enough to answer back to the occasional teasing remarks that Wonka threw his way.
Eventually, Charlie realised that the river split randomly in several places, some branches vanishing into dark tunnels and others simply winding off into the distance to parts unknown. Charlie itched to explore where every single one disappeared to, but had to be content to simply watch as the boat slowly drifted past.
Mr. Wonka had stopped his chattering a while ago and appeared content to simply sit in silence; playing with the hat he held in hand.
Charlie wondered if he would be allowed to head to the front and talk to the captain, but held back his request, still a little unsure of himself. Even if Mr. Wonka allowed him to, he didn't want to draw attention to himself by squeezing past everyone else. He knew he would only draw their ire if he wasn't careful; years of school bullies had taught him that.
Charlie observed the group in front of him chatting amongst themselves and thankfully, not arguing with each other. It seemed that everyone was relaxed and peaceful for once.
Mike, who was seated just ahead of him, was slumped in his seat and appeared bored, as his father tried to start a conversation. He explained how his wife wasn't fond of boats and would have been terribly seasick if she had accompanied him instead. Mike clearly wasn't interested and continued to ignore his father and simply glare at his surroundings.
Next, Charlie snuck a glance at Violet. She was definitely the nicer of the two girls, but she was still intimidating. Was she picking her nose? Charlie blinked and quickly looked away, distracted as Violet's mother scooted across the rows and sat herself down next to Veruca's father. She had her hand on his arm and was laughing at something he said.
Veruca turned to Violet and started another argument. Charlie didn't care enough to try and listen in, and instead turned back to the silent man seated next to him.
"This place is really amazing Mr. Wonka, it's so big and there is so much to see." Charlie couldn't keep count of all the wonders.
"Why thank you Charlie. 'Round the world and home again, that's the sailors way." Wonka looked fondly at his surroundings.
"Oi, where are we going Wonka?" Mr. Salt exclaimed as their boat floated into one of the many dark tunnels. As the light from outside faded, the group became nervous and started chattering. The boat suddenly lurched and picked up speed as all outside light disappeared, leaving only a looming darkness.
"There's no knowing where we're rowing or which way the river's flowing". Wonka had a strange look on his face as he watched the group in front of him. He placed his red hat firmly on his head and leant forward with his cane.
At that odd comment, the entire group began to disintegrate into angry shouting and arguing. Charlie just sat back and waited. He really didn't understand why they all had to constantly doubt Mr. Wonka and make so much noise. Couldn't they just enjoy the ride and the adventure?
The tunnel was now pitch-black and, once again, Charlie wished that Izzy was sat next to him as the boat sped along. The wind was strong enough to blow Charlie's blond hair around fiercely.
The tunnel suddenly lit up dramatically with a veritable rainbow of colour; strange patterns of light began to dance over the occupants. The boat was surrounded by dazzling and strobing light effects.
Abruptly the boat dropped forward, then pitched sideways. Charlie grabbed on to Wonka's arm without even thinking.
The boat rolled and dived through tunnel after tunnel, throwing its occupants every which way but somehow never being violent enough to throw them out of their seats or out of the boat. Not even a single splash of chocolate landed on them. That didn't seem right to Charlie, who could barely concentrate with all the flashing lights, screams and Mr. Wonkas very odd chanting. Why had that peaceful boat ride suddenly turned into this nightmare?
Why wouldn't stop his scary ranting and raving? Charlie admitted to being confused, scared and completely bewildered. He had no idea what was happening.
Mr. Wonka continued his scary monotone, completely ignoring everyone around him. He didn't seem to even notice that Charlie had a death grip on his arm as the boat careened along.
He looked up into his face anxiously, and was unnerved to see his face unmoving and his gaze fixed unblinkingly ahead. The flashing lights painted a ghoulish look on his face as he sat ramrod straight, allowing himself to roll with the boat movements, instead of trying to steady himself as all others did.
The rowing Oompa-Loompas also didn't seem to be fazed by the rough ride at all, they just continued rowing. Charlie could have sworn they were laughing, but he wasn't able to see or hear properly with the rushing wind, and he could have imagined it.
"… the danger must be growing as the rowers keep on rowing!" Mr. Wonka's strange voice rose steadily in pitch until he was shouting.
At one point, the boat began swirling in circles as it careened downriver. Charlie was scared. He didn't like this ride at all anymore. He squeezed his eyes shut and hung on tightly to Mr. Wonka's arm, hoping he wouldn't be thrown off. He listened as the chocolatier continued to rant and the others continued to cry out in terror.
"This has gone on long enough Wonka!" Surprisingly it was meek and mild Mr Teevee who shouted loudly enough to rouse their host from his manic act. He had turned around in his seat and was reaching out as if to shake him.
"Quite right sir! Stop the boat!" The chocolatier stated loudly with authority, thumping his cane for emphasis.
Charlie actually expected the boat to come to an immediate halt. Obviously, that couldn't happen; they were careening wildly down a rollercoaster of a river. They couldn't just stop, that's not how physics worked. Charlie had understood that much of Mr. Turkentine's science classes after all.
Mike apparently agreed. "Duh, you can't just stop a boat dad! Don't be stupid!" He yelled. "Why would you even want to? This is so much fun! Yeehaaa!" Mike was having a fantastic time.
Eventually, the rolling waves calmed, the lights settled into a soothing shade of purple and the boat floated along sedately once more. Everyone relaxed and Charlie released his death grip on Mr. Wonka's arm in faint embarrassment. He looked up shyly into his idols face, and was happy to see that Mr. Wonka had returned to normal. He was looking down at Charlie with a small amused smile.
"Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it Charlie." He grinned. "Be outrageous!"
The boat floated along peacefully once more as if nothing untoward had ever happened. Not a single word was spoken.
Eventually, a small platform came into view.
"Look over there Charlie," Mr. Wonka put his arm around Charlie's shoulder, bent down to his eyelevel and pointed with the top of his cane.
Standing at the edge of the jetty, was Isabelle.
Charlie's grin could have lit up the entire room.
Author Notes:
Once again, thank you for sharing your thoughts dear readers. What did you love, what did you hate?
One issue seems to be repeatedly raising some angst, especially for this chapter, so I will try to express my thought process.
I am attempting to combine elements from both movies, whilst also creating an interesting alternative storyline. Whether I am successful or not is up to you lovely readers to decide.
I'm hoping to give you the charm and innocence of the old with the 'uniqueness' of the new.
To the purists amongst us, that means that this will not be set completely in either universe and I understand if this bothers you. I am a hardcore purist in a different fandom, so I totally sympathise with the feeling.
I also won't be following the script of either movie word for word. I agonised over which elements to combine and which to let go for future plot reasons.
In short, this is WilderWonka playing in a dystopian Depp-inspired world with a 1977 Charlie along for the ride, and a potential love interest…
Hopefully the end result is an entertaining story.
Have fun everyone