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

ache?”
    “Yes. How did you know?”
    “Simple, honey. You’re just going through a bad case of menapause, that’s all that’s the matter with you. What you need is to take your hormones and to get out every day and walk in the fresh air and walk yourself right through it. That’s what I did when I was in it. I used to burst into tears eating a steak, just thinkin’ about that poor cow. I like to have drove Cleo crazy, crying all time, thinking nobody loved me. Andwhenever I’d get to pestering him so bad, he’d say, ‘Now, Ninny, it’s time for your B-12 shot.’ And he’d give me a B-12 shot right in the backside.
    “I got out and walked every day, alongside the railroad tracks, up and down, just like we’re doing now, and pretty soon I had walked my way right through it and I was back to normal.”
    “But I thought I was too young to be going through it,” Evelyn said. “I just turned forty-eight.”
    “Oh no, honey, lots of women go through it early. Why, there was this woman over in Georgia who was only thirty-six years old, and one day she got in her car and drove right up the stairs of the county courthouse, rolled down her window, and tossed her mother’s head, that she had just chopped off in her kitchen, at a state policeman, and hollered, ‘Here, this is what you wanted,’ and drove right back down the courthouse stairs. Now, that’s what an early menapause will do for you if you’re not careful.”
    “Do you really think that’s what’s the matter with me? Is that why I’ve been so irritable?”
    “Sure it is. Oh, it’s worse than a merry-go-round … up and down, down and up … and as far as your weight goes, you don’t want to be skinny. Why, just take a look at all these old people out here, most of them are just skin and bones. Or just go to the Baptist hospital and visit the cancer ward. Those people would love to have a few extra pounds. Those poor souls are struggling to keep weight on. So, stop worrying about your weight and be thankful you’re healthy! What you need to do is to read your daily Word, along with Psalm Ninety, every morning, and it will help you just like it did me.”
    Evelyn asked Mrs. Threadgoode if she ever got depressed.
    Mrs. Threadgoode answered truthfully. “No honey, I cain’t say I have been lately, I’m too busy being grateful for His blessings—why, I’ve had so many blessings I cain’t even count them. Now, don’t get me wrong, everybody’s got their sorrows, and some more than most.”
    “But you seem so happy, like you never had a care in the world.”
    Mrs. Threadgoode laughed at the thought. “Oh honey, I’ve buried my share, and each one hurt as bad as the last one. And there have been times when I’ve wondered why the good Lord handed me
so
many sorrowful burdens, to the point where I thought I just couldn’t stand it one more day. But He only gives you what you can handle and no more … and I’ll tell you this: You cain’t dwell on sadness, oh, it’ll make you sick faster than anything in this world.”
    Evelyn said, “You’re right. I know you’re right. Ed said maybe I should go and see a psychiatrist or something.”
    “Honey, you don’t need to go and do that. Anytime you want to talk to someone, you just come and see me. I’d be happy to talk to you. Be more than happy to have the company.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Threadgoode, I will.” She looked at her watch. “Well, I’d better go, Ed’s gonna be mad at me.”
    She opened her purse and blew her nose with a Kleenex that earlier had been full of chocolate-covered peanuts. “You know, I feel better, I really do!”
    “Well, I’m glad, and I’m gonna pray for your nerves, honey. You need to go to church and ask the Lord to lighten your burdens and see you through this bad period, just like He’s done for me so many times.”
    Evelyn said, “Thank you … well, I’ll see you next week,” and headed down the hall.
    Mrs. Threadgoode called out after