Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud

This month's Words for Wednesday prompts are provided by River at her blog over here. This week's prompts are: conviviality, adoration, willpower, mellow, gentle, guitar.

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Fiction: Dinner on a Cloud
Vida's annual dinners were famous for their well-planned, delicious menus as well as their quirky and sometimes perilous locations. Always, Vida was a convivial host who never failed to delight her guests' tastebuds. For ten years, Vida's dinners had long been the neighborhood's most anticipated fall event.
    This year, Vida sent out invitations months before September but told no one of what she will be serving or where it will occur. People who had previously attended her dinners had such adoration for her cooking that no matter what, they would always show up. Rumors had it one of the guests missed out on the birth of his first child just to attend Vida's dinner. 
    Jackie, who moved into the neighborhood recently, was surprised she got one of Vida's invitation. She hadn't met the woman yet. Marge, her next door neighbor, was excited as it was her first time being invited. And besides, it was worth going just to sample Vida's cooking. Against food, Jackie had no willpower so she ended up accepting the invite.
    On the night of the dinner, Marge and Jackie walked to Vida's house. They were greeted by a large woman with ample bosoms, blond hair in a bun and a pleasant smile. Slow and soft guitar music were playing in the background.
    When all twelve guests had arrived, Vida led everyone to the third level of the house where she opened the third door from the left. At her direction, everyone shuffled into a line. Jackie was near the end where she was on the stairs with Marge behind her. Aside from the soft guitar music coming from below, barely a sound was made.
    One by one, each guest stepped through the doorway. When it was her turn, Jackie hesitated at the darkness but Marge gave her a gentle push. She stumbled in the dark until a bright light appeared, walked toward it and stepped through the round portal.
    Under thirteen brightly lit chandeliers that were hanging in midair, stood a long table covered with a white cloth with thirteen place settings and thirteen chairs. All around them was the same blue hue. Beneath the table and under her feet were white floor - solid and yet oddly soft-looking. She looked farther out into the distance where the edge was and would have gone for a closer look but she was afraid what she might find. As she looked up and around her, it occurred to her the walls weren't walls but the sky. "This can't be real. I'm not standing on a cloud. Maybe I imagined it?" she said.
    "No, you didn't imagine it," said Marge as she stepped beside Jackie. "Don't worry, I doubt any of us would fall over and if one of us did, hey, more food for the rest of us, right?" Marge giggled. Jackie grimaced. Before she could reply, several crows flew past above their heads but they seemed oblivious to the people below them. Jackie shivered in her long-sleeved sweater. She was glad she followed the invitation's recommendation to dress for a cold climate. 
    A gong sounded announcing dinner. Everyone went around the table checking on the little tent cards with names on them. Of the 12 people invited, Jackie knew only Marge and she was five chairs away.
    After everyone was seated, Vida announced the first of seven courses. On the far left of the table where Vida sat at the head, there were two white swinging doors standing on its own. Through the left door, men in dark suits and white bow ties came out with plates of food and through the right door, they exited.
    Conversations were low as if people were afraid to talk over the guitar music. Across the table, a handsome man introduced himself to Jackie. Hamilton was quite acquisitive about ducks. He had collected many statues, dolls, paintings, furniture, anything with ducks and had a house built for his collection. Jackie smiled as he started describing them.
    Course two began and the food was too delicious for her to do much talking. During course three, the old woman on her left started telling Jackie how much raisins she had consumed all her long life. Upon starting on course four, the rail thin man on her right asked her if she would to pose for him. His speciality was photographing women with a certain ample stature and in the nude. "I had a few unique clients but sadly the ones I wanted didn't take up my offer," he said and he veered his beady eyes toward Vida and back at Jackie. Jackie smiled, declined his offer and picked up her wine glass. Hamilton took the silence to tell Jackie he was having a duck car custom built in Paris but before he could tell her the detail, course five was served. Jackie wondered if time had accelerated as she hardly got to enjoy each course before the new one began.
    Soon sixth course was being served. As Jackie was savoring her pumpkin panna cotta, a scream rang out. Everyone paused and looked up.
    "It's alright, everyone. Nothing to worry about," said Vida and she smiled. She was calm, almost mellow, as she took a bite of her pumpkin panna cotta. Gossips started spreading and one thread kept repeating: One of the guest had fell over the edge when he tried to find the restroom but he was too drunk to know where he was stepping. When Jackie turned to look behind her toward the distance where the edge was, she feared it might be true.
    When at last, the seventh and final course came, Jackie was relieved. But the coffee tasted a bit more bitter than Jackie would like. And Vida's speech thanking her guest was short and underwhelming.
    Later, when Jackie and Marge were walking home, Marge did nothing but praise Vida's cooking. She was certain Vida exceeded her talent since the last dinner. Jackie had to admit, her tastebuds were overindulged at every course. But why was no one fussing over the man who fell?
    Two months after, invitations to Vida's next dinner were sent out. Marge was so excited by the invitation that she rushed over to Jackie's house. Jackie got an invitation as well but she wanted to decline. After all, it was rather dangerous to have dinner on a cloud. She feared she might get killed as she probably wouldn't be able to find the bathroom no matter how clear-headed she was. Marge argued no one had died at Vida's dinners. She told Jackie the man who fell over the edge was found in Chicago which was not far from New York where they lived. He had a couple of broken bones but he was going to live. In the previous dinner taken place under the ocean, a guest was supposedly eaten by a shark but she was found unharmed in Seattle a month later. And besides, where else would be more dangerous than a cloud? Jackie didn't have an answer but she was certain there was an answer but not one that she wished to hear.