Chapter Six: The Phantom Of The Thneed Factory

The Once-ler led Marilyn to his mansion. Marilyn was amazed at the size and design of the building. "Wow..." she said in awe. The Once-ler felt proud. He was the one who designed his home, as well as all the other new buildings in Thneedville. Two butlers opened the gigantic front doors. The inside was just as magneficent as the outside. The walls were green and the floor was drapped in fancy crimson rugs. Beautiful paintings decorated the walls while expensive furnitures alinged them. The Once-ler let go of Marilyn but she didn't noticed. She was busy beaming over every detail.

"Do you need anything, sire?" a servant asked The Once-ler with a straight emotionless face and a fancy british accent. "Yes, I need you to clean my suit again and attend the lady as soon as possible." The Once-ler said with all authority. "As you wish" the servant clapped his hands with an amazing posture and soon a group of maids came in the room. The Once-ler left the room and the servant followed suit. Marilyn tried to call after him but the maids led her to a fancy bathroom.

The bathroom walls were made of marble. The floor was of a beautiful pattern of roman mosaics. All the faucets were made of gold and were sculptured like swans. The bathtub was like a mini swimming pool and even the toilet looked comfortable. It was all pure luxury. To marilyn's protest, the maids undressed her and led her to the bathtub. They bathed her with only the best of products. Marilyn smelled now like a rare wild flower.

Then the maids led her to an even fancier bedroom. It resembled like pretty much every where in the house, green wallpaper, fancy crimson carpets and fancy furniture. The bed was huge, almost as big as Marilyn's room back at Norma's house. "Wow this house is amazing!" Marilyn sighed. "The master designed it himself." a maid responded. "Really?" Marilyn said surprised. The maids started speaking among eachother, deciding what Marilyn should wear. They decided on a silk tight emerald green (of course) dress that frammed Marilyn's hourglass shaped body, a set of diamond earrings and dimond necklace and fancy silver heels. They styled Marilyn's hair into a fancy updo and even put makeup on her. Her eyes were lined in a cat eye style, her lips were painted red and they put a light blush on her cheeks.

When Marilyn saw the final results she was more than shocked. "Wow..." how many 'wows' has she said? "I've never looked like this in my whole life! I look like a million dollars!" she exclaimed. She felt a little uncomfortable with all the makeup and jewelry and how tight her dress was but she had to admit, she looked beautiful. No where could you see the scratches on her face and the dress was long so it cover all the bruises and scratches in her body. "Oh no. My father will have a heart attack if he sees me like this." she suddenly realized. "I can't go home like this!" "But my lady," a maid said amused "you won't be going home now." "Huh?" Marilyn was puzzled, what does she mean? "The master, he requested dinner with you." with that all the maids started blushing and giggling. God, they made it seem like she was Cinderella or some sort of lucky winner from 'A Date With A Millionaire' show. "Why?" she asked. "Oh my lady, we don't know but you must be hurrying now. It's dinner time!"

Once again Marilyn was led against her will down the big halls and into a big dinning room. There there was a long table for twenty guest or more and at one of the ends there was a banquet that could feed a whole family. Is this what millionaires call dinner for two? Marilyn was seated to the right of the main chair at the end of the table. She looked at the food. There was all kinds of food she never imagined or knew existed. But why me? Marilyn wondered.

The Once-ler was in his room being dressed in the same suit just a different one. "No, no need for the hat or sunglases." He was in a surprising good mood today. As servants shined his shoes and gave him a haircut he hummed a joyful tune which made the servants look at eachother confused. This was the first night in a long time he was moping around drunk in his office. He would make the most of it.

Once he was done he made his way down to the dinning room. He was nervous. Marilyn was too. What was going to happen? What can they expect to happen? Two strangers having dinner together. One was a beautiful innocent young girl, a beauty. The other was a greedy idiot who destroyed everything of real importance to him, a beast.

The Once-ler finally arrived. Marilyn slowly got up from her seat. When The Once-ler saw Marilyn, he stopped. The two stared at eachother for a moment. Neither moved nor blinked. They just stared. A million thoughts raced in each other's minds. A hundred miles per hour. Time seemed to freeze and everything else around them. Reality faded away slowly but came back when a servant turned on the radio and soft music played in the background. The Once-ler awkardly smiled and took his seat. Marilyn aslo sat back down. The two didn't talk for a few minutes.

"You, ahem, look good." The Once-ler said avoiding eye contact. Marilyn was suprised and blushed. "Um, thank you." The Once-ler was sweating. Here was a beautiful girl who knew nothing about him, he liked that. But then he realized he knew nothing about her, that was unsettling. There was too many things he wanted to know about her but he didn't wanted to freak her out with a lot of questions so he remained quiet. The uncomfortable silece followed the next half hour. Neither of them ate much. The silence wasn't broken until dissaster struck... sort of.

A servant carried away the left over tomato soup along with other dishes. The bowl containing the soup tipped over a little and some of the soup spilled on the floor. Another servant followed behind carrying a plate of oysters and lobsters and, without noticing the tomato soup, slipped right down, sea food complete with the plate sent flying right through the air and BAM! That sucker hit The Once-ler right in the face prompting him to fall on the floor and get knocked out. Marilyn quickly got up "Oh my Lord..." she let out.

The Once-ler's lifeless looking body layed on the floor. Marilyn held his head on her hands and wiped some of the food off of his face. "Mr. Once-ler? Can you hear me?" The Once-ler opened his eyes and all he could see was Marilyn's angelic worried face. Oh how embarrising! The Once-ler has about to go on a fit of rage but then the most adorable thing he has seen happened. Marilyn tried not to but she couldn't hold it back anymore, she started laughing and she couldn't stop. Soon the servants, who stood in the background worrying for their lives, laughed along, though cautiously.

The Once-ler beamed at Marilyn's joyful face, adoring her pearly white smile and the way her cheeks reddened with every giggle. He forgot the whole incident and sat up laughing with her.

After the whole charade scene was over The Once-ler and Marilyn left the dinning room and parted to their rooms. The Once-ler left to his room to change (again) and Marilyn went back to her room to change back into her freshly cleaned clothes. She carefully traced her fingers at the expensive dress and jewels. She took off her make up and let down her hair back to normal. The only thing she took with her was the sweet fragance from the baths earlier.

The servants recovered Norma's bike but it was late so The Once-ler's personal chauffeur was to take Marilyn home. When she was led to the door to leave she hoped to see The Once-ler there but he wasn't. He was actually watching her departure from the windows in his office. She was his only companion. Besides the fact that they have just met and their moments being brief, he counted her as his new friend. His only friend. And just in case you haven't noticed, he has fallen completely in love with her.

"Just a little change - Small, to say the least
Both a little scared - Neither one prepared
Beauty and the Beast"

-Tale As Old As Time, Beauty And The Beast

I was kind of stuck in this chapter, something or someone had to break the ice in the intentional awkward dinner. I am worried that too many people were getting hurt (well two people but they get hurt too many times) so I just wanted to add, this is a comedy (sort of) in the beginning but this are gonna get serious soon... too serious...