Pure Imagination [COMPLETE]

Old Wounds, New Results

Willy's office wasn't anything that Alex thought it would be, nor his reply to when she asked when Charlie got the chocolate. But as his words sank in, a different memory arose, one that she had made herself forget.

~ ~ ~ ~

"What do you mean I'm fired?!" It had been back at the school she used to teach in when she was still a substitute and one of the younger kids' favorite. It was a cloudy afternoon when she had been called up to the principal's office, he was an ugly man with a potbelly and a flabby face. (The toddlers called him The Pig.)

"We're being cut back on wages Alex; for the rest of the teachers to get their share we have to cut off split ends." "Bull!" She had said, slamming her fist to his desk. "You just want to hog all the money to yourself and share it with your associates, your old, rich white fool friends who take so much delight in torturing every female who's ever worked here." She knew there was only one way she could get her job back, and it meant stepping down, pleading on her knees, and then...

She grabbed her coat. "You know what? I don't think I want to work with you sorry pig anyway. You're such a slob, not even the devil will want you when you return to the sinkhole you came from." It was a short victory, further fueled by her expert dodging when he threw his inkwell at her head. But when it was all said and done she had learned something.

~ ~ ~ ~

Alex stopped in the doorway of Willy's office and bent down to Charlie's level, everlasting gobstopper in one hand.

"You should give yours back too." "Alex, are we giving up?" Asked Charlie. she shook her head. "No, we're just saving ourselves from fighting for no reason." The boy nodded before taking both gobstoppers and leaving them on Willy's desk. As he came back to Alex's side and she draped a hand over her shoulder, she just barely made out what the candyman said; "So shinies two good deeds in a weary world."

"Charlie?" He turned back. "My boy, you won!"

Alex was thunderstruck, a feeling that faded when in came-

"Wilkinson!" The bespectacled man looked and his jaw dropped. "Alex my dear, is it really you?" He almost pushed Willy out of the way to shake her hand in both of his. "You haven't changed a bit." She laughed. "Neither have you, literally." "You know each other?" Asked Willy, they looked back as the man slung an arm across the redhead's shoulder.

"Certainly, Alex and I used to work in the same school, she's was like the daughter I never knew I needed." Alex waved him off playfully. "So he isn't Slugworth?" Asked Charlie. "Of course not silly," Said Alex, "The real Slugworth is Italian; he had a glass eye that's fake, likes to wear a boy's cap, has a slight English accent, and a gold tooth." "And how do you know that?" Asked Wonka, Alex mentally face-palmed.

"Well no matter, Charlie my boy I do hope you can forgive me! Come both of you!" Before Wilkinson helped him put on his jacket and he and Charlie exited the room. Alex glanced back at her old school friend. "Catch up later?" He nodded with a fatherly sort of smile. "Wouldn't miss it for the world." She laughed before running after the two eager boys, she caught up with them just after Charlie stepped into what Alex had heard Willy say was called the Wonkavator. He met her gaze with an open smile.

"There you are!" He held out his hand to her. "Milady." She giggled before taking his hand and stepping inside.