Chapter 1
This is a fairly long tale in five parts. It features kidnapping, and a strong, dominant female character. There is also very little or no sex in most chapters except for Chapter 5. If sexual action is all you are looking for, you may want to skip directly to Chapter 5 but you will be passing up the adventure that takes you there.
Lavinia was a causality of the Cold War or more specifically, of its ending. Life behind the Iron Curtain was never easy and for an orphan it was desolate. Her first memory was of playing with a mop and bucket, something she later learned was a chore she was expected to perform every day. Her toys were nothing more than training devices for the work she would be expected to perform in exchange for a roof over her head and some basic nourishment from time to time. Her world was a gray monotone reaching from the walls of her surroundings to the dress she wore and food she ate. Her size was her saving grace allowing her to quickly rise to a position of dominance over her fellow unfortunates. Force and violence were the second language of the orphanage and Lavinia was a gifted practitioner of both. She was never mean or a bully but those around her quickly learned that you never crossed her. Lavinia took no shit.
A high starch diet, poor medical care, genetic heritage and a metabolism prone to weight gain produced a large, ungainly youngster with bad teeth. Her education was rudimentary and geared to producing a menial worker rather than an academic. If you had to predict her future path in life the term, 'factory laborer' would spring to mind. With the collapse of the Soviet Union things became worse. Food, never plentiful, became scarce. Lavinia's caretakers became more harsh and uncaring while the scant education she was receiving skidded to a halt. Within a few months the administrators decide that the only humanitarian option was to focus on the youngest and send those physically able to work out into the world to fend for themselves. For Lavinia it was root hog or die. Fortunately for Lavinia, uneducated is not the same thing as stupid: Lavinia was wickedly smart.
She found employment at a tractor factory pushing a mop but that job only lasted a few weeks as her supervisors recognized her strength and work ethic were a large cut above the usual factory waif. She was moved to the assembly line working along side of women 5 to 20 years older than her. They educated her in things mostly overlooked in an orphanage education. By the time she turned 18 she was supervising workers far older and more experienced than herself.
Working for a factory in an impoverished country ruled by a tyrant is not exactly a day at the beach and Lavinia heard stories about this place on the other side of the world where the pay was high, life was easy and opportunities abounded. Her Iron Curtain schooling had taught her that America was a horrible place but the stories she heard from the women she worked with told a far different tale. America was the land of plenty where an adventurous and motivated woman could make a fortune. There was even this man who would show up from time to time just outside the factory gates who some of the girls said had a way to get there. She made up her mind to meet this man the next time he showed up.
That time came a few days later and when she saw him just outside the gate there were already two other women talking to him. She stood behind them and listened as he told them that big American companies were looking for models, especially good looking foreign women who they would use on television to sell their products. Lavinia was not sure what a model was but she understood what good looking meant and she was certain that the phrase had never been used to describe her. Still, she thought there might be other jobs in America for a strong, hard working woman like herself. She patiently waited her turn.
When he finished talking to the other women the man simply turned and began to walk away apparently not even noticing Lavinia's efforts to attract his attention. When she followed him and grabbed his arm to get his attention he responded with a fast turn and a slap to her face followed by a string of Slavic curses that left no doubt in her mind what he thought about her attractiveness or suitability for employment in America. Lavinia was quite aware that her looks did not attract men but the words he used stung her far more than the slap to her face. A less determined woman would have slunk off into the shadows but his words only made her more determined to find another way to the promised land.
She was on speaking terms with Tatyana, one of the women that had been speaking with the man outside the gate and Lavinia approached her the next day to see what she could learn. The woman was friendly but laughed when Lavinia told her about approaching the man.
"What you did was very silly," Tatyana told her. "You have seen yourself in the mirror, yes? You must know that no man would look at you long enough to buy something you were selling. Models must be attractive and wear sexy clothes on American television."
