Free The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg Page A

you’ll feel better. I promise you.”
    Earle was right. After a few minutes, her heart did slow down. Thank God she had married Earle. He had been her strength and her rock through thick and thin. But with Lenore, even that hadn’t been easy.
    After she graduated from high school, her grades had not been good enough to get into a top college like Lenore had wanted, but not to be deterred, at the last minute, Lenore had pulled some strings with an old Kappa sorority friend of hers, and two weeks later, Sookie had been sent off to Southern Methodist University in Dallas with a new wardrobe and a note in her pocket.
    Sookie, Dear,
    If you can’t be smart, be perky. Men love a happy girl, and date, date, date! Men love a popular girl.
    Love,
    Mother
    The minute she hit SMU, she started rush week and, thanks to her being Lenore’s legacy, had pledged Kappa right away. And, per her mother’s instructions, she joined almost everything else in sight, as well. And God knows she had dated morning, noon, and night. By her sophomore year, she had almost wrecked her health trying to be popular, and it didn’t help matters when her roommate, Dena Nordstrom, was voted the most beautiful girl on campus. All Lenore ever said after that was, “Oh, Sookie, why can’t you be more like Dena? That girl is going to make something of herself.” And as Lenore had predicted, Dena left college early and became one of the first female newscasters on television, while Sookie still struggled to make a passing grade.
    At Christmas during her senior year at SMU, she had come home a complete nervous wreck and sick as a dog. And then two weeks later, when she had informed her parents that she was going to marry Earle Poole, Jr., from Selma, Lenore had thrown a complete fit.
    The Pooles were a perfectly nice family. Earle’s father was a doctor. But unfortunately, all the Poole men had big ears that stuck out a little on the side. “If you don’t care about me, think of your future,” Lenore had cried, waving her handkerchief in the air. “Those ears may be fine on a boy, but dear Lord in heaven, Sookie, think of those ears on a girl! You can’t hide a thing like that. I’ve waited all my life to have granddaughters to dress up and to have their portraits painted, and I certainly don’t want the Poole ears in the picture!”
    Lenore had then flung herself onto the sofa sobbing. “I don’t understand you. With your family background, you could have anybody you wanted. I sold my soul to get you into Kappa, so you would only meet the very nicest boys from the finest families, and this is how you reward me? By marrying Earle Poole, Jr.? Some dental student with big ears? Someone you went to grammar school with? Oh, why did your father and I bother to spend all that money on your debut and college? When I think of all those contacts wasted, oh, I just can’t bear it. I feel like getting Granddaddy Simmons’s sword off the wall right now and just falling on it.”
    It was usually at this point that Sookie had always given in to her, but probably because she was sick and still had a high fever, for the first time in her life, Sookie had stood her ground.
    “Mother, I know you don’t want to hear this, but I couldn’t havemarried any boy I wanted. Don’t you think I tried to find someone you would approve of? I dated everybody that asked me out. I had six dates in one day. Do you know how hard it is to be perky six times a day? I’m not pretty like you, Mother. The boys didn’t fall all over me like they did you. I can’t do it anymore. Earle loves me just the way I am, and no, we are not perfect. He has big ears, and I’m not smart or beautiful, and if you can’t bear it, I’ll go and get the sword, and you can do what you want with it. But I am going to marry Earle Poole, Jr.”
    Lenore had been so stunned at her daughter’s sudden strength that she stared at her for a moment. Then she sat up and said, “Well, I can see that you are