The manor of Veruca Salt-Peppard sat on the top of a very large hill completely barren of trees. It was once very beautiful, but as soon as Mrs. Salt-Peppard had become its mistress, she had ordered (to the utter shock and dismay of the gardeners) to cut down anything with leaves, nuts, or bark. After all, if there were no trees, there would be no squirrels.

And if there was one thing in the entire galaxy that Veruca didn’t want, it would be squirrels.

The cellars on the other hand, were filled with a number of things that Mrs. Salt-Peppard had wanted at some time or another. She had luckily married a man as obliging as her dear late father, and after the Wonka settlement she had never been denied anything. All were loved briefly of course, then sold or sent downstairs to decay into comfortable old age, forgotten.

Among this lost menagerie, sandwiched between a large container of beanie babies and a broken pinball machine, included a very strange glass box covered in a thick coating of dust.