2003 was not a good year for the Thompson’s. Don Thompson lost his high paying job at a major software company where he was a middle level project manager. He spent the entire year looking for another job without any success. He met with recruiters, answered ads in trade magazines and papers, and had his resume posted on the Internet. But he had no success.
His wife Toni went back to work part time. She was a secretary when they met, and then quit work to raise their two children. They were now in their teens and did not need her as much as they did in the past. She was 35 and still attractive. She took pride in her appearance. Several times after she returned to work, male coworkers hit her on. She considered it flattering, but always said no. She loved her husband too much.
As the year progressed, money got tighter and tighter. Toni was not making that much money and the crush of continuing bills was weighing hard on Don. Then one day, he got an email from a prospective employer.
The company’s name was The X Corporation. The letter stated said they were looking for project managers. The position sounded wonderful and Don perfectly suited for it. It stated the company was based in New Mexico.
Don searched the Internet and could find nothing about the company. He thought that strange, but he responded to the email and sent them the information they were interested in. He was curious because they asked for a lot of personal information, including pictures of his wife and children.
A few days later a Fed Ex package arrived with a plane tickets for the entire family. Later that day, Don received a call from the head of Human Resources. They wanted to make sure he got the tickets and was planning on coming out for the interview. Don thought it was curious that plane tickets for the entire family were sent, but decided it would be a nice family trip.
They arrived at a small airport in New Mexico and were picked up by a limo. Toni and the kids were impressed. Don was very curious about this company that was suddenly interested in after almost a year on unemployment.
They were driven about an hour out into the desert. There seemed to be nothing for miles, and then suddenly a town appeared. The homes they passed were new and immaculate. It looked as though this town had been built in just the past few years. All the storefronts and roads looked like brand new.
Just outside of town, the driver drove up to a gate that guarded a tall glass building. A small sign out front told Don he was at the X Corporation Headquarters. The driver parked and led them into the lobby. After several minutes, Don was led in to meet with the Director of Human Resources. Toni and the children were taken on a tour of the facilities and then the town.
Two hours later, they all met back together. Don was thrilled. They had offered him a job at almost twice what he was making before and the position sounded perfect for him. Toni loved the town and the schools, as did their children. The company even offered to assist in the selling of their present home.
It sounded too good to be true.
In the span of one month, Don and his family moved from their home in the Midwest to a small town in the New Mexico desert. Their new home was wonderful. The kids started in their new school, and Don started his new job as Senior Project Manager at The X Corporation.
Toni settled into the neighborhood and began to make this new house their home. She made friends with her new neighbor Donna and her husband Jim. Donna was about her age and had children also. Donna showed her where to shop and was helpful in getting the new home set the way Toni wanted it.
Toni also met other people from the community, BUT something about the women troubled her. And even Donna, who she liked, had a way sometimes of bothering her.
All the women were very attractive, but all married to, what Toni considered not real macho men. They all seemed like the geek boys from high school, now all grown up. Donna’s husband Jim was shorter than her, and bald and overweight, with thick glasses. She didn’t really see the attraction. And to be honest, Toni’s husband Don kind of fit in with these men. He was a wonderful man, and she loved him dearly, but she had to admit he was a bit of a geek too.
But it was the way the women fawned over their husbands that really bothered Toni. It was like these women were from the age of where the man was “King of the Castle”, and the woman was his little subservient slave. They would do things Toni would never think of doing for Don, and then sit there, like a little lap dog, waiting for the next command. The women reminded her of Stepford Wives the way they fussed over and served their men.
It was really beginning to creep her out.
Late one night, Toni was having trouble sleeping. So she got up and grabbed her cigarettes she kept hidden from Don. She went out into the backyard to have a smoke. She hid behind a small shed in their yard and lit her cigarette and took a long drag.
She had promised Don she would quit smoking, but could not. She didn’t do it often, only when she was certain he wouldn’t find out. She sat and smoked and thought about her new life here. Then she heard a faint noise.
She peeked around the shed and heard the noise was coming from Jim and Donna’s house. At first, it sounded like someone was in pain, or they were having a fight. But as she got closer to the noise, it became apparent to her, that Jim and Donna were having sex. And having it quite loudly!
She slowly walked up to the window, intrigued at what she was hearing. As she got close, she heard Donna screaming in ecstasy over and over again. She was telling Jim how good it was and how she would do anything for him.
Toni was amazed. Jim was an overweight, bald, downright geeky looking man. Toni could not imagine him being that great in bed. But she had never heard a woman squeal and scream like Donna was. Donna sounded like she was having orgasm after orgasm and that they were pretty intense.
Toni listened for several minutes and then put out her cigarette and hid the butt. She went back inside still stunned by what she had heard. She kept thinking, was Jim some kind of sexual stud? She just could not picture it.
That weekend, Toni and Don attended a neighborhood barbeque and Toni had a miserable time. The women were really beginning to bug her. They were so subservient to their husbands. Their fat, ugly, bald husbands! She just didn’t get it!
The whole thing was really getting to her. Even Donna, who she initially liked, was getting on her nerves. Worse yet, her and Don had begun to argue. First about the new town and life here. Now he was being very mysterious about his work. Don was always very open with her, but now he was a closed book. She asked Donna and a few of the other wives about X Corporation and was always told to ask her husband.
She found herself staying more and more inside her home. She hated going out amongst these Stepford Wives. She searched and searched the Internet, but could find very little about the X Corporation. The whole thing was unnerving.
That weekend she decided to take matters into her own hands. They were invited to another one of those annoying neighborhood barbeques. While there, she would raise a bit of a stink about all this secrecy.
About an hour into the cookout, Toni approached a table of men, one of them being her husband Don. The men seemed to be talking about something secretive.
“What are you men talking about?” She asked.
They looked up at her in silence. Don looked at her with his “shut up and go away” look. But Toni would have none of it.
