That evening, Willy slipped into his bedroom. He carried the pieces of his costume he'd taken off. Once inside, he dumped them in the trash, along with the containers that held his ghostly makeup. Removing his tattered clothing, he threw them out, too. Then he pulled out an outfit from his closet and got dressed. Slipping his feet into his boots, he zipped them closed. He pulled down a hat box, removed the top hat, and set it on his head. Picking up his W pin (he'd not been wearing it during his haunting), he put it on. Finally, he put on a new pair of purple latex gloves and pulled a cane out of the stand near the door. Standing in front of the mirror, he ran a hand over the plum red velvet of his coat. "Well, I look the way I normally did before the explosion," he said. With that, he sat down to wait. He had decided it would be best to approach Charlie alone, which meant waiting until he was in bed.
At the right time, Willy slipped out of his room and walked down the hall to Charlie's. He'd given him the room when Charlie had entered high school. He was glad now that he had done that because now it meant the two of them would be uninterrupted. He opened the door and slipped inside, shutting and locking it behind him just in case Charlie tried to escape while still under the impression that he was a ghost. It might slow him down a bit. Walking over to the bed, Willy laid a hand on Charlie's shoulder and gently shook him. "Charlie, Charlie, wake up!"
Charlie's eyes blinked open. Looking around the room, they focused on Willy. Screaming, he leaped up and out of bed, dashing for the door.
Willy flew after him. "Charlie! Stop!" he called. Charlie didn't stop. In a desperate move, he grabbed the younger man by the shoulders and spun him around to face him. "It's me!" he exclaimed.
Charlie just stood there, staring at Willy, stunned. He looked and sounded just like he always had. The cane and hat were back, as was the W pin (he just now realized that it had been missing during the haunting). Charlie could feel Willy's hands on his shoulders. It was this contact that convinced him. It was the touch of the hands of a human being. "You're alive," he whispered, awestruck.
Willy grinned, relieved at having gotten through to him. "Yeah," he said, dropping his hands. No need to keep contact any longer than necessary, he figured.
"But...how..." Charlie tried to ask, stunned.
Willy looked over at a pair of armchairs in the corner. "It's a long story," he said. "Shall we go sit?" Charlie nodded and the two of them got settled. "The truth of the matter is that I never died in the first place."
"But the explosion," Charlie protested. "The oompa-loompas said that there was no way you could have survived."
"What they didn't know was when I built this place I built a special compartment in the wall of the room," Willy explained. "It was made to withstand an explosion. I knew that the things I had in there could explode like that, though I never expected it to blow a hole in the factory wall. When I found out about that, I was very glad I'd had the compartment installed on the same wall as the door. There was enough warning for me to get in there, so I was safe."
"How did the oompa-loompas not see you?" Charlie asked.
"It took a few minutes for the oompa-loompas to reach the room after the explosion," Willy said. "I left the room in those minutes."
"Why didn't you take your hat and cane?" Charlie asked.
"Too much smoke," Willy replied, "I didn't see them and I'd forgotten I'd taken them off."
Then came the question Willy had been dreading, "Why did you pretend to be a ghost?"
Willy bowed his head. "I didn't mean to scare you," he said. "Well, I mean, I did, but not that badly, and not in that way. I thought it would be scary, but a fun kind of scary."
"You mean like going to a haunted house or something?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, exactly," Willy said.
"What made you realize you needed to stop?" Charlie asked.
"I overheard you this afternoon," Willy said. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I was just near the door and overheard you." He looked away. "I'm sorry. For everything."
He felt a touch on his hand and looked back. Charlie was smiling. "It's okay," he said.
"So we're still friends?" Willy asked.
"Brothers under the sun," Charlie replied with a smile.
Willy grinned at the reference to the song Charlie had sung. "I'd like to learn that song," he said.
"I'll teach it to you," Charlie said. Then he yawned. "But not tonight," he added.
"Okay," Willy said with a laugh. He got up. "See you in the morning."
"Yep," Charlie said, climbing back into bed. "Do you think you'll come to breakfast with me and my family? I'll explain to them about the whole 'ghost' thing."
"Okay," Willy said. He opened the door, slipped out, poked his head back in, and said, "Goodnight."
"Night" came the response.
Willy closed the door and then said to himself. "Guess I don't have to leave, after all."