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

think she was raised real strict-like.
    “But as soon as they saw her, all the boys in town, who neverwent to church, started going every Sunday. I don’t think she had any idea how pretty she was. She was kind to everybody, and ol’ Idgie was just fascinated with her … Idgie must have been around fifteen or sixteen at the time.
    “The first week Ruth was there, Idgie just hung around in the chinaberry tree, staring at her whenever she went in or out of the house. Then, pretty soon she took to showing off; hanging upside down, throwing the football in the yard, and coming home with a huge string of fish over her shoulder at the same time that Ruth would be coming across the street from church.
    “Julian said she hadn’t been fishing at all and had bought those fish off some colored boys down at the river. He made the mistake of saying that in front of Ruth, and it cost him a good pair of his shoes that Idgie filled with cow manure that night.
    “Then, one day, Momma said to Ruth, ‘Will you please go and see if you can get my youngest child to sit down like a human being and have her supper?’
    “Ruth went out and asked Idgie, who was in the tree reading her
True Detective
magazine at the time, if she wouldn’t please come and have supper at the table tonight. Idgie didn’t look at her, but said she’d think about it. We’d been seated and had already finished saying grace when Idgie came in the house and went upstairs. We could hear her upstairs in the bathroom running water, and in about five minutes, Idgie, who almost never ate with us, started down the stairs.
    “Momma looked at us and whispered, ‘Now, children, your sister has a crush, and I don’t want one person to laugh at her. Is that understood?’
    “We said we wouldn’t, and in comes Idgie, with her face all scrubbed and she had her hair all slicked down with some old grease that she’d found up there in the medicine cabinet. We tried not to laugh, but she was a sight to see. All Ruth asked her was if she cared for some more string beans, and she blushed so bad that her ears turned as red as a tomato.… Patsy Ruth started it first, just a snicker, then Mildred. And like I say, I always was a tagalong, so I started and then Julian, who couldn’t control himself a minute longer, spit his mashedpotatoes all over poor Essie Rue, who was sitting across from him.
    “It was terrible to have that happen, but it was just one of those things. Momma said, ‘You may be excused, children,’ and all of us ran in the parlor and fell on the floor and about killed ourselves laughing. Patsy Ruth peed her pants. But the really funny thing is Idgie was struck so dumb at sitting next to Ruth that she never even knew what we’d been laughing at, because when she passed by the parlor, she looked in and said, ‘That’s a fine way to act when we have company.’ And of course, we all just collapsed again …
    “Pretty soon after that, Idgie started acting like a tame puppy. I think Ruth was lonesome, herself, that summer … Idgie could make her laugh, and, oh, Idgie would do anything to entertain her. Momma said it was the only time in Idgie’s life that she could get her to do anything she wanted—all she had to do was to ask Ruth to get her to do it. Momma said Idgie would have jumped off a mountain backwards if Ruth had asked her to. And I believe that! It was the first time since Buddy died that she even went to church.
    “Everywhere Ruth was, that’s where Idgie would be. It was a mutual thing. They just took to each other, and you could hear them, sittin’ on the swing on the porch, gigglin’ all night. Even Sipsey razzed her. She’d see Idgie by herself and say, ‘That ol’ love bug done bit Idgie.’
    “We had a fine time that summer. Ruth, who tended to be a little reserved, at first learned to cut up and play games. And pretty soon when Essie Rue would play the piano, she joined in the singing just like the rest of us.
    “We were