Read Online Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg - Free Book Online Page A

this?”
    “It’s Irene. What are you gals up to this morning?”
    “Oh, Irene, hold on a minute, will you?” Ruby put her hand over the receiver and whispered to Tot, “It’s Irene Goodnight, do you want me to tell her or do you want to do it?” Tot was on the Elmwood Springs ladies bowling team with Irene, and said, “I’ll do it,” and took the phone from Ruby.
    “Irene, it’s Tot.”
    “Well, hey, what are you girls doing over there, having a party?”
    “No, not really.”
    “Well, I won’t bother you, but tell Elner to call me later, will you? I found some old National Geographic magazines she may want.”
    “Irene, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Elner’s dead.”
    “What?”
    “Elner is dead.”
    “You’re kidding me, right?”
    “No, honey, I’m as serious as a heart attack. She got hit by wasps, and fell out of her tree and killed herself.”
    “What…When?”
    “Not more than an hour and a half ago.”
    Irene had been cleaning out her basement all morning and had not heard the siren go through town, or even been aware of Elner’s fall, so this news was like a bolt out of the blue. “Well,” she sputtered, “I’m just—I’m just…stunned.”
    “Oh, honey, we all are,” said Tot. “After we finish straightening up the house, I’m going home and get in bed. I feel like I’ve been hit by a ten-ton truck.”
    Irene sat down on her bed and looked out the window toward Elner’s house. “Well, I’m just stunned…Where is she?”
    “In the hospital in Kansas City. Norma and Macky are over there with her.”
    “Oh. Poor Norma, you know she is going to take this hard.”
    “You know she is…I just hope they are giving her something for her nerves.”
    Irene agreed, “I hope so too…. well…what’s going to happen now?”
    “I don’t have any of the details yet, but I’ll keep you posted.”
    After she hung up, Tot walked over and sat back down. “She’s all broken up, could hardly talk.”
    Ruby said, “Well, I guess we should start making a list of all the people we need to call and let them know, save Norma the trouble.”
    “You’re right, you know she’s going to be busy making all the arrangements, that will be one less thing she will have to worry about. I guess Dena and Gerry will come in from California, don’t you think?”
    “Oh, I’m sure, it will be nice to see them again, although…I wish it could be under better circumstances,” said Ruby.
    “Yes, I do too, I wonder when the funeral will be.”
    “In the next couple of days, I would imagine.”
    Tot looked at Ruby. “I’m so sick of going to funerals I don’t know what to do.”
    Ruby, who was a little older than Tot, sighed. “When you get to be my age, all the different weddings, christenings, funerals, start to blend together. You get used to it after a while.”
    “Not me,” said Tot. “I don’t ever want to get used to it.” She turned and looked out the kitchen window at the puffy white clouds in the blue sky, and spoke. “And it’s such a pretty day too.”

Irene Goodnight

    11:20 AM
    A fter Irene put the phone down, she felt sick. She looked over at the small bunch of yellow daffodils in a jelly jar Elner had brought over a few days ago. She felt a huge wave of sadness hit her as she realized that Easter was only a few weeks away and Elner would not be here this year, or ever again. Every Easter, for as long as she could remember, she had taken her kids, then later her grandkids, over to Elner’s yard to hunt Easter eggs. Every year without fail, Elner had dyed over two hundred eggs and had hidden them all over her yard. She always held the Easter egg hunt for all the neighborhood children. Irene’s own five-year-old twin granddaughters, little Bessie and Ada Goodnight, had found the golden egg one year. What were the parents and the children going to do this year with Elner gone? What was going to happen to the Sunset Club? What was she going to do without Elner?