Chapter 1: A Dire Situation
Author's Note: Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Kind At Heart! Now, I'm assuming that most of you are wondering what this is based off of the description, since I already have my own Second Generation story, Charlie's Chocolatey Adventure. Put simply, this is a rewrite of mattTheWriter072's Next in Line, made in order to improve over the story's flaws and make it a better story overall. This story could also function as an alternative to Charlie's Chocolatey Adventure, for those of you that prefer shorter stories. I do hope that you'll enjoy my latest effort. :)
(Credits: Since this is a rewrite, and ideas for the first two chapters came from Sonny April, this would carry over here. However, this version includes much more details and action going on compared to the original.)
Aging is one of the most mysterious concepts in this world. Some people use it to their advantage, while others waste it. Alas, growing old is unavoidable, even for the richest people in the world. Once people start a business and grow old, they need to either sell it, or pass it onto the next generation. One certain chocolatier would find himself in this very same position, and that person was Charlie Bucket, undoubtedly one of the nicest people to grace the earth.
Charlie Bucket was only eleven years old when he moved into the famous chocolate factory. Of course, this wasn't just any famous chocolate factory. It was Wonka's factory, owned by the famous chocolatier himself...the wonderful Mr. Willy Wonka.
Mr. Wonka was a magician with chocolate, and it seemed that he could do anything. Unfortunately, this was not the case. While the surface made it seem like he could create anything, one thing that he couldn't do was prevent himself from getting older.
(It may be noted here that Willy Wonka also created a pill known as Wonka-Vite which, when given to the user, decreases them by twenty years in age and as such, could theoretically cause people to live forever. However, after they moved into the factory, a mishap with the precious pill caused everyone in the Bucket family, including Mr. Wonka himself, to make a vow that they would never use it again.)
The year was 2005, and Willy Wonka sent out five Golden Tickets, which could be found under the ordinary wrapping paper of five ordinary Wonka Bars. The first four Tickets were found by Augustus Gloop, a greedy boy who ate anything that he could get his hands on; Veruca Salt, a spoiled brat whose parents gave her anything she wanted; Violet Beauregarde, a so-called champion who was always seen chewing on a piece of gum, and Mike Teavee, a technology-obsessed boy who thought he knew everything. The last Golden Ticket was found by none other than Charlie Bucket himself. On February 1st, 2005, the four brats and their parent of choice, along with Charlie and his Grandpa Joe, stood in front of the gates of the famous factory. Mr. Wonka took the five children on a tour of his factory until only Charlie remained, but it was not over yet.
With Charlie and Grandpa Joe, Mr. Wonka visited the poor boy's house with his Great Glass Elevator, a strange contraption that could visit any room in his factory, as well as go in any direction, with the push of a button. Mr. Wonka claimed that Charlie won his factory, but as a compromise, he'd have to leave his family behind. Charlie refused, saying that he wouldn't leave his family for anything. Offended and surprised, Mr. Wonka left Charlie, and the boy was set to make everything right.
Meeting up with Mr. Wonka one day, he helped his idol to make amends with his father, a man named Wilbur Wadsworth Wonka. Although Wilbur disapproved of his son's candy habits, he still loved him, but didn't know how to show it. With Wilbur and his son on good terms once again, Charlie became the heir to Mr. Wonka's factory.
Unfortunately, Charlie's beloved Grandpa Joe passed away fifteen years after the Bucket family moved into the factory, leaving a hole in his heart that he could never fill. Charlie felt depression for the first time in years, realizing that his favorite grandfather was no longer with him. Charlie's family tried to comfort him as best as they could, and it was extremely difficult for Charlie to recover from such an incident.
Next was Grandma Josephine, Joe's beloved wife. She tragically died of heartbreak approximately two months later. The duo were buried next to each other, side by side, under the beautiful green swudge in Mr. Wonka's Chocolate Room. The Bucket family became more silent and isolated after these two deaths, and less candies were produced those days in memory of them.
The third death was Wilbur Wonka, Mr. Wonka's beloved father. He had moved into the factory shortly after the Bucket family did, and he even helped out Mr. Wonka and Charlie create various dental candies for the factory, such as Cavity-Filling Caramels, Whitening White Chocolate, and Cotton Candy Floss. He died about three years after Grandma Josephine, and this one shook Willy up the most. Although they had previously had a love-hate relationship, Charlie helping to reunite the duo really helped Mr. Wonka to appreciate his heir even more, and now Willy was left with an irreplaceable hole in his heart as well.
The fourth death was Charlie's Grandpa George. He, along with Grandpa Joe, was one of the wisest out of the four grandparents, and Charlie had him to thank for making it to the factory in the first place. When Charlie found his Golden Ticket, a woman offered him five hundred dollars for it, and the boy nearly accepted it. Fortunately for Grandpa Joe, however, Grandpa George had a conversation with Charlie, and by the end of it, he rejected her offer, and made it to the factory. His death hit him just as hard as Joe's, and in honor of Wilbur Wonka and Grandpa George, candy production stopped once again.
The fifth death was Grandma Georgina, the mother of Mrs. Bucket, Charlie's mother, as well as Grandpa George's husband. She died only a couple weeks after her husband, and requested that she be buried under Mr. Wonka's brand new peanut bushes in the Chocolate Room, directly across from her husband. Hearing this broke Mrs. Bucket's heart, leading her to hardly doing anything for days until she could recover from her grief.
The final death was Theo Kekoa, who was none other than the chief of all the Oompa-Loompas in the factory. He was the very same Oompa-Loompa who had made negotiations with Mr. Wonka in order to transfer his tribe to the factory, and as such, this death hit the Oompa-Loompas the hardest. To honor their workers' traditions, the remaining members of the Bucket family, including Mr. Wonka, allowed every single one of the Oompa-Loompas a day off of work in order to honor their chief.
It is now 2045. The only members of Charlie's family left alive were John Bucket, Charlie's father, and Mary Bucket, Charlie's mother, as well as Mr. Wonka himself. Charlie was now fifty-three years old, and Mr. Wonka was eighty-two. Although Charlie's parents were growing old as well, they were still healthy, and helped around the factory as much as they could to the best of their abilities.
The Oompa-Loompas elected a new chief, who was named Jasir. He was known as Theo Kekoa's second-in-command while he was alive and, as such, was greatly trusted by the other Oompa-Loompas as a person that could replace him. He was one of the major factors that helped to motivate the Oompa-Loompas after Theo's death, by giving the rest of his tribesmen and women motivational talks in order to keep them happy.
One sunny day, Charlie had just woken up, and he went into the factory's bathroom in order to comb his hair. Additionally, Mr. Wonka was waiting in the Inventing Room for his heir so that they could continue their long day of inventing ahead of them, and Mr. and Mrs. Bucket were doing cooking and household chores in their cottage, their previous home, which was relocated to the Chocolate Room shortly after they moved into the factory.
Charlie looked into the mirror, his smile radiating pride and happiness from every corner, while his chocolate-colored hair was now smooth and round, like his mentor's. He was beginning to grow a small goatee on his chin, and he was currently wearing a larger variant of the clothes that he wore back in the original tour in 2005. His dark blue and red sweater, full of a beautiful pattern of circles and diamonds, shone like a badge of honor, and he certainly wore it like one. He took out a comb, then happily began combing his hair, when suddenly, something caught his eye. A grey hair was stuck on the bristles, and it shone in the bathroom's light fixtures.
"No!" Charlie exclaimed. "I must be dreaming!"
A few seconds later, a knock was heard on the door.
"Who is it?" Charlie called out.
"It's us, darling!" Mrs. Bucket called out to her son. "Your mother and father! We heard shouting, and were wondering if something was wrong."
Charlie exited the bathroom in order to show his discovery to his parents.
"I found this while I was combing my hair!" he said, showing the grey hair to his parents.
"Could it be?" Mr. Bucket said. "We must show Willy at once!"
"Let's go!" Charlie said, rushing to the pink candy boat, which was coincidentally pulling up to the river-bank. Minutes later, the three of them entered the Inventing Room, walking up to Mr. Wonka with immense concern.
"What's going on?" Mr. Wonka asked, looking at the trio. "Is something the matter?"
"Show him, Charlie!" said Mr. Bucket, extremely concerned.
"Show me what?" Mr. Wonka asked. "You can show me anything, Charlie, and I'll be sure to understand."
As gently as possible, Charlie gripped the grey hair in his fingers and showed it to his mentor.
"I found this while combing my hair!" said Charlie, as gently as he could muster.
Looking at the hair, Mr. Wonka exclaimed, "This can't be happening, Charlie! It can't be this time already!"
"It's true, Mr. Wonka," Charlie replied as Mr. Wonka's jaw dropped and his face turned pale. "We must find a new heir in order to keep the Willy Wonka Candy Company alive."
"But how?" Mrs. Bucket asked curiously.
"I don't know," Charlie responded, "but we'll find a way."
"I can't believe it," sighed Mr. Wonka, a tear dripping down his face and falling into the invention that he was working on. "It feels like yesterday…"
"I know it does," said Charlie reassuringly, patting his mentor's shoulders. "But I promise you that we'll find a way...together."