Chapter 2 - Five Golden Tickets

Charlie and I walk down the road, as I walk him to school. A large group of people gathered around a poster on a pole. We push through the crowd to see what the big deal is.

Dear people of the world;

I, Willy Wonka, have decided to allow five children to visit my factory this year. These lucky five will be shown around personally by me and will learn all the secrets and the magic in my factory. In addition, one of these children shall receive a special prize beyond anything you could ever imagine.

"Oh great." I groan and kneel down to Charlie's level, "Okay Charles, I think I have to get to work now. Are you gonna be okay with walking to school by yourself?" He nods, "Yeah. I'll walk myself home after school as well." I smile sadly at him as our whole schedule is thrown of course because of this contest. I plant a kiss on his forehead, "Alright, I love you. Get to school, alright?" He nods again and I stand up and walk to work.

My eyes widen as I walk into work. This place is packed! "Alex, I need your help!" Sam calls out to me. I nod and immediately get behind the counter. I swear, I'm going insane. Everyone's talking at once and trying to buy all of the Wonka Bars at one time. Finally, I've had enough. "Everyone please! There's only two of us! we will try and get to you as quickly as we can!" I yell, trying to get things to calm down. And it worked, for five minutes. As soon as things start to calm down, they get hectic again.

The day was finally over, and I was exaughsted. I enter the house and close the door with my back against it, and I sigh in content. "I take it you had a hectic day at work?" Dad says from his news paper. I shrug off my coat and hang it up, "I swear I will quit if tomorrow is as bad as today was." I groan. I kiss Charlie's head as I pass him and turn on the news.

Five golden tickets have been hidden underneath the ordinary wrapping paper of five ordinary Wonka bars. These candy bars may be anywhere: in any shop, any street, any town, any country in the world.

"Wouldn't it be something if Charlie were to open a bar of candy and find a golden ticket inside?" Grandpa Joe says. "I know. But I only get one bae a year, for my birthday." Charlie smiles sadly. "You have as much chance as anybody does." Grandma Josephine smiles at him. "Balderdash." Grandpa George speaks up, "The kids who are going to find the golden tickets who can afford to buy candy bars every day. Our Charlie gets only one a year. He doesn't have a chance."

"Every one has a chance Charles." I smile at him. "Mark my words. The kid who finds the first golden ticket will be fat, fat, fat!" Grandpa George says. I nod my head at his statement. He or she will most likely be fat.

-

Charlie and I sit on the bed, so everyone could see the TV, watching the news. The first golden ticket was found by a kid in Germany named Augustus Gloop. And Grandpa George was right; he was fat. He had chocolate all over his face, it was absolutely disgusting.

I'm eating the Wonka bar and I taste something that is not chocolate. Coconut, walnut, peanut butter, or nougat, butter brittle, caramel, or sprinkles. So I look and... I find the golden ticket!

Augustus, how did you celebrate?

Well that's obvious. He ate some more fucking candy, excuse my language. I've been with Grandpa George way too long.

I eat more candy!

"Well I could have told you that!" I say out loud. Charlie chuckles beside me.

We knew that Augustus would find the golden ticket. He eats so many candy bars a day that it was not possible for him not to find one.

The woman whom I'm assuming is his mother, has him hold up his ticket, which had a bite taken out of the corner. Didn't he at least look at the candy before eating it? I mean, it's common sense especially since the contest was announced. "Told you it would be a porker." Grandpa George says, with a look of disgust on his face.

"What a repulsive boy." Grandma Josephine shakes her head. "Only four golden tickets left." Charlie sighs. "Now that they've found one, things will get really crazy." Grandpa Joe says. "Boy am I glad it's my day off." I sigh, thinking about how much hassle Sam must be having right now.

-

The second ticket was found by a little girl in England. Like before, Charlie and I were on the bed with our grandparents watching the news.

Veruca. Can you please spell that for us please?

V-E-R-U-C-A. Veruca Salt.

Soon as my little Veruca told me she had to have one of these golden tickets, I started buying up all the Wonka Bars I could lay my hands on. Thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands. I'm in the but business you see, so I say to my workers 'Morning ladies. From now on, you can stop shelling peanuts and start shelling the wrappers off of these chocolate bars instead.' Three days went by and we had no luck. It was terrible. My little Veruca more and more upset each day. Well gentlemen, I just hated to see my little girl feeling unhappy like that so I vowed I would keep up the search until I could give her what she wanted. Finally, I found her a ticket.

"She's even worse than the fat boy." Grandpa George spoke up. "I don't think that was really fair. She didn't find the ticket herself." Charlie's looks at us. "Don't worry about it Charles. He spoils his daughter. No good comes from spoiling a kid like that." I wrap my arm around him, holding him in a side hug.

Just then, Mom and Dad walk in the house. I smile as I knew what they were out doing. "Charlie, your mother and I thought... Maybe you want to open your birthday present tonight?" Dad smiles at Charlie. With a little help from me, Mom and Dad were able to afford to get Charlie a Wonka bar tonight instead of tomorrow.

"Maybe I should wait until tomorrow." Charlie looked at everyone. I shook my head at him, "Charlie, life's too short to 'wait until tomorrow'. Especially when tomorrow isn't promised. You need to live life to the fullest, live in the moment." Charlie smiled at me in response. He slowly started to unwrap his chocolate bar, with the anticipation slowly killing me. It would be something to meet the famous Mr. Wonka.

Charlie ripped away the tin foil wrapping, with no golden ticket in sight. I sighed in disappointment. It was a long shot, I shouldn't be as disappointed. Charlie sighed as well. "At least you got the chocolate." I said, trying to lighten the mood. "I want to share it." Charlie looked at everyone. "No Charlie, it's your birthday present." Mom objected. "It's my chocolate and I'll do what I want with it." Charlie replied. That's my baby brother, always thinking of others.