Chapter 1

Albert Branson was in love with his new bride Liana. He loved her chestnut brown hair, her milky skin, her full lips, her shy smile. Most of all, however, he loved her trim little figure. She was a very shy, modest girl who never wore anything more revealing than a long skirt and a sweater, and she herself often described herself as “mousy”. She was a librarian in their town of Oneida, New York, and she loved books and crossword puzzles and did not like taking risks in any way. She had such a quiet voice that Albert often had to strain to hear her. It was true, there were times when he wished she would be a little more extroverted, but that did not change the fact that he loved her deeply.

They had only been married two years when a large food processing conglomerate named ALLGRO bought out Albert’s small company, that had been manufacturing pork products for 100 years. The week after the buyout a few top executives from ALLGRO hosted a cocktail reception for the employees and their families, just to get to know everyone, and then a week after that Albert was called into his boss’s office and told he was being offered a new position.

“They want you to go to their main plant, in Nebraska,” his boss said. “They were impressed by you and your wife when they met you last week.”

“My wife?” Albert said. “Why would they care about her? She’s not an employee.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” the boss said. “I guess they have a certain image they like to maintain out there. They’re the largest employer in the state, and they like their employees and their wives to fit a certain mold.”

“But Liana is very quiet,” Albert said. “She’s shy, and she doesn’t fit the mold of a corporate wife.”

The boss smiled. “They must see some potential in her.”

The transfer involved a considerable pay raise, enough to convince Albert he should at least try out the new job. Even if Liana hated Nebraska, he could get some good job experience and make some extra money to put in his savings account before they moved back.

So, they moved to Nebraska. Liana was not thrilled about the move, because she had to give up her librarian job, and of course the move involved uprooting herself from her comfortable small town and going somewhere totally new and strange. But, she decided that if Albert wanted this, she’d at least have to try it out.

And at first it seemed like a dream come true. The company set them up in a house that it owned, for one thing, so they had no mortgage or rent to pay. The house was in a neighborhood of similar houses, all owned by the company. They were two-bedroom bungalows, on small, well-kept lots, with white picket fences and flower pots on all the windowsills. They were like perfect little doll houses, with only one thing that didn’t seem to fit -- the kitchens all had huge, restaurant-sized refrigerators, triple the size of a normal refrigerator.