The freezer was a six foot monolith, a testimony to modern efficiency and a sleek addition to Cindy's home. It slotted neatly into the space designed for it in her bespoke kitchen and hummed along, adding almost imperceptibly to the back ground noise of the room. She loved that it was tall and skinny, looking more like a space station locker than something as mundane as food storage. When Elsa got home with the shopping her admiration was quickly transformed to frustration. Nothing fitted. Everything had to be de-boxed and even then most stuff was simply to wide. Her smile fell, she felt every muscle tense and her hands began to open and close with each quickening breath.
The freezer was waist high and took up so much garage space that the car could no longer fit. It was noisy, dirty and pointless. Like the "spare room" it was simply a repository for all the "super deals" my mother could not resist. It was piled high with reduced price meats, buy one get one free lasagnes and much else besides, each with a garish "sale" sticker. It was organized by sedimentation, so that at the bottom lay years old produce and only the topmost layer had any chance of being eaten.
The freezer was smaller than your average cooler box and it vibrated and groaned with the effort of staying cool. Inside the ice had built up a thick frosty layer and all that could be fitted into the space was a can of beer. This to my father, now a bachelor for some twenty years, was perfect and he had no plans to upgrade it. He'd slip in from work, put a can in the freezer for ten minutes and then sit down to a cold one.
The freezer was one of those walk-in kinds. The stainless steel door that lead to it was a huge monolith of metal with a handle and it took quite an effort to heave it open. On the inside of the door there was no handle at all and if you got trapped in there you were stuck in the sub-zero temperatures until one one the chefs needed something from it. It was my nightmare that one day I'd be collecting a side of beef and get trapped in there. So I always took Ned with me and made him hold the door open.