A/N: Opps! Made a small factual error in my first chapter eight. But it's all better now.
peace, love and lipgloss,
Mlle.Fox
"HOW could I say such a thing as that?! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I mean...why!? Why does one look at her eyes and her...curves...and my tummy gets all twisty inside? And now she probably thinks I'm a total jerk for saying that impossible deplorable thing! Dufus, Dufus, Dufus!" Willy Wonka berated himself, slapping his fore head with every repeated insult. He sighed and laid his head back on the leather settee, letting a moment of silence fill the air. Well, silence save for the scratching of his psychiatrist's pencil on his paper. How the two foot tall Oompah Loompah born practitioner found a Brooks Brother suit complete with a smart vest in his size I don't know. But he had been dealing with Willy's problems for years, and I suppose he charged by the hour. And that day, Willy had been having his head shrunk for three hours after our little 'incident' at Hallo's Eve Grove. The good doctor caught Willy's attention and made a few hand signals, finishing with the outlining of a curvy woman's figure. Willy understood his language and retorted,
"Pretty? Of course I think she's pretty! You'd have to be as blind as a Snozzwanger not to see that!" Willy sighed again and laid his head back down, his eyes fixed on the vaulted ceiling. He went on, "You know...I'm not sure...but I think her whole 'I don't like chocolate' thing has to do with her Mom. I saw her pictures while she was getting dressed. She used to be fat."
The doctor stopped writing and fixed him a look. Willy went on,
"No really, she was huge! I mean we're talking Gloop sized. And now she's so...little...but she's still all curvy and I can't help but think about...well..."
The doctor gave him an silent but encouraging 'go on' look.
"Holding her...To have all those lovely curves pressed up against me. But why do I feel this way? Usually the thought of getting close to anyone grosses me out. But not with her." Willy tapered off in wonder. He looked to the doctor and found a knowing, impish grin on his middle aged face. After a series of hand gestures and silent signals, Willy translated his observations into English,
"Because Miss James is a woman, and I'm a man...sort of...HEY! It's natural to feel physical attraction. The attraction is also because I want to change her attitude about chocolate and that presents me with a challenge. And while you don't suggest I go and try to trick her into liking chocolate, you do think I should follow through on my feelings of physical attraction and pursue a friendship and a courtship with her since I've been isolated from females all my life and this could help me become a more well rounded person." Willy nodded a minute or two, seemingly taking it all in, when he looked blankly at the doctor,
"What does that all mean?"
The doctor rolled his eyes and wrote on his notebook. He ripped out the page and Willy took the small paper in his hands. It was a prescription that simply read,
"Ask her to dinner and call me in the morning."
"Dinner?...You mean...ask her out on...what'd Charlie call it? A date?" Willy asked. The doctor smiled and nodded and Willy blanched,
"A date? With her? Alone? And touching?" Then he shrugged and said, "I could live with that."
The doctor whipped off his glasses and raised an eyebrow.
But Willy avoided me for nearly a week. This I understood. So I spent my time getting to know the Buckets. Kara was Little Susie Homemaker all over, and I couldn't have been more different by being a modern, independent career woman. While it was like Jane Goodall watching the chimps for either one of us, we did make each other laugh. Sam I saw less of because of his job, but he always came home with a story, a joke or a political opinion. He reminded me of my dad.
Look up crotchety in the dictionary and there will be a picture of Grandpa George. One mention of war, politicians, or Brittany Spears and the man would go into an all out tirade, rant and cuss fess. Even though I'm sure Charlie's heard worst at his private school, Kara still covers his ears to protect his innocence. But one of Grandpa George's redeeming qualities was his computer skills. Like a growing number of senior citizens out there, Grandpa George picked up on using the computer and the internet. For hours we'd spend time going through chat rooms, online newspapers, web-casts, or just playing online games against each other. He's even got a spot on Facebook.
Grandpa Joe would come home in the early afternoons. He too had a new story every day. Some varied from people at the museum, the butcher across the street, or my personal favorite, a story about Willy Wonka. So far I got sixty one stories about the day he created unmeltable ice crème, a spider in the old candy shop and Willy's less than heroic reaction (he screamed like a girl and fainted) and a office Christmas party where Willy handed out boxes of cold hard cash in a Santa Claus suit. That was the last Christmas before he closed the factory. I still had no story about the man himself except for that brief comment about his father and Halloween.
Some quiet afternoons I spent in the company of Grandma Josephine who loved to tell me stories from when she was a mere sprig of a girl as I held the yarn for her knitting. Grandma Georgina always listened politely, with that far off, child like smile on her face. She would every so often chime in a word that seemed like utter nonsense, until the fateful day when I made a small discovery with huge results.
"Apples!" Grandma Georgina said as I held a lapful of Grandma Josephine's yarn for her latest knitting project. At first I didn't respond, use to such things by now, but when I felt a tap on my forearm, I looked up into Georgina's sweet withered face as she repeated,
"Apples!"
I furrowed my brow in confusion, until I caught a glimpse of a bowl of fruit on the table. A bowl of fruit filled with green apples. Almost the same color as my eyes.
"Me? Am I Apples?" I asked her.
"What was that dear?" Josephine asked listening to our conversation. I didn't answer her, instead asking Grandma Georgina,
"Grandma Georgina...who's Mr. Wonka?"
"Peanuts!" she smiled. I remembered my time with Willy, realizing that yes, he did smell like peanuts.
"What did you want to ask me Grandma Georgina?" I asked her catching on to her meanings as Josephine looked on concerned. Kara stopped her puttering in the kitchen and listened in confusion as well.
"Tangles." she simply responded.
"Tangles?" I asked furrowing my brow.
"Freddie...it's alright...we don't need to understand her. We just need to love her." Kara told me with a hint of sadness.
"No...I think she's asking me for something...She's asking...Tangles...What could that mean?" I asked thinking and looking around the room. Finally my eyes rested on a gently used hairbrush of soft bristles, strands of white hair tangled about. I stood, placing the yarn on the bed and went over to collect the brush on the table. I held it up and pointed to it asking,
"Tangles?"
"Tangles!" Grandma Georgina exclaimed with a smile. Kara and Grandma Georgina gasped loudly, causing Grandpa George to awaken from his slumber.
"What? What the devil is going on?" he murmured.
"Grandma Georgina...she can talk but in her own special way." I said in wonder.
"Young lady...don't play around with an old man's heart." he told me with a warning tone with just a hint of sadness.
"No George she's right! Whenever Georgina talks, she speaks a word that reminds her of what she's talking about. Apples mean Freddie since she has apple green eyes, Peanuts means Mr. Wonka since he smells like peanuts, and Tangles mean her hairbrush!" Kara cried.
"I bet she's asking Freddie to brush her hair!" Josephine cried.
"Right!" Grandma Georgina nodded. Grandpa George looked at his bride and still saw the same sweet round faced beauty he had fallen in love with before he went off to fight WWI. He had spoken to her in recent years...but never with her. He just couldn't understand her. Tears glistening his eyes, he asked Georgina in a small voice,
"Georgie Girl...who am I?"
Grandma Georgina smiled and reached out to hold his hand stroking the wedding band on his finger.
"Gold." she said in a warm loving tone. Kara covered her mouth with her hands to hold back a sob as George's lower lip tremble.
"Gold...our wedding rings are gold. I'm Gold."
"Oh Georgina!" Kara cried rushing forward to hug her mother in law.
"Pink." Grandma Georgina said her own tears starting to flow.
"Pink...I used to wear pink all the time as a girl." Kara laughed with a sob.
"All these years...we thought her mind was gone...but it was here all the while. Georgina we're so sorry..." Josephine said in disbelief. Georgina patted her leg and said warmly,
"Mittens..."
"Guess that's you Josephine." I said smiling at this warm family moment. This must be how Dr. Phil felt whenever he helped piece a family back together again. Yet as I looked at George kissing his wife on the lips, his strong facade crumbling with tears of joy, I also felt envy. I wished for that kind of love they had after so many years. And to my wonder...an image of Willy Wonka came to my mind.
It wasn't very long before Grandpa Joe came home, then Charlie from school and then Sam from work. They all rejoiced with wonder, happiness and disbelief that we had finally cracked the code of Georgina's special language. And in case you were wondering, Georgina calls Joe Four, as in Four Eyes; Charlie was Paint as in the finger-paints he used to draw for her when he was young, and Sam was Mint since he always smelled like mint when he came home from the toothpaste factory. Soon a knock came to the door and Willy's head poked in looking around the room expectantly,
"A little birdie told me we figured out how to talk to Grandma Georgina. May I come in?" he asked tentatively.
"Of course Willy! You're family and we're having a family celebration." Sam said.
"But Miss James isn't family." Willy said pointing a finger at me.
"True but if it wasn't for her we wouldn't be celebrating now would we?" George asked him.
"I guess." Willy shrugged taking off his top hat. I furrowed my brow as I noticed him casting nervous glances my way. I guess after last weeks little incident he was reluctant to look at me. I admit I was a little embarrassed myself. I mean I don't have much record of men admitting they've pictured me naked. But then I don't have much of a record with men period.
"Willy, will you help Freddie set the table? I'm making an extra special dinner tonight. Georgina's favorites. Cherrie pie for desert!" Kara said beaming from the kitchen.
"Uh...yeah...cherries..." Willy said casting a glance at me then blushing. I sighed resolving to act like an adult and set the table. But my mind began to wander back to last week and the look in Willy's eyes when I had licked the wallpaper. I found myself accessing Willy Wonka's looks again. He was very slim, thanks to that stupid and fast metabolism of his, but he had nice shoulders. I watched him take off his coat and noticed that his vest was expertly tailored to show off his narrow waist. I shook myself before I went any lower. I couldn't be thinking of such things! I shouldn't! Willy Wonka was a man...sort of...and I had sworn off men for the sake of my waistline. But then...if he had wondered what I looked like naked...gah! Enough!
"Miss James? Yoo-hoo! Houston to Apollo Eleven!" said a familiar voice waving his purple latex glove in front of my face. I blinked and said,
"Huh?"
He had a quiet look of amusement in his eyes as he asked me knowingly,
"Flashback?"
"Huh?"
"You do know you've set the same place setting for five minutes now?"
I blushed and moved on to the next setting,
"Oh?"
Was that nonchalant enough?
"Yeah, and don't act like you knew what you were doing cause that's just crazy right there." Willy said.
Apparently it anything but nonchalant.
"Do you want to...I don't know...step out? For a breather? Before dinner?" Willy asked me in a whisper. So long as I looked down at the table, my mind could say 'No', my body could say 'no' and most importantly...my big mouth could say 'no'. But I made the mistake of looking up into those gorgeous pleading eyes of his. My heart made my mouth say,
"Sure."
We finished up the table and stepped outside into the chocolate room. I folded my arms as I inhaled. Oy...even the room smelled like chocolate. Course it would thanks to the huge chocolate river in the middle of the room. I looked to Willy and saw he had left his hat and coat inside, his hands tucked in his pockets, the stimulated breeze blowing his hair out of his face. He looked so different. He looked approachable, friendly, warm...and handsome. I ran a hand through my hair and furrowed my brow as I noticed bright, floating balls of light flicker on and off around the fields.
"Glow in the dark Gummi-Lightning Bugs." Willy told me.
"They're beautiful." I said amazed.
"It was Charlie's idea actually. His first successful creation." Willy told me.
"Looks like you're teaching him well." I said.
"Well one of these days he'll have more ideas than I will. Then I'll move on." he said.
"And do what?" I asked.
"I don't know. Travel the world again I guess. I hear a lot of it's changed in the last fifteen years." he said.
"Don't you have the Internet?" I asked.
"Yeah...but I get too caught up reading fan fiction." he admitted with a blush.
"What about starting your own family? Have you ever considered that?" I asked, the question leaving my mouth on it's own accord. He paused before saying,
"Recently."
"How recently?" I asked.
"The last two weeks." he said. Trying not to convince myself that answer had something to do with my arrival here, I asked,
"So where were you born?"
"A hospital." he answered plainly.
"No...I mean what state? What city?" I asked.
"Where?" he asked.
"In America." I said.
"Isn't it enough to say I was born in America?" he asked.
"No people want to know when and where." I told him.
"When and where what?" he asked.
"When and where you were born!" I huffed.
"In America a long time ago." he said.
"But what about the date?!" I cried in exasperation.
"How about tomorrow night?" he asked.
"What about tomorrow night?" I asked.
"The date." he said.
"What date?" I asked.
"The date you and I are going to have together." he said plain as day. I gaped at him, my mouth wide open, leaving one of the lightning bugs to fly into my mouth. I closed my mouth, noticing the candy creature was a lemon lime flavor. I gulp down the bug, absentmindedly wondering if my stomach would glow in the dark tonight. I looked at Willy's expectant face. Had he really asked me out on a date? No...I wasn't that lucky. There was no way on Earth a handsome billionaire would want to go out with me. But there he was. With that look I had seen in the mirror all though high school when a boy said they would call...and they never did. Hope and fear all mixed together as one. My heart couldn't say no.
My mind however, needed a bit more convincing. Resolved to keep to my men and chocolate free diet, I decided to make it strictly business. In a flash a plan came to mind.
"Alright...on one condition." I told him.
"Yeah?" he asked suspicious and fearful.
"I'll go out with you...if you stop avoiding my questions." I told him.
"Come again?" he asked.
"You tell me exactly what I want to know and I'll go out with you. No random facts, no riddles, no jokes...no Abbott and Costello routines...just you. Your story from start to finish. The second you clam up...I call a cab and call it a night. Do we have a deal?" I asked expectantly. Willy said nothing as Kara came out on the front step and said cheerfully,
"Dinner's ready! Come and get it."
"We'll be in a minute." I said still waiting for Willy's answer.