It had been almost fifteen years since the last time Charlie and Veruca had seen each other, not that they even got to know each other the first time they met. But with so much time between their first two face-to-face encounters, the more stories about what had transpired in their lives between the time gap each of them had to recount. Now, multiply the number of stories worth telling someone you have not seen in nearly a decade and a half by a thousand, the Wonka Factor, and you now have a total of stories that would knock the socks of everybody at a dinner party or another social function. The fact of the matter was, spending so much time with the amazing chocolatier not only molded Charlie into the young man he was today, for better or worse, but it essentially gave him a front-row seat to the most bizarre and outlandish adventures the mind of man could ever come up with, and sometimes even adventures no healthy human mind could possibly fathom. Charlie had traveled to every corner of the globe and tried so many exotic delicacies, as was demonstrated in the order he had placed for him and Veruca, but those stories were no more unique than those of your average globetrotter. What many frequent flyers did not have were stories about how their jobs created awkward situations when traveling. Perhaps Charlie could tell a story about all the times he and his mentor got in trouble with the locals, which was always because Wonka committed some sort of cultural faux pas in their presence. Veruca knew just how awkward Wonka was and Charlie though she would get a kick out of hearing about a couple of the times people got to take down the man who tormented her simply for not following along with what society deemed as proper, but even that, the Good Boy feared, would not be enough to induce a jolt of joy into the little brute's dining experience. If he wanted to impress her, Charlie would have to tell her the most riveting, most unexpected, most adventurous story he had, and fortunately, that story from Charlie's past was so amazing it literally was out-of-this-world.

Now, despite the Good Boy's constant praise and adulation, the little brute did not seem convinced that there was any good in the amazing chocolatier. Therefore Charlie decided to tell her the story of what happened between him and Wonka after he had been declared the winner of the special prize in order to set up his big story, first asking, "I remember at Fenston's you mentioned a flying glass elevator, correct?"

"Yes, the one Daddy didn't want to get me," Veruca responded, crossing her arms across her chest and pouting as if she was still a child.

Charlie knew he could not argue with Veruca's perception that her father was abusing her for not buying her a Great Glass Elevator, instead, all he could do was try and redeem Wonka in the eyes of his guest by speaking about his experiences with the candymaker, replying, "Right. Well, we blasted our way out of a chimney and then hovered over the factory, that was surely a surprise. I didn't know that thing could fly, I thought the thing was going to shatter the moment we hit the grate on top of the stack and we were going to die, but we didn't and ever since then I learned to not question Mr. Wonka's judgement."

"Well...maybe I learned to not question him a bit later," Charlie added, remembering that his relationship with Wonka post-tour did not start off on the right foot.

Still in disbelief that Wonka was capable of more than gambling with people's lives in schemes concocted in that crazed imagination of his, Veruca wondered what the candymaker could have done to have rattled Charlie, and asked, "Why? What could be more impactful than him almost killing you?"

Charlie had to prepare himself for Veruca's vindication as there was no way to present what happened next without telling her exactly what she wanted to hear, evidence that proved Wonka was a heartless beast. But he had to be honest with her or else this whole night out would have been a sham, so he swallowed the large pill of truth, and responded, "You see, Mr. Wonka is a very...reclusive man, you know that, right. The thing is he wanted me to leave my family and go live with him at the factory, but I said no."

Veruca actually looked shocked at what Charlie had said, but not because she heard the heir disparage his master, but because he turned down something every other child who Wonka had not tortured would have jumped at the opportunity to take, leading her to ask in awe, "You gave up an entire factory for a bunch of double-dealing, two-timing rats?"

Charlie didn't know where her hostility towards his family was coming from as Veruca had never met the Buckets, but insulting his kin was something Charlie would not stand for, his demeanor got really serious, and he replied, "Family is really important to me, Veruca. They have covered my back for many years and they still do. And I can assure you, my family are not double-dealing, two-timing rats."

The little brute didn't seem to be fazed by Charlie's sudden shift in tone, and instead decided to double-down on her inflammatory rhetoric, retorting, "If you say so, but I say that sounds like a load of rubbish. Since when have families ever covered each other's backs?"

While he did not expect Veruca to understand the nuances of all the things she did not have to worry about because of her pampered upbringing, Charlie at least expected her to be aware of all the glaring examples of those around her catering to her every whim. How could she not recognize everything her father did for her? He literally gave her everything she had. But, ignoring the fact that Mr. Salt lost valuable time and profits to have his workers find the Golden Ticket for his dear Veruca, it seemed the little brute's resentment was not geared directly against the Bucket family, but all families in general. Charlie had seen such disregard for the most important institution in life from only one other person before, Willy Wonka himself. He could have brought this up directly, but he now knew better than to compare the brat to the amazing chocolatier, seeing as how she had reacted when he had done so before.

Instead, he decided to share the story of Wonka's transformation from bitter recluse to friendly mentor, by saying, "Well, what happened afterwards was that Mr. Wonka sought me out weeks later because he felt terrible and his candy was tasting terrible as a result, so his sales were plummeting as a result. Now, as it turned out, he and his father never saw eye to eye and they had not seen each other since Mr. Wonka was a child, so I accompanied him on the journey to his father's home and place of work and the two made amends. Mr. Wonka gained a new outlook on life and he offered me the chance to work at his side and one day inherit his factory. And I agreed on the conditions that, one, my family could move into the factory as well, and two, that Mr. Wonka had to become an honorary member of the Bucket family. He now joins us every evening for family dinner. They're probably all having dinner as we speak now that I think about it."

While Charlie chose to interpret the anecdote as proof that even the roughest shells have soft insides, all Veruca seemed to take from the story was that Wonka was eating while she sat at an empty table, across from someone she thought she would never see again just a few days ago, and responded, "And we're still waiting for those plates of whatever it is you ordered."

The Good Boy had no response to his guest's claim, it took Doña Rosita a while to prepare their meals, and while he hoped to use that time to catch up, Veruca and her ever-fit body were just craving something to eat. She also had not yet heard a retelling of a misadventure her inviter insisted he had had with the reclusive candymaker, leading her to ask, "So, where's the sticky situation you mentioned?"

It seemed his guest was finally showing interest in his past and Charlie was more than willing to tell her about his previous experiences, and so he replied, "I was getting to that. So after Mr. Wonka agreed to my conditions, we returned to my home to pick up the rest of my family. He crashed the Great Glass Elevator through the roof of my home, that was actually the second time he had done so actually, and after explaining to them that we would all be moving into the factory he got my parents and grandparents on board and we set off towards the factory. The problem was that we flew too high and accidentally got sent into space, but we did get to go inside that hotel the Americans launched into orbit, Space Hotel 'U.S.A.' is the name if I remember correctly. It was truly a sight to behold, but we could not stay there for long because we got ambushed by, wait for it...aliens! We had to fight them off, but thanks to Mr. Wonka's genius insight and leadership we were able to make it back to Earth in one piece. Here's another interesting tidbit that happened later on, I almost lost one of my grandmothers after she took too many of my mentor's creations. But Mr. Wonka did everything he could to make sure everything went back to normal, in fact he made things better than normal. His genius mind was able to invent something that got my bed-written grandparents walking about again."

Charlie had never told this story to anybody else because he knew nobody would believe him, but if there was anybody in this world who would, it would be someone who experienced the wackiness that was Wonka's factory as well. However, despite being a first-hand witness to all the peculiar contraptions and concoctions inside the factory, Veruca just sat there with her jaw hanging wide open, stretching out the skin that covered those well-defined cheekbones of hers and thus extenuating her bright eyes even more. Frozen in such a state of confusion, all Veruca knew to do was lash out with a hint of anger in her tone, asking, "Does Wonka make edibles as well? What in God's name are you talking about?!"

There was one downside to telling unbelievable stories, many times nobody believed you, and Veruca was not believing Charlie, even though he knew for a fact that others might have remembered some of the details of what he was talking about.

"All of this happened, it was all over the news. Well, I think it was," Charlie responded, pleading with his guest to believe him yet struggling to remember all the facts about the event himself, particularly those that people who had no first-hand knowledge of the event would know.

As it turned out, the little brute had a convincing reason as to why she did not remember Charlie's heroic journey into space, saying, "I was barely on the cusp of turning 10 after the factory tour, what would I be doing watching the news?"

She had him there, most kids do not pay attention to the news nor would an adult be expected to remember something broadcasted on TV they had no interest in watching before they even cracked double digits in age. Yet Charlie thought Veruca must have had at least a slight idea about what he was talking about, as he pointed out, "But you surely must have heard about it."

"I was too busy being angry at Daddy for months after the factory tour. He was ruining my life, and you think I had time to watch stupid news coverage of some space skirmish," the brat barked back, still presenting herself with the body language of the petulant child she seemed to still be.

It didn't matter to The Good Boy if nobody believed him when he told the story of his space adventure in the Great Glass Elevator, Charlie knew full well it unraveled the way he told it, and he continued recanting his memories, saying, "Well, in that space skirmish, we did save three American astronauts and much of the hotel staff, so the American president organized a trip for my family, Mr. Wonka, and myself to visit the White House where his nation could thank us for keeping their emissaries safe."

"You're telling me you've been to the White House and met an American president now?" Veruca sniped as she leaned back in her chair, actually interested in hearing how this story, which presented itself as an obvious lie, would come crumbling down and embarrass the poor boy after it unraveled.

Despite his guest's disbelief in the facts of his story, Charlie just nodded almost innocently while he reminisced with some tension as he was about to use some language that did not come natural to him, "Oh, yes, I met President Lancelot R. Gilligrass, and let me tell you, he was a real Texas Shitkicker as they say across the pond."

"But, blimey, does the entire world miss him now, huh," he added, commenting on the current state of domestic politics in the United Kingdom's most trusted ally.

While the R. Gilligrass presidency was controversial worldwide, Charlie didn't feel right criticizing another country's former leader, let alone insult him, so he decided to bring up all the great memories he had of the other buffoon who lost the American presidential election but ended up becoming the most powerful man in the world because of his country's wacky electoral system, saying, "I'm being a bit mean, so I should say Gilligrass doesn't have an outright bad personality, per se. He was a gracious host and the dinner he held at the White House in our honor was sublime. I still remember the entertainment; his best friend is an Afghan sword swallower and he did his death-defying act for the audience. If I remember correctly, Gilligrass wanted to install him as President of Afghanistan after the invasion but he could never get the idea off the ground, so the sword swallower just moved into the White House and stayed with him."

That last tidbit of information reminded him of his own family's fate after being embraced by the amazing chocolatier, leading Charlie to mention, "Speaking of moving into somewhere special, while we were all in Washington, D.C., Mr. Wonka had the Oompa Loompas move my family's little home into the middle of the Chocolate Room in the dead of night. So, yeah, I now live in the same Chocolate Factory that is shrouded in mystery."

"Well, at least we know what goes on in the Chocolate Room," Charlie added, smiling and leaning over the table to get closer to Veruca. It was a sign of progress that Veruca did not throw her glass of hibiscus tea in Charlie's face or punch that grin off his face because he dared to get closer to her and remind her of everything she experienced in the factory. Instead, she just stood still and nodded in agreement, or, at least in Charlie's book, she was beginning to open up to him.