Chapter 12: The Golden Ticket Craze
Author's Note: Good morning, dear readers, and welcome to Chapter 12 of Kind At Heart! This one was very exciting to write, and the title should make it obvious as to why! :D
It doesn't look like I have much to say once again, so enjoy this chapter!
With only two Golden Tickets left in the entire world, people became even more eager to find one of them in order to go to Mr. Wonka's factory.
"Now that there are only two Tickets left," Mrs. Bucket remarked, "things will really get crazy."
"Let's just hope it's not as bad as the last contest," Mr. Wonka sighed. "That was a disaster."
"Never underestimate the power of human greed," Charlie frowned. "Greed is one of the most dangerous traits someone could ever have."
"You're right, Charlie," Mr. Bucket said. "That is, after all, what caused Augustus Gloop to lose the original contest."
"Speaking of Augustus," Charlie remarked, "I had this weird dream about him last night. Instead of exiting the factory as he did back then, he was all skinny. Definitely not as thin as Mike Teavee, but really close. I don't know why I wanted to share this, but I thought that it'd be interesting."
"That certainly is, son," Mr. Bucket remarked. "Can you imagine if your dream was how Augustus actually came out of the factory? How could he have changed?"
"Who knows?" Mr. Wonka remarked. "All I know is, is that when Augustus came out of the factory, he was later found out to be partially made of fudge, which certainly sounds a little more deserving than simply becoming skinny, however fitting that outcome may have been. After Augustus and Mrs. Gloop exited my factory, the Oompa-Loompas gave him some medicine that would neutralize the chocolate segments of his body, which would in turn cause the chocolate to harden and transform into normal skin. It worked like a charm. At least, I think it did. Now, let's check for a contest update, shall we?"
Hearing Mr. Wonka's words, Charlie Bucket turned on the cottage's television. Almost immediately, there was a reporter on the screen. He was, of course, talking about the new Golden Ticket contest.
"With only two Golden Tickets left in the entire world, Wonkamania has spread across the globe to a massive degree!" the reporter announced. "Citizens all around the world are becoming more and more desperate to find those precious remaining Tickets!"
The scene then switched to a cold, snowy environment, as the screen read, "KINGSTON, ONTARIO." There were large amounts of children ice-skating on a frozen lake, when one of them suddenly fell down. Some children went to help her up, but then, they noticed she was hiding something inside of her coat pockets- five Wonka Bars. Instead of helping her up, they stole her Wonka Bars as she was struggling to stand on her feet, leaving her on the ice to cry as they opened her chocolate and began eating it in front of her very eyes.
The scene transitioned a second time to show a group of people having picnics on a mountain as the screen read, "SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH." There was a young adult sitting on a fabric blanket, and he opened up his lunch box to reveal one single Wonka Bar.
"Hey, he's got a Wonka Bar!" one woman suddenly shouted.
Suddenly, everyone in the area began to surround the man as he looked around in confusion and began to stand up.
"What's going on?" the man asked, extremely confused.
"Get him!" one other man shouted, then the man abruptly slipped, dropping the Wonka Bar. The group of people trampled him as they saw the Wonka Bar fall into a lake, and they all ran into it, leaving the man with tons of broken bones and a black eye.
"Ouch," Charlie Bucket said, closing one eye.
"People are crazy!" Mr. Wonka exclaimed. "Hurting each other over chocolate!"
"I bet we haven't seen anything yet," Mr. Bucket murmured.
Mr. Bucket was right, for there were moments of craziness not broadcasted on televisions. For instance, one hiker was on top of a mountain, and he had lost track of his group. Exhausted, he walked inside of a cave, when he suddenly noticed another person close by him. It was a guru, and he had his eyes closed, meditating in peace. The hiker walked up to him.
"What is the meaning of life?" the hiker asked.
Ignoring his question, the guru asked, "Do you have a Wonka Bar?"
"It's the last of my food," the hiker responded, unzipping his backpack and handing the Wonka Bar to the guru, "but yes."
Opening his eyes, the guru tore open the wrapper, and found a plain bar of chocolate, and nothing more. In anger, he threw the Wonka Bar across the cave.
"What is the meaning of life?" the hiker asked again.
"Life is full of disappointments," the guru answered calmly.
In Bratislava, Slovakia, a little boy was inside a candy shop, holding a Wonka Triple Dazzle Caramel bar. The orange wrapper reflected in the bright sunlight coming into the store through its huge windows.
The boy handed the woman behind the counter the Wonka Bar and the correct amount of money, and she gave him the proper change and handed him the bar back.
"Maj pekný deň!" the woman told the boy, and he repeated the words back to him as he exited the store.
The boy was walking down a sidewalk, admiring the sights around him. Large steeples were prominent, and many houses with looming red roofs could be seen as many Slovaks walked around doing their daily business. The boy was carrying around a small bag around one shoulder, and he decided to place the Wonka Bar in it for safekeeping.
He was so immersed in his surroundings and the walk that he was doing, that he didn't see a woman sneaking behind him.
"That Wonka Bar will be mine!" she boasted, being careful to remain undetected by the unsuspecting victim. Then, with a pinch of two fingers, when she got close enough, she opened his bag and cleverly took the Wonka Bar out of it. The poor boy kept on his walk, and never suspected a thing during the robbery, as the woman was careful enough to make the boy not feel her presence.
In the office of the President of the United States of America, the current presidentess, Ancelote Gilligrass, the granddaughter of a previous President, Lancelot R. Gilligrass, was sitting at her desk. She had a paper and a pen in front of her, and she was surrounded by Wonka Bars covering the remainder of the desk and falling on to the floor. She had her Cabinet close by, and they were talking to her. Additionally, her First Gentleman, Arthur Pendragon, was seen next to her unwrapping Wonka Bars at a furious pace. Every couple seconds, Ancelote eyed the Bars that Arthur were unwrapping, hoping for that sudden flash of gold.
"Of course I'll sign this order!" Ancelote barked when a Cabinet member attempted to talk to her. "Just give me a minute!" She then turned to her husband and told her sweetly, "Honey, you missed this one."
"I...I'm trying…!" Arthur painted, getting tired from constantly opening the Wonka Bars.
"I know you are," Ancelote said lovingly. "Don't worry, I'll gladly help you out when…" She turned to her Cabinet with a stern look on her face. "...my Cabinet quits bothering me with their non stop jabbering and leaves us alone!"
"B-but, the Prime Minister-!" stammered a sword swallower from Afghanistan, who was one of Lancelot Gilligrass' friends and stayed on Ancelote's team to pass on his knowledge.
"What does the Prime Minister want?" Gilligrass screamed, only paying half attention to what his Cabinet was saying, then going back to the pile of Wonka Bars. "Tell him that I'm busy!"
"Busy with what, Madame Presidentess?" asked his Financial Advisor, who was at the moment trying to balance the United States' budget on his head.
"I don't know!" Gilligrass barked. "Just make up something!"
In the mansion of the famous millionaire, Elf Pretzley, located in Los Angeles, California, he was sitting at an elongated table in his dining room. A candelabra was high on the ceiling in the center of the room, and a similar-looking candle holder was in the middle of the table. Countless chairs were along the perimeters of this table, and Elf was at the head of it. He was wearing purple sunglasses with star-shaped frames, and he had black hair, which was gelled up. He also wore sparkly purple pants, as well as a white vest.
"Alfred!" he called out.
"Yes, sir?" Alfred said, entering the room. He was wearing a black and white tuxedo, with a black bowtie, black pants, and black dress shoes, and he had a small black moustache. He also had black hair on the sides of his head, but he was balding on the top. On one of his hands, he was holding a shining tray covered by a grey dome with a handle on it. He took the dome off once he placed the tray on the table, revealing a single Wonka Bar in the center of it...
Meanwhile, back in the factory, the foursome were watching the television. The scene they were watching suddenly transitioned to a chaotic candy store, where a male reporter had a voice-over, saying, "Cherry, where are you?"
"Jerry, I'm in the Super Sweet Candy Shoppe!" a female reporter smiled, standing in front of a gigantic fight breaking out in the candy shop. People were trying to hit each other, and a few even had knives and pistols out. Police were rushing in next to Cherry, arresting countless people.
One girl just finished purchasing a Wonka Bar, when suddenly, a young man ran up to her and snatched the Bar out of her hand, knocking her to the ground. She began to cry, and police tackled the crazy man to the ground, handcuffed him, and took him to jail.
"I can't take much more of this!" Charlie exclaimed angrily. "Fighting over candy like this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen, especially hurting children just to take their chocolate! I'm gonna stop this right now!"
"Where are you going, Charlie?" Mrs. Bucket asked.
"Straight to the Virtual Reality Testing Room, that's where!" Charlie said, extremely frustrated. "I'm going to teach those insane people a lesson in messing with Charlie Bucket!"
He angrily stomped out of the cottage, slamming the door behind him. Mr. Wonka looked at Mr. and Mrs. Bucket in complete and utter shock.
"I've never seen Charlie this mad," he gasped.
"Me neither," Mr. Bucket said. "I wonder what he's doing."
Their questions were answered a few seconds later, when abruptly, the scenes of chaos were interrupted by the broadcast of an angry Charlie Bucket. When the broadcast came on, everyone around the world stopped and stared as his message played live.
"Stop fighting!" Charlie yelled. "If you don't, this will be a five-person tour! I know who won the Tickets, so don't even bother trying to steal them!"
After that, the message ended, and everyone stopped fighting. They began to act civil to one another, as if the contest was simply their imagination. About five minutes later, Charlie entered back into the cottage.
"We saw your message," Mrs. Bucket remarked.
"Did it work?" Charlie asked curiously.
"It certainly did!" Mr. Wonka smiled. "My boy, you certainly know how to handle yourself, that's for sure!"
"Thanks, everyone," Charlie smiled as he sat back down. He looked, and another broadcast was playing. The sixth Golden Ticket had been found.
Author's Note: Wow! That certainly was action-packed, wasn't it? Now, as I've been doing the past few chapters, let me explain this one and why it's here.
You see, as older readers would likely know, the original story had no montages of people buying Wonka Bars. It had a few mentions in Antonio's chapter like this one has as well, but that was it. That was kind of disappointing to me, as I find the craze to be a staple of CatCF, which is why I added this chapter while I was rewriting "Next in Line."
There were actually a couple references scattered throughout this chapter. Starting off, Charlie's dream was a reference to the outcome of Augustus in the book where, instead of being partially made into fudge ("Augustus, please, don't eat your fingers!"), he came out "thin as a straw" due to going up the pipe. The Wonkamania reference was a reference to the 1971 film, and the guru scene was inspired by a deleted scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory where a similar thing happened, and most of the dialogue from it was lifted from the scene except for, "Do you have a Wonka Bar?" and "It's the last of my food..." Cherry and Jerry is a reference to the CatCF musicals. Elf Pretzley is a parody of Elvis Presley, and his butler Alfred is a Batman reference, specifically to the animated series and comics regarding his appearance. The scene where Charlie gets mad was inspired by a scene in The Second Generation by Tristan494, where Charlie gets mad as well. As you can see, most of my references are much more subtle this time around compared to my other stories, which is what I was going for.
Overall, what did you think about this chapter? Who could the sixth Golden Ticket winner be? Feel free to leave your thoughts and guesses in the review section, and stay tuned for the next chapter, everyone!
Until then,
Gabe S. :)