Vivian Laaning grew up on a large dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin. The farm chores she was required to do, was a major factor contributing to the development of her character, as a very industrious woman, with a take charge attitude, and completely sure of herself. Her personality, as such, became very pronounced after she reached puberty. Although she was as curious, and absolutely totally interested in sex as any heterosexual female, she found her male compeers uninspiring, and not worth her while to court their company. For that matter she did not find her female compeers interesting either.
It was not that she was nasty or overtly arrogant in her demeanor, when dealing with anyone she met for the first time. Actually she was always very polite. Instead, the way she acted towards someone she did not deem worthy, left a subtle but no doubt a clear impression in the mind of the other. The message was that she regarded him/her lower in status than a slug. She had developed an almost automatic response of rolling her eyes, and sighing exasperatingly at the foolish antics, or conversation of those she encountered. In other words, Vivian did not suffer fools gladly. This attitude on Vivian's part was not derived from any sense of absolute superiority. Rather as she was compelled to do so much multi-tasking in her daily life, she was disappointed when others were not so inclined. She just could not abide the inherent laziness of most of the persons she knew who were of her own age.
Vivian was tall and at six feet and one inch, she happened to be the tallest female (including the faculty) in her high school: the Arthur MacArthur High School. The school was located in the nearby town of Lydiaville, and was named after a short term (four days) 19th century governor of Wisconsin, who was the grandfather of the famous WW II general Douglas MacArthur.
As a teenager Vivian was not considered pretty by her peers. However she did have a strikingly dominant face which would appeal to some. And what was most startling about her appearance was the color of her hair; a vibrant, fiery copper red. Those seeing her, and not knowing any different, would assume she colored her hair to achieve this remarkable visage; but they would be wrong. Her hair color was exactly what nature had bestowed upon her, and it matched the color of her pubic hair as well. Her bold physical bearing tended to intimidate those unsure of themselves especially her female compeers. As a result no other girl would by chance approach her for the purpose of befriending her. Likewise, Vivian was not inspired enough to seek out a friend since none of the females in her school seemed interesting to her. Consequently Vivian was virtually friendless.
As for the males in the Arthur MacArthur High School, her demeanor was so off-putting and uninviting, that she was viewed as unapproachable. No male was even interested in engaging in casual conversation with her. For her own part, although definitely interested in the opposite sex and having sex with them, none of the boys at her school were appealing enough for her to make the effort of being friendly. As a result she never had a date during her first three years of high school.
In addition to her perceived unfriendliness and aloofness, Vivian was a top student always achieving the highest grades. There was no denying her superiority in academics amongst her fellow students, but this only added to her negative reputation. So despite possessing attributes that an indifferent person might laud, she became the most detested girl in school. In self defense against their own short comings, the other students in the school would constantly mock and bully her. One favorite method of belittling her was to taunt her by making fun of her height. Being a rather small high school, it just so happened that there was no other female student taller than 5'8" in the school. Thus this method of derision was the common procedure to ridicule her. It was a given in the minds of everyone at the school, that her height was a negative attribute.
Invariably she was greeted by the puerile question:
"Hey Vivian how's the weather up there?"
There were various permutations of such greetings such as:
"Is the air mighty thin up there?" or
"Careful of the low ceiling Vivian."
And such list was endless. Vivian developed a thick skin as retaliation was useless; given the malicious intent of her tormentors. If she chanced a witty rejoinder such as:
"Fine as the air is much better free from the ground dirt."
Such witticisms were ignored, as her tormentor would just snort and repeat the taunt, or continue jeering with further inane invectives. The taunting and bullying by her fellow students became progressively more vicious in each succeeding school year. To her credit Vivian never complained of the ill treatment by her fellow students to the teachers, but defiantly continued to refuse to cower to them.
During mid September of her first senior year, Vivian contracted mononucleosis. She was so severely stricken by the viral illness, that she was sick and fully incapacitated for some eight months in total. She was forced to withdraw from school that year and start her senior year over again the following September.
She finally recovered in May in time to celebrate her eighteenth birthday in July. Because of the misfortune of her having been ill and losing a school year, her parents decided to provide a gala party for the occasion, if only to cheer her up. The party was scheduled on the Saturday, after her actual birthday on the prior Tuesday.
Curiously enough, although Vivian was the most detested girl at the Arthur MacArthur H.S., all of the fellow students she invited to her birthday party agreed to and did attend. The attraction for her guests to come to the party was the fact that alcohol would be served; just beer and wine, though. Although Wisconsin's legal drinking age was 21 like all of the other states, it was the only state that permitted legal consumption of alcohol by minors when in presence of their parents and/or guardians. That being the case, her parents decided to plan for a double outdoor party on their spacious farm grounds; Vivian's birthday party for the teenagers, and an adult party for the parents so they would ostensibly be chaperoning.
Vivian's parents were of a mindset that if one is old enough to vote, and for that matter old enough to serve in the military, then surely one is old enough to drink. Besides being heavy drinkers themselves, they saw no harm in allowing teenagers to drink at a chaperoned party. Most of the friends and acquaintances of her parents were of the same mindset. Since Vivian was virtually friendless, she felt that this was the most pragmatic method of selecting guests for her party. As the sheriff of the county, and his daughter were amongst the attending guests, the other parents had no trepidation in accepting the Laaning's invitation to Vivian's birthday celebrations.
The party started at twelve noon with the intention that it would end in early evening. The Laanings naturally employed some farm help to assist in the daily labor of their large dairy farm which consisted of 212 milking cows plus three bulls. Still Vivian's father and mother had to wake up at 4:30 AM everyday to supervise and handle the farm activities; and Vivian's birthday party would not alter such required imperative. In addition, Vivian herself had the chore of milking four cows by hand, starting at 6 PM so the teenage party would end by that time.
The afternoon hours for the party were especially attractive to the parents of Vivian's birthday guests. Since they were prepared to allow their children to imbibe beer and wine at the party, they believed that these early hours would prevent terrible consequences befalling on their children. Either their children might pass out before they could get into real trouble in the evening. Or having consumed enough alcohol to get a desired buzz, they just might not have the energy to think of participating in abnormal Saturday night activities that might otherwise cause them harm.
As it transpired the heaviest imbiber of alcohol at the party was the birthday girl herself. What the guests were not aware was the fact that at eighteen, Vivian was quite used to consuming alcohol. It was a natural consequence of having parents who were both heavy drinkers bordering on alcoholism. Her parents led a very austere lifestyle where hard work consumed a majority of their waking hours; seven days a week, fifty-two weeks per year. They seldom took vacations, averaging only about one week off every two or three years.
The Laanings' goal was to retire to either Florida or Arizona, once Paul, Vivian's older brother, by two and a half years, was prepared to take over managing the farm. Paul had just finished his second year at Iowa State University pursuing a four year Bachelor of Science Degree from the University's Agriculture Department. It was hoped that after finishing his education at ISU, Paul would only need to work on the farm two years under his parents' supervision, before he would be able to fully take over the control of the farm.