The Good Boy remembered that cold February morning when the attention of the entire world was focused on Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, which was protected by a massive brick wall and gates and a line of Metropolitan Police serving as a barricade against the massive crowd of citizens forming in front of them who otherwise might have tried to storm the opening to Wonka's factory when the gates opened to allow the contest winners and their guardians to enter. Now, while every other Golden Ticket winner traveled from at least the other side of the metro area, or another country or another hemisphere, Charlie and his caretaker grandfather just had to walk down First Street to reach the gates separating them from a world of wonders, something easier said than done with the massive crowds blocking the road. It took a while for the two of them to make it through the crowd and the police barricade, but they eventually found themselves standing in an open space between the human wall and the brick one Wonka had built. There were only two families at the front of the gate when Charlie arrived, the Teavees and the Salts, both of them spread out on the ends of the open space designated for the winners and their guardians. With Charlie and his grandfather having arrived less than an hour before the opening of the gates, the humble boy hoped to spark a discussion with either of his fellow winners in order to pass the time, yet he still too shy to initiate the conversation himself.
He spotted Mike off to the end, but his stern look and edgy aura reminded him too much of some of the boys that bullied him at school. Yet, when he turned to his right and spotted the silver-mink-clad heiress of the Salt family fortune standing impatiently for the gates to open, he too was reminded of the schoolgirls who bullied him, just as the boy's did. The only difference was that while the boy's abuse often turned physical, the girl's bullying seldom exceeded your age-appropriate mocking of Charlie's weird lack of social skills by the social butterflies that made up the popular girl's clique. And so the Good Boy found it safer for him to gravitate towards Veruca as any abuse she could lob at him would most likely not hurt as much as anything Mike could have up his sleeve. But, from the little brute's point of view, this strange, with both meanings applicable, and literally poorly-dressed boy could not seem to take his big-eyed stare off of her and it startled her. And to not blame Charlie for startling her, it was not the Good Boy's unannounced entrance into her realm that disturbed the brat, the fact of the matter was that since she had grown up in an elitist bubble, cocooned away from the real world, Veruca had no idea how to interact with regular people. Hell, she did not even know how to interact with the middle-class, let alone this dweller from the impoverished urban slum at the very end of the street she stood on. And so Veruca did what she always did when life got too difficult, she hurried over to her father in hopes that he would alleviate this feeling that caused her discomfort.
It had been well established that Mr. Salt catered to his daughter's every whim and this time was no exception, this tall, aged, posh man dressed in a black cowboy hat and an equally black overcoat towered over little Charlie, and that intimidated him. Nevertheless, the insensitive owner of one of Britain's largest nut company lorded over the shy little boy as he looked down to face him and his grandfather while indignantly barking at them, "Who are you two?! How did you get past the police blockade? This queue is for the ticket winners and their parents, leave immediately!"
Charlie nearly broke down into tears of fear when this powerful man accused him of being somewhere he did not belong, something he would soon learn the Salts would lecture him about for multiple reasons. Luckily, Grandpa Joe jumped in when his grandson grew paralyzed and defended him on his behalf, responding to the sour-looking tycoon, "Sir, you seem to be mistaken, Charlie here found the last Golden Ticket."
At first glance, Mr. Salt did not seem to believe that Charlie had found the fifth Golden Ticket, but after Grandpa Joe nudged Charlie to show him the ticket his facial expression shifted from one of anger to one of disbelief. Mr. Salt swiped the Golden Ticket out of Charlie's hand to compare it to Veruca's Golden Ticket which he stored in the pocket of his overcoat, and to his surprise both tickets looked the same, felt the same and even weighed the same. As it turned out, the poor street urchin told him the truth. And in true Salt fashion, Mr. Salt returned Charlie his ticket and the Salt pair returned to their previous positions of staring at the giant metal gate in front of them, all without even offering the simplest of apologies to the Good Boy for the trouble they almost got him in. While Charlie did not expect an apology from such a rude man, he still found himself interested in his fellow Golden Ticket winner. Growing up poor in one of the most infamously economically deprived areas in the western world, the Good Boy had never met anyone as elaborately dressed as Veruca before. Not just was her get-up a sight to behold, but her soft yet sharp facial features intrigued the Good Boy. Her large, rosy, high-cheekboned cheeks and large blue eyes made Veruca look like a real-life princess, especially in comparison to the gauntly poor kid who lived in the shack right down the road.
Nevertheless, on this day, it did not matter that they came from different worlds, the Good Boy thought, both of them had the privilege to see the inside of Wonka's chocolate factory and had an equal opportunity to win the special prize Mr. Wonka had in store as well. This view of things is what gave Charlie the courage to not just stand up to his own shyness, but millennia of traditional British values concerning class and one's lot in life, and spoke to the girl beside him, saying, "Hello, my name is Charlie, it's nice to meet you. I like your coat and your hair looks nice."
After taking in Charlie's compliments, Veruca just looked back at him with an empty stare, not making any discernable look either positive or negative, but eventually it looked as if she was about to respond to the Good Boy's kind words. Yet before the heiress could utter a peep her father cut her off, putting his arm around her and pulling her closer towards him, all the while leaning over towards Charlie and giving him a simple chilling order he hoped to not have to repeat, "Don't attempt to talk to my daughter. Learn your place and stay in it, boy."
Those words stayed with Charlie after all these years and they haunted him even more today, all he did was try and start a conversation with his fellow Golden Ticket winner, but he suffered a condemnation for trying to chat with an aristocrat's daughter. In an odd way, what had transpired an hour prior with Veruca was exactly what Mr. Salt warned the Good Boy about nearly a decade and a half ago, that he should not try to form a relationship with someone of distinguished birth because he and they were not meant to be compatible. Even more shocking, the more Charlie reminisced on what was going through his mind during his first encounter with Veruca, he realized fact that while he had failed at forming a romantic relationship with the little brute this time around, the same could be argued about their first encounter. Charlie had just turned ten and like any other boy entering puberty he had begun to show an interest in others that went beyond wanting to spend time together playing games. And so he did what any other male would do to impress a female he found attractive, he complimented her for her choice of attire and hairstyle, although, as an inexperienced child he did not straight up tell Veruca he found her pretty because he simply did not know how to maneuver the minefield that was courtship. That, and the fact he had a family member watching over his every move in order to keep him safe meant he had to disguise his true feelings if he did not want his guardian ratting the fact he had feelings for someone out to the rest of his family in order to not become the focus of playful teasing from the rest of them. And let alone a family member who, by the Good Boy's own addition, he had told that he still found the slightest mentions of public displays of affection to be gross just a few days ago on top of that too.
And, that is not mentioning the fact that the ten-year-old Charlie did not even fully grasp the concept of being interested in someone at that point. He did not truly know he liked Veruca, yet he did things to impress her and get her attention. So puzzling is the human mind at its various stages of development, yet so tragic that years of growth cannot prepare one for the pain that comes with something as basic as a rejection to a proposal for a more intimate relationship. Even two months prior, Charlie could never have imagined he would have spent so much time with his fellow Golden Ticket winner, Veruca, let alone any young woman, on a constant basis. But now that very luxury he only could have dreamt of for so long was stripped away from him, relegated back into the realm of fantasy. For once, the Good Boy seemed to be living the life every other twenty-something was going through, he did not have to worry about a new candy turning an Oompa Loompa's eyes a different color or their bones to mush, but instead about where to take his special lady friend for a night out. But now, he was left alone once again, only this time loneliness hurt even more since he now knew what it was like to have someone to go through life with, yet have them out of your reach now.