Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

MARCH 9, 1986

Before, during those long endless black nights when Evelyn had been awake sweating with fear and fighting visions of death and tubes and tumors growing, she had wanted to scream out for help while Ed slept beside her. But she had just lain there in that dark pit of her own personal hell until morning.

Lately, to get her mind off that cold gun and pulling the trigger, she would close her eyes and force herself to hear Mrs. Threadgoode’s voice and if she breathed deep and concentrated she would soon see herself in Whistle Stop. She would walk down the street and go in Opal’s beauty shop and could actually feel her hair being washed with warm water, then cool, then cooler. After a comb-out she would stop by to visit with Dot Weems at the post office and then on to the cafe where she could see everyone so clearly, Stump and Ruth and Idgie. She would order lunch and Wilbur Weems and Grady Kilgore would wave to her. Sipsey and Onzell would smile at her and she could hear the radio from the kitchen. Everyone would ask her how she was and the sun was always shining and there would always be a tomorrow … Lately she slept more and more and thought of the gun less and less …

When she woke this morning, Evelyn realized that she was actually looking forward to going to the nursing home. Sitting there all these weeks listening to stories about the cafe and Whistle Stop had become more of a reality than her own life with Ed in Birmingham.

When she arrived, her friend was in a good mood, as usual, and was happy to get the Hershey bar without almonds, a special request.

Halfway through it, Mrs. Threadgoode was busy wondering about a hobo she had known years ago.

“Lord, I wonder whatever happened to Smokey Lonesome. It’s no telling where he is now, probably dead somewhere, I guess.

“I remember the first time he ever came in the cafe. I was having a plate of fried green tomatoes, and he knocked on the back door, looking for food. Idgie went in the kitchen and pretty soon she came back in with this poor fella that was filthy dirty from riding the rails, and told him to go into the bathroom and wash up and she’d give him a bite to eat. Idgie went to fix him a plate and said that was the lonesomest-looking character she’d ever seen. He said his name was Smokey Phillips, but Idgie named him Smokey Lonesome, and after that, every time she’d see him coming in off the road, she’d say, ‘Here comes ol’ Smokey Lonesome.’

“Poor ol’ thing, I don’t think he had a family, and Ruth and Idgie felt sorry for him ’cause he was ’bout half dead, and let him stay in that old shed they had out in back of the cafe. Oh, he’d get the wanderlust every once in a while and take off two or three times a year, but sooner or later he’d show back up, usually drunk and run-down, and, he’d go out back in his shed and stay awhile. He never owned a thing in his life. All he had was a knife and a fork and a spoon that he carried inside his coat pocket, and this can opener that he kept in his hatband. Said he didn’t want to be burdened down. I think that shed out back was the only place he ever had to call home, and if it hadn’t been for Ruth and Idgie, he might have starved to death.

“But I think the real reason he kept coming back was because he was in love with Ruth. He never said so, but you could tell by the way he looked at her.

“You know, I’m thankful that my Cleo passed on first. It seems like a man cain’t live without a woman. That’s why most of them die right after their wives do. They just get lost. It’s pitiful … you take Old Man Dunaway who’s out here. His wife hasn’t even been dead over a month yet, and he’s already started goosing all the women … that’s why the’re giving him those tranquilizers, to calm him down. Thinks he’s a Romeo, can you imagine? And you should see what he looks like, just like an old turkey buzzard, with big floppy ears and all. But who am I to say? No matter what you look like, there’s somebody who’s gonna think you’re the handsomest man in the world. Well, maybe he’ll catch one of these old women yet …”