"Oh!" Michelle Bucket stumbled away from the gate entrance in complete fear as she backed away from the dark-clothed man with a black top hat and glasses. His eyes were a glinting, emotionless, but slightly mischievous light blue. He reached out a hand towards her shaking figure. "Um... I-I'm merely checking out the building's amazing infrastructure." She laughed nervously, slowly backing away from the tall man.

"No... I can sense you are entering into the factory for a more important reason. Are you a close relative of Charlie Bucket?" The man was curious about her.

"I..." She sighed, then decided to tell him the truth, since he seemed to know about her son real well, "Yes. I came here to start living with Charlie and his grandparents. I'm his mother. How do you know about my son?" She glared at him with thorough suspicion.

"Oh, I realized merely how rude of me it was to not tell you my name! I am Gilliam Wilkinson. And you are his mother, but since I told you my name, perhaps you could give me yours?" For once, Wilkinson had a genuine, polite smile directed towards her as he inched his spread hand closer to her. She finally shook his hand, albeit hesitantly, then she quickly pulled away and answered, "My name is Michelle Bucket. Since my family wanted so desperately to move here, I finally opted to try the factory out for myself. Even if I end up not appreciating it, I have the feeling I will have to remain here no matter what. They're quite the stubborn group of people. You know what, though? I suppose we all deserve what Mr. Wonka has given us. Hopefully it is the real gift, though. I hope he's not using us, especially my son." She suspired in a worried but tired way.

"If you do fancy staying here, then you will not regret it. He and I will make sure of it." Wilkinson was definitely nothing but authentic. It gave her a breath of fresh air. She couldn't deny that.

"Well, uh, thank you for not attacking me for coming here without permission. I feel so bad leaving Charlie alone to his own devices with his grandparents. I should've not done that. Oh, I'm such a horrible mother!" She began to sob without much control. Michelle didn't expect to lose herself so easily in front of a conspicuous-looking stranger such as Mr. Wilkinson, but her emotions were taking a toll on her so much that there was no choice but to let it all go.

The strange man awkwardly placed a hand on her twitching shoulder, then assured, "From what I can tell, you are just as good of a mother as any other mother who would kill to get her son back. You care about him a lot. You are merely scared of change, is all."

Once she was calmed down, he moved his hand back to his side. Michelle sighed and muttered, "I suppose you're right. I could've left him alone for good if I didn't care about him, my parents, and my parents-in-law... I'm sorry I came here early in the morning. Perhaps I should've waited a bit longer to come here today."

"No worries, Mrs. Bucket. All that matters is that you came for your son. That's all there is to it. To deny is to dolor. That is what I always remind myself. Better keep that in mind, dear lady." All she could do was stare at him in rivet. "Here, now let me lead you inside the factory. Mr. Wonka and the others should be up by now."

"Good." She nodded, then followed his footsteps.

*****

"See?" Grandpa Joe slowly pulled out a few long pieces of candy from his pocket.

"Woah, Grandpa Joe!" Charlie was flabbergasted. "How did you get those?"

"Remember when we were in the candy room full of buckets of those sweets that were done growing in the garden?" Grandpa Joe reminded the boy hastily.

"Oh! Y-You snuck them in your pocket? But grandpa... why? Wouldn't Mr. Wonka have given us some at some point in the future?" Charlie now felt a teensy bit of disappointment. Was his grandparents really that desperate on trying Wonka's scrumptious candies?

"Sorry, Charlie." Grandpa Joe muttered tiredly. "I couldn't help it. It was all right there for me to take. I let my childhood pop up in too many places too often. Really, I apologize for the bit of trouble I've caused you, my dear grandson." He seemed transparent with his sorrow that all Charlie could do was hug him.

"I guess if I were you, I'd understand your desperation. I kinda wanted to do the same thing anyways. So, you're not completely alone there." The 10-year-old assured his grandpa. "However, if he ever finds out, grandpa, he may kick us out!" Charlie whispered.

"Yeah... maybe, Charlie. All we can do is hope for the best. His candy is so good, though... I just couldn't wait to try them any longer! I hope you really understand." Grandpa Joe begged.

"I do, but that doesn't mean I forgive you for what you've done. You know how serious Mr. Wonka is about his rules!" Charlie felt a bit scared but mostly sad for what his grandpa had done already. They barely didn't go through day 2(Which is the day in this chapter and Chapter 4)! 

"Understood, Charlie. I'll make sure to keep that in mind for now on." Grandpa Joe promised.

"I will always love and care about you, Grandpa Joe. You're my closest grandparent, with Grandma Josephine being 2nd, and Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina being 3rd. I love you all, and especially you. I love you and mom the most. I wouldn't know what to do without you and her. So please, don't do anything worse than that. I want him to be on our good side. I know Mr. Wonka didn't treat us too nicely on the first day in his factory, but that doesn't give us reason to snap back at him. He did just meet us, after all. He likes us now. We don't want to lose that. It isn't everyday we have a big, famous person by our side. No matter what, though, family does come first to me. Sometimes I do make the mistake of forgetting that, but today I won't. We will have a better relationship with him, okay Grandpa Joe? I want us to have a future together, even if you aren't too fond of him. Gosh, I hope you understand..."

Grandpa Joe hugged the emotional boy. "Charlie, I care about you too! I promise there will not be more trouble today. I will begin to respect him just for your sake. Although, if we have to, we may have to lie about the candy."

"No Grandpa! No more lies." Charlie sighed. "We should just face what we've done. We shouldn't be afraid of someone who's as giving as him. Please? I'll even tell him I took some, okay? He would forgive a child quicker if I end up saying I did it." The other grandparents were slowly beginning to wake up as Willy Wonka knocked on their door and shouted out for everyone to wake up.

Grandpa Joe gave the candy to Charlie in defeat. "Okay. That seems fair enough."

Charlie sighed, and muttered, "I miss mom, Grandpa."

"Don't worry, grandson. I miss my daughter too. Maybe she'll come around soon."

Willy Wonka entered the bedroom and announced, "Alright, ladies and gentlemen! Here, we are to start our work here in this fine factory. Grandma Josephine, if you want to, you can start knitting new clothes for the Oompa Loompas and perhaps knit other things for my items here as well. Do you want to do that?"

Her eyes brightened up, and she exclaimed, "Oh yes! I was afraid I would become useless here. Thank you for giving me that idea." He gave her the equipment so she could begin her best strength of work.

"After all, you did make a scarf for Charlie, right?" Wonka beamed.

"Oh yes! He still loves it, I believe." Grandma Josephine was definitely in a content mood.

"Alright, now the other grandparents... oh dear, what should they do?" Wonka was tapping his chin in thought.

"I could be the janitor!" Grandpa Joe suggested.

"Perfect! You and the Oompa Loompas will get along quick! You can start now if you want to." Wonka smiled a little when Grandpa Joe immediately got to work out of the bedroom.

"I could try and start walking. I wish I could stop being in bed all the time." Grandpa George grumbled. Grandma Georgina nodded with agreement. Grandma Josephine was too distracted by her knitting to decide that decision for herself.

"I will help you both. I hope this will not get scary for you, Grandma Georgina." Willy Wonka was a bit nervous.

"No, I'm sure it won't.~" She fluttered her eyelids in a flirting manner. "With you around, anything can be possible.~"

Now, it was Grandpa George's turn to slap her shoulder.

Wonka laughed, though he was not fazed by her attempt. "Yes, it is good to believe as such."

She giggled in response.

Willy Wonka went over to Charlie, then was about to say, "Hm, Charlie, what should you-"

"Mr. Wonka! U-Um... I have to tell you something." Charlie muttered ashamedly whilst keeping the bits of candy behind his back.

Wonka was startled. "What is it, my dear boy?"

The pain tore through the boy's delicate heart. He couldn't do this without Grandpa Joe at his side, but now that was too late to stress over. It was now or never. "Mr. Wonka... I-I took some of your candy yesterday."

There was a looming silence spread out through the room, even Grandma Josephine's knitting had ceased altogether!

Willy Wonka's glare pierced right through Charlie's wet eyes which were about to pour out tears.

"I oughta take that boy right over my knee! If I could walk, I would!" Grandpa George declared.

"I agree! Charlie, what were you thinking?" Grandma Josephine whined.

Charlie had tears going down his face.

"I-I'm truly sorry, guys! I didn't know what I was thinking!" He sniffed while Grandma Georgina shook her head with complete disappointment.

"Everyone, calm down." Wonka sighed with his eyes closed for a moment. "He apologized and understood his mistake. That is what truly matters to me. However, if you ever do that again, I may not allow you to work alongside me anytime soon. It would hurt to have to do such a thing. I will give you one more chance, Charlie. Is that okay?"

"I promise!" Charlie sobbed a bit more, so Wonka had to give him a big hug and pat the boy's quivering back.

"Grandpa George, I will never want or hopefully need to do what you suggested. Hopefully." He sighed with relief. "Alright, now that that was handled, we can-"

The doorbell rang. 

"Okay, Charlie. You wait here. You will start working with me until I deal with a possible visitor, alright?" Wonka ordered.

Charlie wiped his eyes as he stopped his crying and sniffling. "Okay, Mr. Wonka. I can wait."

Willy Wonka nodded with his signature smile back on his face, pat the boy's shoulder, then proceeded out the bedroom to the front door. He opened it, then saw who the two people were.

"Well, what a pleasant surprise we have here!"