We Can Create a World of Our Own: A Lottie Bell and Willy Wonka story

Hatful of Dreams

Willy Wonka pov:

The sky was cold and foggy, the only sound was the ocean waves and the toll of the ship’s bell. I climbed up the mast and began to sing “After seven years of life upon the ocean, it is time to bid the seven seas farewell, and the city that I’ve pinned seven years of hopes on lies just over the horizon. I can hear the harbor bell!” I shouted “Land ahoy!!” before grabbing a rope, descending down onto the dock.

I made my way to the engine room and gathered my plum colored tailcoat and my wooden suitcase and continued to sing  “Got a tattered overcoat and battered suitcase! Got a pair of leaky boots upon my-” A lady threw down water on the floor to clean and accidentally spilled it on my boots “-feet.” I finished, she looked at me apologetically but I responded with a grin and spun her around. “Got to drag myself up by my one good bootlace! Gotta work my rotten socks if I wanna make ends meet!” I jumped onto a crate as it was being craned out of its hold and the crate was hoisted over the wharf, “ I pour everything I got into my chocolate. Now it’s time to show the world by recipes.”

The captain threw me a small bag and said, “Good luck, Willy!” I grinned and looked inside and there were twelve sovereigns inside and shoved the bag in my pocket. “I’ve got twelve silver sovereigns in my pocket and a hatful of dreams!” I dropped down from the crate onto the back of a passing truck and rode out of the docks with style might I add.

When I reached town square I leaped off of the back of the truck, grabbed hold of a lamp post and slid down. On one side of the street there was a cathedral, on the other side there was a cathedral of commerce with a great glass domed shaped shopping arcade. In the middle of the street was a large fountain and the water was frozen solid from the cold. “There’s a famous restaurant on every street here.”
A man approached me and asked, “Restaurant map, sir?”

“Thank you!” I happily replied and gave him a sovereign accepting the map. “Got a little map to tell me where to eat here…” I unfolded the map and then noticed someone at my feet, it was a boy shining my shoes looking up silently demanding a sovereign and I paid him a sovereign. “Had a dozen sovereigns and now I’m somehow down to ten!”

I saw a fruit stall and went over, I picked up a pumpkin. “Want the finest produce? This is where they stock it!” A streetcar passed narrowly missed me and I accidentally dropped the pumpkin in surprise, splattering all over my boots

“That’s three sovereigns, mate.” The lady said that was selling the fruit.

“Though the prices are suspiciously extreme!”

“You break my pumpkin, you pay for it.”

I handed her the three sovereigns and counted how much I had left, “I’ve got five, six, seven-” I saw the shoeshine boy and reluctantly paid him to clean my shoes again. “... six  silver sovereigns in my pocket and a hatful of dreams!” I walked away but the boy kept following me.

“Brush your coat, sir?”

“No thank you.”

“Cologne?”

“No, leave me alone!” I walked quickly trying to ditch the kid and went through a grand arcade with marble walls and a mosaic floor. At the four corners of the central atrium stood the four most exclusive stores in town that Belonged to Slugworth, Fickelgruber, and Prodnose. They were my idols, I looked up to them and wanted to make an impact on people with my chocolate that they did with theirs. I hoped to meet them one day and the thought became more plausible by the minute. “At last the Gallery Gourmet! I knew we’d see it one day. It’s everything you said, mama, and oh! So much more!” I was the fourth shop and it was vacant. A sign in the window but I didn’t know what it said.

“Here’s my destiny! I just need to unlock it. Will I crash and burn or go up like a rocket? I’ve got nothing to offer but my chocolate and a hatful of dreams!” I gazed at the shop and started daydreaming. My last name appeared above the shop and newspapers lined up on the window rises like curtains revealing a mountain of sweets. I started dancing and people danced with me. The city became a riot of colors and joy… until a policeman tapped my shoulder snapping me out of it. He points to the rent sign and on the corner of it I see words that I can’t make out but only understand  “§3" so I reluctantly pay him three sovereigns.
Before I knew it night came and I wandered to the riverbank away from the Gallery Gourmet, “In this city anyone can be successful if they’ve talent and work hard … so they say. But they didn’t mention it would be so stressful just to make a dozen silver sovereigns last more than a day.”

I passed a young mother holding a shivering baby under a bridge. “Could you spare a sovereign for a place to sleep, love?” The young mother asked, looking at me hopefully.

“Of course, take all you need.” I responded without thinking about it twice holding them out. She takes two sovereigns leaving me with one. “I’ve got … one silver sovereign in my pocket…” I flipped my last coin in the air and caught it in my pocket but it fell through a hole in the lining of the drain. I sighed but smiled as I sang “and a hatful of dreams!”