Bucket Of Salt

by RealLCAFanfiction

Set 14 years after the events of the 2005 film. Charlie is now an adult living as the heir to the Wonka empire, and while his new reality is undoubtedly a step up from where he came from, he now dreams of a life bigger than that of a chocolatier. However, after Charlie gets entangled in the life of an old acquaintance, he quickly learns exactly what he wants in life.

22. I Am Exhausted

For not having thought through how he would get the sofa up to the penthouse, Charlie was left on the street corner next to Stourton all alone to pick up the pieces and come up with a plan to get Veruca's sofa up to her penthouse right on the spot. He rolled up the door to the back of the red Wonka truck and just stood there for a bit, observing the teal sofa that had put him through so much trouble, almost taunting him as this debacle had revealed one final surprise when they reached the home stretch. It did not take long for Charlie to realize that the sofa was going up to Veruca's penthouse via one mode, the elevator, so he hopped inside the truck and began pushing the shrink-wrap-covered sofa towards the edge of bed. He then jumped out of the truck and began to pull the sofa down to the street, being extra careful to not scratch any part of the furniture or even worse damage a part like one of the legs. Charlie eventually got half of the sofa onto the street but seeing that he still needed to get it up onto the curb to bring it inside, he carefully twisted the sofa so that the legs on the street touched the sidewalk while holding the back so that it didn't tip over and shatter. Following some more maneuvering, Charlie was able to get the part of the sofa that was still on the bed of the truck onto the street and from there he was able to get the entire sofa on the sidewalk and he closed the door to the back of the red Wonka truck. Now that the first obstacle had been cleared the second one amassed itself, specifically in the form of a large distance from the curb to the elevator. Charlie was looking at about 15 yards from the street corner to the door leading into the lobby and from there another 30 yards until he reached the elevator; he might as well have been crossing the English Channel, Charlie thought.

While he could theoretically drag the sofa all the way to the elevator, that would surely scuff up and damage the back legs that still touched the ground, not to mention the fact that the noise of the wood legs dragging on the cement walkway was one Charlie simply could not tolerate. There was another, more tedious but safer, option, he could move the sofa in a zig-zag position by turning one end to the side and then bringing the other end to the same latitude, so to speak, and then turning the sofa in the other direction and continuing the process until he reached the elevator. All it took was a few of these turns until Charlie began to feel exhausted and it came as no surprise to him, despite being rather tall and superbly healthy, he was not at all physically imposing. After moving the sofa about three yards closer to the doors of the apartment building, Charlie's spaghetti arms began to give out, and to make matters worse he had begun to sweat profusely as this had been the single greatest feat of physical labor he had done in years. His forehead and back were dripping with sweat and his armpits were drenched in the coolant as well, not to mention the fact that the vest he wore also restricted many of his movements. To optimize his movements, thus diminishing the amount of stress he'd put on his body, Charlie unbuttoned his vest and walked back to his car where he tossed it onto the passenger's seat for storage until he got back to the factory. This also turned out to be a faithful move because as he leaned passed the driver's seat to get a better shot at the passenger's seat, Charlie spotted a gift he had placed in the back seat.

He had wrapped up a small box in a metallic silver wrapping paper in hopes of giving it to Veruca, but with the chaos of having to venture out of the city to pick up the sofa he promised her, the gift had left his mind entirely. It was a good thing Charlie found the gift now because he could have gone all the way up to Veruca's penthouse and have come all the way down as he prepared to return to the factory, only to then have found the gift, forcing him to have to go back up to give Veruca the gift. With the box now in hand, Charlie took it over to and rested it atop the sofa, that way his hands would be free to resume moving the piece of furniture now that he had rested for a bit. As he continued to push the sofa closer to the door, he noticed Veruca was still standing outside the building, yet she was in no mood to help carry her own sofa inside. While Charlie pushed the sofa towards her, Veruca just stood underneath a light fixture and examined her fingernails. She seemed displeased with the status of her nails as she gave them a disgusted look and proceeded to pull out her phone, most likely to make an appointment with her manicurist, Charlie thought. Nevertheless, the Good Boy continued pushing the sofa towards the elevator, no matter how smelly or sticky he or his clothes got. While Veruca just walked inside the lobby once Charlie got to the main entrance, it was the doorman who was kind enough to lock both doors in their open position so that Charlie could get the piece of furniture inside without any additional work.

Once inside the lobby of the apartment building, the concierge who helped Charlie get Veruca down from her penthouse, Herpes Trout, watched as the poor man pushed a heavy piece of furniture all the way indoors while the building's tenant just stood there and watched him struggle. Herp could not say anything, it would be improper for a concierge to question a tenant, plus such an action could have negative consequences in terms of his standing in his employer's eyes. All he could do was tell them to wait because he needed to bring them some mover's blankets to wrap the corners of the sofa in so that they did not accidently damage the inside of the elevator. It took him about five minutes for him to come back from the storage closet but Charlie had still not reached the elevator yet, so Herp just rested them on the sofa and told them to put them on before placing the sofa into the elevator. Charlie did as he was told when he reached the elevator and placed the mover's blankets on both ends of the sofa, and after Veruca swiped her key card on the sensor and the doors opened he began pushing the piece of furniture into the cramp contraption. It was a good thing Herp brought the mover's blankets because Charlie immediately hit the wall of the elevator with the sofa as he tried fitting the other end as well. But the worst of this most recent turn of events was that part of the sofa still stuck outside the door of the elevator. The only way the elevator was going to be able to close its door and take them up to the penthouse would be by elevating the part of the sofa that stuck out so that it would fit inside, someone would have to hold it up the entire ride up to the Veruca's penthouse, and by someone Charlie meant himself as there was no way the brat would do it.

He relaxed his arms for a bit and then proceeded to pick up the part of the sofa that stuck out and rested it on his chest while he propped the piece of furniture up with his two extended palms. Veruca then followed Charlie into the elevator and gave her back to the sofa as she swiped her key card on the sensor and like always she stuck her nose up at Charlie and gave him a quick haughty look before turning away to face the elevator door. Although, since his sweaty armpits were wide open thanks to the position he put himself in by holding up the sofa, Charlie rationalized that such a face would have been warranted this time. Such a rationalization could only come from two places, devotion or a decline of cognitive abilities and Charlie couldn't tell which one was in control of him at the moment as he was ready to pass out after stressing his body to the his limit by moving the sofa from the curb to the elevator and then propping it up in the cramp elevator. Fortunately, a bell came ringing though the speakers inside the elevator, indicating that they had arrived at their destination. When the doors swung wide open Charlie watched as Veruca carelessly strolled out of the elevator and into her penthouse, almost walking slowly to torture her fellow Golden Ticket winner some more, but the moment she was far enough Charlie rushed out and rested the sofa on the ground. He struggled to regain his breath and he noticed the palms of his hands were red, much like the rest of his extremely fair skin at this exhausted moment of this life, and also marked after grasping the wooden base of the sofa for so long. He did not really feel it now, but Charlie knew he was going to wake up incredibly sore tomorrow after pulling off such a herculean feat.

However, Veruca noticed none of the Good Boy's selfless work, all she saw was her living room wide open as she'd had the damaged sofa removed the previous day, to which she pointed at as she continued walking and exclaimed, "Put it there, where the old sofa used to be. I want to sit down, now!"

And, without reflecting on what Charlie had been going through for the last couple hours, Veruca threw her clutch purse onto the dinner table and said as she headed for her home bar, "Oh lord, what a day. I am exhausted, I need a drink."

Charlie's strongest asset turned into his greatest weakness that day, his desire to be a man of honor literally drove him around south-central London and made him carry a 150 pound sofa all the way from the street corner to an elevator inside the building and then suspend it in the air during a ride up in that elevator. It was almost over though, it was just about five more yards until Charlie got the sofa to the exact spot Veruca wanted it, five more yards until it was all over. He was careful not to accidentally hit anything in the way like a table, stools or chairs yet he was so irritated by the sound of the legs dragging against the floor inside the entrance to the penthouse. Charlie eventually got the sofa into position, but it was still covered in wrapping and other stuff, so as a gesture of good will he grabbed the gift he rested on the sofa and placed it on the dining table, along with the mover's blankets Herp brought out and began removing the shrink wrap. He tore a hole into the material with his fingernail and began pulling on the first sheet he could grasp onto and continued this process until he had pulled off all the shrink wrap off the sofa.