Charlie was your average eleven year old boy in most ways he was no faster or no stronger than any other. But in other ways he was quite different from other boys. For example, he had just gotten home after a long day of shoe shining down the road outside a small cafe that he had been working at since the age of seven. He walked in to his little house and greeted everyone inside who gave him either a "hello" or a "good evening" in return

At the other end of the room he saw his little sister, Lilith. She was on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor next to the kitchen table. He noticed that she had some more marks on her than when he left in the morning but her just kept quiet and just frowned to himself.

Charlie and Lilith had no idea why the family did not like lily. She had never done anything to them but she had plenty of reason to. They treated her like a slave and made her work around the house all day, every day. This was a lot for the poor six year old girl to handle but there was nothing that she could do, if she didn't get her work done or if she didn't do it fast enough she would be beaten. There were only two people who treated her well and that was her big brother Charlie and her grandpa Joe.

Not long after Charlie came home Mr Bucket walked through the door.

"Evening buckets"

"Good evening"The adults replied

"Hi dad!" Charlie responded. Mr Bucket closed the door behind him and walked towards the kitchen table, giving Lillith a kick on the way there, making Charlie frown again.

He sat down next to the little boy and reached for something in his pocket.

"Charlie" He looked up at him "I've found something I think you'll like"

He pulled out a toothpaste lid that had another stuck on top of it. That may seem like a strange thing to give someone but for Charlie it was what he wanted.

"That's exactly what I need!" He said excitedly.

He stood up from his chair and pulled a model of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory made entirely from toothpaste caps and set it on the table. He smiled and glanced over at his sister.

"Look Lils dad got the last piece!"

She looked up from the floor and smiled at him. She was a small girl for the age of six but they all were considering they only ever ate cabbige soup every day. She had long, wavy blonde hair and sparkling green eyes.

However, the most noticeable thing about the little girl were the purple bruises littering her arms and legs with one on her cheek and the white or slightly red scars wherever there weren't bruises.

"Don't talk to her she has work to do" Their mum grumbled.

Charlie absolutely hated how his parents treated his little sister. To him she was his best friend in the world and he loved her with all his heart. He wished they would just love her how they loved him but being an elven year old boy there wasn't much that he could do.

He sighed and turned back to his middle placing the toothpaste cap on top of a pipe cleaner figure stood at the front of it all.

"What is it Charlie?"

"It's the last piece, a head for Willy Wonka"

"Mmm quite a likeness"

"You think so?"

"I know so, I saw the man with my own two eyes......I used to work for him you know"

"You did?" Charlie asked

"I did" grandpa Joe responded

"He did"

"He did"

"I love grapes!" Grandma Georgina added on having no idea what they were all talking about, Charlie and Lilith stifled a giggle.

Grandpa Joe then went on to explain how Willy Wonka started will a small corner shop on Cherry street and that a couple years later he decided to build a chocolate factory that was fifty times as big as any other in the world.

"Grandpa don't make it gross" Charlie told him after he said that he and his grandma had kissed outside the gates on that day.

"Tell him about the Indian prince, he'd like to hear about that" his grandma said as his mother went around giving out bowls of cabbige soup to everyone and a small little clump of leftover cabbige leaves on the floor next to Lilith.

"You mean prince Pondicherry"

He then went into a whole other story that Charlie and Lilith listened to intently. It was about a prince who wanted a palace made out of chocolate and didn't listen to Mr. Wonka when he told him that it would melt and a couple days later. It did.

After that he told Charlie about other Candy companies send in spies to the factory to steal secret recepies causing him to eventually close his factory forever and take away jobs from all his workers.

"But it didn't close forever, it's open now"

"Well sometimes when grown ups say forever they just mean a really long time" Mrs Bucket told him

"Did you get your job back?" Charlie asked his grandpa

"No."

"But there must be people working there"

"Think about it Charlie have you ever seen anyone go into the factory or come out of it?"

"No the gates are always closed"

"Exactly"

"But then whose running the machines?"

"Nobody knows Charlie"

"It's a mystery"

"Has no one asked Mr Wonka?"

"No one has seen him since, here never leaves the factory, the only thing that does is the Candy"

"Come on Charlie you better go to bed" His mother told him

"And you better get up there as well girl" Mr Bucket told his sister

Lilith scrambled to her feet and quickly walked up the ladder to her and Charlie's room which was the attic if the house. Charlie slept on a small bed next to a rathe large hole in the roof and Lily slept on the floor next the the bed but Charlie always made sure to cover her with his coat.

Charlie made his rounds giving everyone a hug and saying goodnight to them. He followed his sister up the ladder and said one last goodnight to everyone before placing his coat over lily who had immediately fallen asleep and getting into bed looking out the hole in the roof at the factory for a little while before also falling asleep.