Wednesday's Words on a Friday

On Wednesdays, Delores, from Under The Porch Light, has a word challenge meme which she calls “Words for Wednesday”.

She puts up a selection of six words which we then use in a short story, or a poem.

I’m hopeless at poetry so I always do a story.

It’s a fun challenge…why not join in?

This week's words are:

1. gelatinous

2. feasible

3. hybrid

4. squirm

5. maintenance

6. casserole

or:: "shiny medals, cold comfort"

Here is my story: 

Zelda Thompson had shown up in town driving one of those tiny little hybrid cars, all glittering paint and shiny chrome, and wearing the absolute latest in fashion. She'd joined the women's social club within a week and had set about charming everyone in it. 

She had bragged to Minnie Brown about her previous home, how large it was and how so very stylish. She had mentioned to Vera Morgan that her husband "took care of" many of the largest establishments in the city they had just left behind. Janet, who had listened closely,  thought to herself, "a property manager, we must get to know him," Janet had an interest in Real Estate.

She had won over Susan Benson and convinced her that she, Zelda, was an absolutely fabulous cook. "Gourmet meals every night darlings, you must all come to lunch as soon as I get my new furniture!"

Naturally the women had all agreed to this, their club was small and new members were always welcome.
They met each Friday in their homes, each one taking a turn to provide a simple lunch as they sat and discussed current affairs, what new thing was happening in the town or in their lives. Generally a happy little group, they were pleased to be invited to Zelda's new home. They looked forward to getting to know her better. 

But it had been almost two months before the first Zelda Friday, and in that time some interesting news had come to light about Zelda and her husband. Cassie Fenmark had a cousin in the town Zelda had come from and in a lengthy phone call, cousin Maggie had spilled the beans on Zelda and her husband Victor. 

His "taking care of" several large establishments turned out to be nothing more than being a janitor and general maintenance man for the local primary schools and kindergartens. The "large and stylish" home Zelda had left behind was the home of the Mayor and Zelda had been the cleaner there. 

As for the "gourmet meals", well, each woman at the Friday lunch began to squirm in her seat when faced with the greyish gelatinous mess Zelda had served. She had given it a fancy foreign sounding name, but it was nothing more than fish casserole and looked awful the way each serve had just been plopped onto the plate without even a sprig of parsley to make it look nicer. 

After enthusing delightedly about trying her cooking, not one of them could think of any feasible reason not to. They picked up their forks, then glanced at each other, none wanted to be the first to actually put any in her mouth. 
The fact that Zelda had happily shown off three shiny medals that she had supposedly won in cooking contests, brought cold comfort to the hearts of the women now faced with eating a cold summer casserole of fish and peas.