Cassie's Love •Willy Wonka•

27: "You were drowned?"

A/n: Wonka spoilers- if you haven't watched it you can skip this chapter, it doesn't do much for the plot just Cassie getting to know Wonka. But also it doesn't do much for the plot as it's been 2 years since writing it first so yeah. Anyways, Timothee Chalamet.

The chocolate river is flowing smoothly, all the machinery is working properly so today we took a day off. To sit and enjoy each other's company. So we sit on the grass watching the chocolate river flow, calm. Until I have a random thought.

"I don't know that much about you?" I say out of the blue, turning towards Willy.
"What do you mean, my dear?"
"Well, how did this all start? I know you had that shop and wanted to expand but I don't know much else. This factory means everything to you, how don't I know about its origins."
"Well, it began when I was a young boy." I look at him as he begins to explain. "I wanted to be a magician." He smiles at me.
"What?" I ask.
"Mhm, my mother would make chocolate. She said when I was older, she would tell me the secret to making it so good. So, I started making it. Went to the island where the Oompa Loompas lived to get cocoa beans, I was in debt to an Oompa Loompa." He explains.
"In debt? But they work for you?"
"They didn't back then, one was supposed to be guarding the cocoa beans but fell asleep when I took them so he was forced off the island and started stealing from me." I nod along, interested. "I wanted to start making chocolate among the greatest of the time, Mr Fickelgruber, Mr Prodnose and Mr Slugworth. There was a shop, I wanted it. I started to sell on the street, business was booming on that day."
"Aren't they the people who stole your recipes?" I ask confused.
"When the factory opened, yes, not then." I nod and he continues "They shut me down, took the rest of the chocolate and sent me on my way. I end up on a bench when a kind gentleman, well I thought he was kind at the time, offered me a place to stay Mrs Scrubbit's and Bleachers, I sign. I didn't, however, read the small print. I owed 10,000 and didn't have anyway to pay that. I was forced to work."
"Work off debt?"
"Yeah, but that didn't stop me. The other workers helped me, we all worked together to sneak us out of the shop and onto the street without the police seeing us. We used the storm drains."
"Sounds genius."
"It was, I can't accept credit for it but it was genius. They bought me a shop, the shop, that I wanted. We did it all up, had our grand opening. It really was grand." He smiles softly at the thought which makes me smile. "It was ruined." He says abruptly, smile leaving his face. "We were poisoned, the chocolate caused people to grow hair at an unstoppable rate in all sorts of funky colours. The public were furious, started to destroy the place. The Wonka brand was done for, I was done for." I look at him sympathetically. "Mr Fickelgruber, Mr Prodnose and Mr Slugworth were behind it all, they were jealous that my business was booming. I also sold better chocolate for cheaper so that annoyed them. They gave me an ultimatum, they will pay off all my friends' debts to Mrs Scrubbit if I leave tonight, giving my friends a better life."
"You accepted?"
"Of course, Noodles was a child, she deserved better."
"Noodles?" I question.
"She was the genius behind it all. Clever girl. I went on a boat to the North Pole I believe it was going, till I found explosives on it."
"That took a dark turn." I comment.
"I swam back to shore, the other chocolatiers believing me to be dead. I went back to my friends, turns out, Noodles debt wasn't payed off. So we helped her escape."
"This all seems very dramatic."
"Oh, it was. With her escape, we needed a plan to get my chocolate back on the market, so we needed to prove they were poisoned. To our luck, Crunch used to be Slugworth's accountant so knew that they kept any private transactions in a big green book under a church."
"That seems a little dodgy."
"It was indeed, my dear. We got into the church by bribing the chocaholics with chocolate. Got in and we had our evidence. Until the chocolatiers drowned me and Noodles in their chocolate."
"Wait, back up?"
"What is it, darling?" He asks as if he hasn't just said he was drowned.
"Drowned? Like Augustus?"
"Who?"
"Nevermind. You were drowned?"
"Yes, but the Oompa Loompa who was stealing off of me saved me, said he wanted the rest of what I owed him and he couldn't have that if I was dead. So he drained the chocolate and we got out. We then proved to the police all the bad transactions they did. I then bought my factory." He says with a smile as he looks around at the place.
"Right, I was expecting. My shop did so well that the factory could be opened, not the rest of it. My grandpa never told me any of that."
"Thats because I've never told a soul."
"Why don't you speak to any of these friends anymore?"
"Never needed to." He says with a shrug and I don't argue it, he won't see the sense really.
"So this factory really has a backstory, huh?" I say with a smile, looking around at it all, the river flowing, the pipes all multicoloured, the trees, the grass. The beauty of it all.