Tickets Part 3

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"Have I told you the story of Prince Pondicherry, Charlie?" My father was entertaining my little Robot again and Crystal was waking up. I wrapped her in each clean improvised blanket I could find and took her out for a walk to make her calm down. I couldn't help it. I stopped opposite Patton Wonka's factory and let us both inhale the scent that always faded halfway to us. Patton Wonka always sounded like an extraordinary man. Although I am aware that my father might be biased, having worked with him for years, since the chocolatier was eighteen and invented the everlasting gob stoppers for children in the area who had less pocket money than the others. During my pregnancy.... I'm not entirely sure how many Patton Cake bars I consumed. Olly hated it, my cravings were somewhat expensive for our means. I felt bad every time I ate one. His parents weren't impressed with his attitude towards me though so that was better than it could have ended up being. I'm mostly glad that he left my life. Mostly. 

The bed still feels empty when I roll over underneath the quilt that his mother spent her time on for us. He never... I couldn't think about it when Crystal's stomach started rumbling so we had to walk back home. Charlie was listening to the story about Prince Pondicherry and ran over to me to recap the entirety of it so far. 

"An entire palace made out of chocolate..." I could see him picturing it and smiled before my father in law's voice made me turn towards the television where the news had flashed onto the screen.

"I knew it! Didn't I say? Fat, fat, fat!" 


I really couldn't deny that the child on screen was obese on a level I felt it was cruel to let their weight reach. The woman on screen looked so proud of it-!

"People are strange sometimes dear" My father always could read my face, especially my confusion, I don't know how. "Intuition and skill" What-?

"You were talking out loud dad" Oh.

"That makes sense then how you- let's just watch" I pulled Crystal away from crawling towards the screen. It would damage her eyes in the dark that the house was letting in.


"Augustus eats so many chocolate bars a day, that it was impossible for him, not to find one!" 

"Why is she proud of that? That boy's health is wasting before anywhere near the average age where it would naturally... How? How is she proud of that?" I switched off the screen and started putting Crystal to bed while my Robot went upstairs to get a book to read next to her until she slept. I reflected on the image that the television had just projected like an emetic. I concluded with this:

That's one ticket gone to a child who needed the opposite of it. Several Physical Education lessons. 


"I don't know if the factory will survive him!" 

My father didn't know he'd said that out loud. 


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⏰ Last updated: May 21, 2020 ⏰

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