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.

Comments

  1. Ewwww....fish casserole..disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Poor Zelda. So desperate to be impressive that she succeeded for all of the wrong reasons.
    And fish casserole? Eeeeuw.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Delores; even worse when it's cold and has peas in it.

    Elephant's Child; poor Zelda indeed. Even the shiny medals are faked, she bought them and had them inscribed herself.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ... great story River... gave me a smile...
    (note to self).... don't ever do cold fish casserole.....
    Hugs and blessings... Barb xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. Barbara; it makes me shudder just to think about what it may look like when made by someone who just doesn't have the cooking gene.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh Dear! Someone should have a serious talk with Zelda, I think - and book her into some cooking classes! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lee; the Women's Lunch Club is very tolerant and after a while Zelda learns a few things and makes changes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The ladies would be pleasantly surprised when they finally tasted the cold fish casserole with peas.
    They would all want the secret recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cold-macaroni-and-tuna-salad/

    ReplyDelete
  10. mm; peas and a couple of large fillets of smoked cod broken up and set in clear jelly, is all it was. Not nice at all. But she takes lessons eventually from the other ladies, learns about flavours and herbs, a few tricks to serving.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think there are possibly lots of women like Zelda just wanting to be accepted but unable to realise people would accept her for who she is and not what she may have been. The thought of that fish casserole is rather off putting.
    I am sure eventually Zelda would realise she doesn't have to impress but rather just be herself.
    A great little story.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Popped down the road to shops today, drove the car as the shopping promised to be heavy so the ten minute return walk saved left me with more energy to spend later, must have forgotten the time, Oi says the old biddy flogging legacy stickers, Legacy provides for Aussie servicemen and their families in times of strife plus a medical gold card Which covers every thing from A to Z "it's supposed to be two minutes silence, show respect"
    The old Bat had the paper with the pic of an emaciated Richie Benaud 84( who missed the wars)which in comparison made me look about sixty instead of approaching 89. I replied I am frightfully sorry but I was unaware that it was Rem / day and a public holiday. for drunks, in Britain it is observed on the nearest Sunday to Nov 11 which was two days ago. I left her mumbling and returned about 1130 with my blazer which had my nine shiny service medals attached from (last years 'for the Last Time' March). "Your fathers medals" say'she.
    Not as such you old bat , My daddy sold his ww1 putty medals to put food on the table in 1926 during the Gen Strike, My daddy died when I was 4,5 years old on Dec 21-1930.He was 39.
    After training my wartime seagoing adventures started at age 16+1 month I served in the Royal Navy 7-1-42 until 16-7-66.
    I was also on the third ship to enter Tokyo Harbour at the end of WW2' In Sydney for repairs later our ship returned home to UK 13 March 1946 Ten months after the war in Europe had ceased "The flagship of the Forgotten Fleet."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

kitchen tip #?????

being unaccustomed to public speaking,

I've been trying to contact Haagen-Dazs