Meghan's Misadventures (Chapter 11): "A Season of (mis)Giving" (Patreon)

"Well done, everyone!"

Tina Tamberson lifted her glass at the Ladies Auxiliary's year-end Christmas party.  It wasn't to toast the organization's lobby to add a crosswalk at a dangerous intersection along Main Street, or its coordination of the annual Christmas parade.  Rather, it was to acknowledge their most successful campaign of the year—

The fattening of Meghan Middleton.

After a chorus of crystal clinking and coordinated drinking, everyone returned to what they had been doing--ogling a candid photo of Meghan taken by Beatrice Lumpkin, a fellow Auxiliary member, at the local Piggly Wiggly.

"I can't believe she’s gained so much," Shelly Kowalski said. Even Shelly's husband Burt, nicknamed "Bullfrog" in High School because he tried to jump everything, had stopped hitting on her.

The change in Meghan's appearance was drastic, especially when contrasted against Tina Tamberson's locker room photos from High School, which she had brought to every meeting since the plan was hatched as a reminder of the gravity-defying forces they were fighting.

"I wish it wasn't wintertime," Marci Bettencourt said, referring to the bulky attire that covered the California cutie's corpulence.  In truth, she didn't look THAT fat out of the context of Tina's "before" photos. She basically looked like the average Dennison County housewife...which was what the Auxiliary had wanted.  When she'd arrived, Meghan was the prettiest girl in town by a sizable margin, but the margin had shrunk as she grew more sizable.  Now, she was one of the girls.

At least weight-wise.

"Can we stop this nonsense now?"  Alice May said, sipping her eggnog.  She regretted ever coming up with the plan.  Not only had it derailed the Auxiliary's civic duty, but she had come to like Meghan.  She wanted to invite her co-worker-turned-friend to join, but that was impossible in light of the circumstances she helped impose.

"Let's not be hasty," Tina said.  "You said she’d lost a lot of weight before.  Who knows? A New Year's resolution. A few sit-ups. She could be back to Miss Top-heavy Home Wrecker in no time."

Nods and affirming murmurs spread through the denizens of Dennison.

"Where do we stop then?"  Alice asked, rhetorically.  "300 pounds?  400?  500?"

"I say 500!" came a voice from the back of the crowded hall.

"Seconded!" came another.

"No!"  Alice shouted over the fervent din.  She wished she had a gavel to bang.  "I wasn't asking for a vote!"

Just then, the heavy wood doors of the city council building where the Auxiliary held their monthly meetings swung open, freezing attendees with a howl of winter wind. Margaret Bean, the society’s most senior member, burst through like a heavily-bundled ball of octogenarian energy.

“We don't have to worry about Meghan anymore!”  Margaret exclaimed, pulling a hand-woven muffler from her face. “She’s engaged to Zeke Martin!"