Disclaimer:
I, Aslansphoenix declare that I do not own 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', or anything that you may find familiar.
The only thing to come from me, are my head canons.
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Author's Note:
To the last chapter, with only some moments from the Great Glass Elevator Book.
I will say that when re-reading the book I came across a fact that I had somehow managed to change in my mind. I thought it was Grandma Josephine who went to minus-land.I was wrong it is Grandma Georgina – I knew this! I know I knew this because I remember being amused at the difference in characterisation of her in the 2005 version (I know why and wasn't against it, but did find it amusing).
Yet somehow I had managed to mix them up I my mind. I have gone back and fixed the mistake in earlier chapters, so Georgina is now correctly listed as the youngest of the Grandparents.
Chapter 10
Mr Wonka, with 6 adults, a bed, and Little Charlie Bucket found themselves floating in the Great Glass Elevator out in space. Josie, George and Georgina were all desperate to get back into the bed – to Joe's amusement. It was a most unusual feeling. Joe and Charlie found joy as they floated, feeling weightless, and wonderful as the galaxy seemed to dance all around them.
They were not the only ones up there.
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Shuckworth, Shanks, and Showler were three intelligent, good looking astronauts. They were also the only three people from Planet Earth who had not been allowed to participate in the recent search for Golden Tickets inside Wonka Bars. Because even though no one had been sure if the grand hotel the USA had been working on, would make it successfully into space; the three astronauts who were going to guide the many hotel workers, they had to be ready.
Because you remember why Willy chose the 1st February as his contest; as it would be right between when the Space Hotel was launched, and when the Workers were to be set to follow. So that the news could focus on that, and less on the Wonka Factory Tour. The astronauts and their passengers thought they were ready for everything. They weren't ready to see a Glass Box in Space, with floating people inside it … and a bed. Nor were they prepared for President Gilligrass to speak to them directly … and accuse the bed of being a bomb.
Willy had also not expected to be orbiting the Earth. He had had fun leading directing the Great Glass Elevator into the Space Hotel USA, before the official capsule could get there – even with three old people who were both angry and mistrustful of him, and eager to fly around like lunatics. Still with Charlie and Grandpa Joe's help they had managed it, and for the first few moments it was exhilarating to experience, and quite amusing messing around by pretending to be an alien (he sang songs, using skills he picked up from his Oompa Loompas).
Until …
Until the elevator opened to one of the most terrifying sights Willy had never wanted to see again. One of the most horrifying and cruel beings that existed in the entire universe. A Vermicious Knid.
It had been a very long time since Willy had last seen one of those foul creatures, and even longer since it had been in person. And Willy was not ashamed to admit that he was terrified, and that he readily ran back to the safety of his Great Glass Elevator. He knew that making it Vermicious Knid Proof was one of his best he and the Bucket Family were inside Willy was able to calm himself down and think again. Some of the Bucket Family members however … Charlie's Grandma Josephine kept screaming and was quite distracting whilst they were trying to escape.
Just when Willy thought they had gotten away, they saw the other Knids attacking the Space Capsule with the three Astronauts and the people that were supposed to be working in the Hotel. And Charlie; kind, brave, caring, eager to learn Charlie he cried out "Then we must help them!" he said it with such conviction, that even if Willy hadn't already been planning on helping; he would have been swayed to do so. It was quite fun actually. He got to see Joe take command and led Charlie and Joe with war cries to where they needed to direct the Elevator in order to help the capsule. It was so brilliant to see Willy had to jet himself down to Grandpa Joe to shake his hand "Well done sir," he said "You did a brilliant job under heavy fire!" The other man had the audacity to grin and wink at Willy (unseen by his Grandchild).
And then of course the Knids worked together to form a giant hook and tried to fly the humans away. But in an odd twist it was the panicking Josephine who gave Willy the idea that saved the day. She wanted to go home, home was on the Earth, and as Willy knew; Earth's atmosphere was fatal to Vermicious Knids. It was perfect, an exciting end (Willy hoped) to an … intense adventure.
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It wasn't the end.
They had crashed back into Willy's Factory (dropping the Capsule off somewhere on the way). Charlie and Joe were ecstatic and Henry seemed so much more joyful – more that little boy from long ago who had enjoyed watching Willy work. Things were looking up for Willy and the future of the factory. But then Charlie's other three Grandparents refused to get out of bed.
And Willy … Willy gave into the impulse to offer them his Wonka-Vite. The special, rare vitamin he had created and eventually perfected. To reduce someone by 20 years exactly. There had been 131 Oompa Loompas he had almost lost in the process of perfecting them. 131 failures that had lead to Willy going to Minus-Land. He had succeeded in rescuing every single Oompa Loompa escaping from the Gnoolies; who were worse than the Vermicious Knids and the pain of the War combined. He never wanted to go to Minus-Land ever again.
But he would, when Josephine, George and Georgina all greedily refused to listen to Willy's instructions and took more than the recommended dose.
Still, at least this trip to Minus-Land; Charlie was going with him. His presence made Willy feel just a little bit braver.
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Joe was feeling quite bemused. It was an odd thing to have gone from walking for the first time in 20 years, and going on a marvellous magical tour in the most marvellous factory in world … the floating in space in a Great Glass Elevator, and being attacked by Vermicious Knids … to being back in the most wonderful factory in the world, but looking after his best-friend-turned-one-year-old, and his wife-turned-the-age-of-3-months. Josie was cute as an infant, and this way it seemed more likely for Joe to win arguments against her – though when he said that out loud, she did then spit-up on him, so he wasn't sure if that was entirely true.
Still, he'd rather his Josie be herself than remain as an infant.
He left Henry (who was standing so much taller just by being in this Chocolate Room), and Helen (who was still stressing herself out, but somehow also making childcare look easy), and wandered a little way over to the Chocolate river. There Joe got to have a very engaging talk with some of the fantastic Oompa Loompas. If Willy Wonka had been present, no doubt he would have been horrified to see his dearest workers talking (conspiring, laughing) with his oldest companion from his past.
Mr Wonka wasn't there though, he was with Charlie in Minus-Land rescuing Georgina who had subtracted herself two years from existing. Joe had just wondered to himself how they would do that; when Helen let out a scream. Joe whipped around back to the bed; at one end, somehow sleeping through Helen's scream which had turned silent were two babies. George and Josie. At the other end … was a figure that Joe could only think of as a croaking pickled walnut.
There was something vaguely humanoid about it, but it was the nightdress that let Joe know what, or rather – who it was. Somehow that was Georgina, and instead of being either an baby like her husband, or her usual old but younger than the other three … she had become older than .. well Joe didn't know, older than he could imagine it seemed. Joe turned away unable to look at Georgina, and hoped that Willy Wonka would return soon to set things right.
In answer to his silent wish, the lift dinged and out of the Great Glass Elevator came Willy Wonka with Charlie. As Joe had expected, Wily set up making things right; with some resistance from Helen and Georgina herself. But with Charlie's clever brain, and Joe helping with the mathematics; Georgina was reversed back to her 78 year old self; just as cankerous as ever. And then thanks to Mr Wonka, Joe had his Josie back, and George too.
But they still refused to get out of bed. Until the letter from the Whitehouse came. Apparently being invited to the Whitehouse of the United States was enough to get George, Georgina and Josephine jumping out of bed. Joe thought the Chocolate Factory was a more worthy cause to leap out of bed, but he couldn't deny he was excited – he and Charlie were in the middle of quite an adventure.
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Epilogue
It was night, early morning more like, and things were finally calming down. Willy knew he should be asleep; he had been up for almost 24 hours at this stage, but when he had tried he had just tossed and turned unable to find a comfortable position enough to sleep in. So he was in the Chocolate Room, trying to let his brain feel relaxed enough for sleep. Turns out he wasn't the only one.
Willy spied the tall figure, and narrowed his eyes. He distinctly remembered leaving the Buckets in their new rooms, with the assurance that they would be going to sleep themselves. "Grandpa Joe, Sir, shouldn't you be asleep?"
Joe just grinned "I could ask you the same question Mr. Wonka."
Willy resisted the urge to stick out his tongue, and instead offered Joe a cup of hot cocoa. Joe took the offered mug with a smile, and watched as Willy set about making his own one. Willy took a sip, then shrugged "I can't sleep, my brain won't shut up." Joe nodded "That was always your problem. Me I've been waking up while everyone else has been asleep for almost twenty years. Guess my body hasn't caught up to the fact that I can sleep through the night now."
"It's been a long day."
"Been an exciting day. Got to take a tour of the most wonderful factory in the world, see 4 bratty children get what they deserved, you announce you were giving Charlie the factory. We went to space, fought Vermicious Knids, and got invited to the Whitehouse all in one day, which was an exciting adventure in itself."
"And Charlie saved the President's life, and all of us. He's quite a remarkable boy."
"He is. For all his life Charlie was the light of all our lives. He loves you Mr Wonka. Tales of 'Willy Wonka' were always his favourite, but meeting you, seems to have been better than anything he had imagined. You heard him earlier say he loves you didn't you? If Charlie said it, he meant it."
Willy felt himself flush, he knew that this was Joe's highest compliment. And it was also an overwhelmingly humbling thing to hear; Charlie was such a good, kind child, he was everything Willy could hope for in an heir, and he was terrified of messing that up. Still Joe was smiling and Willy couldn't help but smile back.
"Well, I know with Charlie I'm going to be leaving my Factory in good hands."
"Yes. But to teach him properly you will need a proper sleep"
Willy laughed and joked "Oh no, I think this may have been my worst mistake ever. If you and the Oompa Loompas team up I'm going to be forced to look after myself."
Joe shot Willy a smirking grin, and Willy realised that Joe was leading him back towards the Elevator, and he was sure that Joe and Oompa Loompas had teamed up, and were working together to look after Willy's well-being. Joe grinned and said "If we don't manage it, we'll get Charlie to ask you to look after yourself. I promise you Mr Wonka – you might be able to do the impossible, but even you won't be able to say no to Charlie's pleading eyes."
And Willy Wonka felt horrified at the knowledge of what he had invited into his life. Still, he supposed; that was what he got for having people in his life who loved him, and whom he could love, and even trust in return.
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The End
Long Author's Note – You don't have to read this part, but I had to write it:
This story was inspired by a few things.
1)Stories from Fan Fiction.
A lot of CatCF Fan-Fiction seems to be either Willy Wonka is an intentionally cruel character, or giving Willy Wonka a romantic relationship with a female.
The first is not my interpretation of the book. If that is yours then fine, but it's not mine.
The second is usually that Charlie has an older sister, or an Aunt or there's a 6th Golden Ticket winner, or it is Mrs. Bucket – and depending on the version that would be an affair. The thing is though; giving Willy Wonka a female romantic relationship does not make any sense to me.
Surely if Mr Wonka had any interest in females then he would have initially tried to find an heir in a more traditional way. Either biologically or by adoption which even today is easier for couples than for single people. And with the time the story came from – that would have been the more obvious 'go-to-response' if Mr. Wonka had any interest in that area.
In the books (and indeed even in every other version) Mr. Wonka shows no interest in romantic relationships (physical, emotional or any other kind). As someone who is on the Aro-Ace spectrum I probably should probably go for the head-canon of Mr. Wonka being Aromantic and/or Asexual. But I can do that with almost any other character created by Roald Dahl.
Actually I do personally subscribe to theory that Willy Wonka is an Alien. (Not my theory; it has been floating around the internet for years). And as an Alien then 'human sexualities' do not apply to Mr. Wonka. I couldn't help but hint at this slightly in my story, but it is only a hint.
My point, that I have eventually gotten to – is that surely if Mr. Wonka were to be in a relationship; it would make more sense for it to be with a male.
There are fanfictions out there with this; but most seem to be pairing Willy Wonka with Charlie. Yes; they have Charlie being older, but considering that Mr. Wonka describes himself as a "Very old man" while Charlie is still a young boy – I admit; such an extreme age difference makes me squeamish.
Besides all those stories about Mr. Wonka being with Charlie's Mum, they kinda always makes me think – why his Mum? Why not his Dad? Which leads me onto the second influence for this story.
2)The interactions between characters. There is a line in Charlie in the Great Glass Elevator about Mr. Bucket's reaction to the Chocolate room (which you will see obviously implied at in this story). Which is really beautiful. And so my first thought for this story was for the romantic relationship to be between Mr. Bucket and Willy Wonka.
There are three reasons I decided against this.
Firstly – as already mentioned; Mr. Wonka is described as very old, and while the difference between Mr. Bucket and Mr. Wonka are not as extreme as with Charlie and Mr. Wonka; the truth is that Grandpa Joe is probably closer in age. Secondly – I'm not comfortable creating an affair story; even if that inspired the initial idea. Thirdly - The interactions between Mr. Wonka and Grandpa Joe in both books are always so sweet. I just adore it, and really wanted to explore that.
3)Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
This is an amazing book that gives the rest of Charlie's family so much personality. And why in this story the other Grandparents may be …. Portrayed a certain way. I wanted to use those characteristics from the book. And this is a fun challenge.
I do have another Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story idea. My version of what would happen if Charlie didn't find the Golden Ticket. But instead of going the usual route of someone else finding the ticket, or Willy going a long way to finding Charlie as his heir (which are great stories, I enjoy reading) – I want to go more the apocalypse route. Because no Charlie winning the factory means no finding out bout and stopping the Vermicious Knids from their plans. Which might mean Earth would be in trouble. I have a good time-travel idea for it. Whether I write it or not, is up to my motivation and finding free time.
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Anyway if you've read all this. Thank-You, and hopefully you got some enjoyment out of it. Happy Holidays and hope your 2024 treats you kindly.
Posted 13th December 2023
