Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg Read Free Book Online Page B

started his unpleasant task.
    “Now, Idgie, you ought not to be selling those niggers food, you know better than that. And there’s some boys in this town that’s not too happy about it. Nobody wants to eat in the same place that niggers come, it’s not right and you just ought not be doin’ it.”
    Idgie thought it over for a moment and shook her head in agreement.
    “You’re right, Grady, I know better and I just ought not be doing it.”
    Grady sat back and seemed pleased.
    She continued, “Yeah, Grady, it’s funny how people do things they ought not to do. Take yourself, for instance. I guess a lot of people might think that after church on Sunday you ought not to go over to the river and see Eva Bates. I reckon Gladys might think you ought not be doing that.”
    Grady, who was at the present time a deacon in the Baptist church and had married the former Gladys Moats, who was known to have a temper, got flustered.
    “Oh come on, Idgie, that’s not funny.”
    “I think it is. Just like I think a bunch of grown men getting liquored up and putting sheets on their heads is pretty damn funny.”
    Grady called out to Ruth, who was behind the counter, “Ruth, will you come over here and try to talk some sense into her? She ain’t gonna listen to me. I’m just trying to keep her out of trouble, that’s all. Now, I’m not saying who, but there’s some people in town that don’t like her selling to niggers.”
    Idgie lit her Camel and smiled. “Well, Grady, tell you what. The next time those ‘some people’ come in here, like Jack Butts and Wilbur Weems and Pete Tidwell, I’ll ask ’em if they don’t want anybody to know who they are when they go marching around in one of those stupid parades you boys have, why don’t they have enough sense to change their shoes?”
    “Now, wait a minute, Idgie—”
    “Oh hell, Grady, y’all ain’t fooling anybody. Why, I’d recognize those size-fourteen clodhoppers you got on anywhere.”
    Grady looked down at his feet. He was losing this battle in a hurry.
    “Aw now, Idgie, I’ve got to tell them something. Are you gonna stop it or not? Ruth, come over here and help me with this stubborn mule.”
    Ruth went to the table. “Oh Grady, what harm can it be to sell a few sandwiches out the back door? It’s not like they’re coming in and sitting down.”
    “Well, I don’t know, Ruth … I’ll have to talk to the boys.”
    “They’re not hurting anybody, Grady.”
    He thought for a minute. “Well … okay for now, I guess.”He pointed his finger at Idgie. “But you make sure you keep them at the back door, you hear me?”
    He got up to leave and put his hat on, and then turned back to Idgie.
    “We still playing polker Friday?”
    “Yep. Eight o’clock. And bring plenty of money, I feel lucky.”
    “I’ll tell Jack and them … ‘bye, Ruth.”
    “ ’Bye, Grady.”
    Idgie shook her head as she watched him go on down the street.
    “Ruth, I wish you could have seen that big ox, down at the river for three days, drunk as a dog, crying like a baby, ’cause Joe, that old colored man that raised him, died. I swear, I don’t know what people are using for brains anymore. Imagine those boys: They’re terrified to sit next to a nigger and have a meal, but they’ll eat eggs that came right out of a chicken’s ass.”
    “Oh, Idgie!”
    Idgie laughed. “I’m sorry, but it just makes me mad sometimes.”
    “I know, honey, but you shouldn’t get yourself so upset. That’s just the way people are and there’s not a thing in the world you can do to change them. That’s just how it is.”
    Idgie smiled at her and wondered what would happen if she didn’t have Ruth to let off steam with. Ruth smiled back.
    They both knew they had to make a decision about what to do. And they did. After that day, the only thing that changed was on the menu that hung on the back door; everything was a nickel or a dime cheaper. They figured fair was fair …

APRIL 6,