OF COURSE, ETHEL said that with all our problems these days, it was just the beginning of the end for Western civilization. Maybe so, but Maggie, for one, was going to hang on to it for as long as she could because no matter what ugly things people said about it, she liked Western civilization. It was just so civilized. And, okay, maybe we weren’t perfect, but my heavens, hadn’t we given the world movie stars, musical comedies, electricity, baseball, hot dogs and hamburgers, not to mention Disneyland? And if anyone thought women would give up their equal rights now that they had them, they needed to talk to Brenda. She, for one, could tell them that that just wasn’t going to happen. Just like the old iron statue of Vulcan, Maggie would stand up on the hill overlooking the city she loved. And just the other day, she had seen a bumper sticker on a car being driven by a young man that read, LIFE DOESN’T SUCK! Crudely put, perhaps, but the message was certainly hopeful … She hadn’t liked the way she’d started out in life, but she sure loved the way she was ending up. Maggie began to think that maybe she didn’t have to change. Maybe it was all right to be who she was. Just a little bit out of step with the rest of the world, but very happy.
Then all of a sudden, an idea hit her. Hazel had always said, “Look around and see what the public needs, then supply it.” That was it. She certainly could see the need, and she could supply it. She went to her desk and started to turn on her computer, but then stopped. No, something as important as this should be written by hand; at least the first draft. She pulled out a sheet of paper and started outlining the chapters for her new book entitled:
Real Estate Etiquette
by
Margaret Anne Fortenberry
Outline
Chapter One
For Sellers
Showing Your Home
a) Do not remain at home during a showing
b) Do take your animals and children with you
c) No dirty dishes left in sink, please
Chapter Two
For Buyers
Looking for a Home
a) As a courtesy, leave your animals and children at home
b) No rude comments while attending an open house
c) If you do not care for the home, try not to insult the real estate agent
Chapter Three
For Agents
a) Leave your animals and children at home
b) Try not to speak ill of other agents
c) Do not steal other agents’ listings
First she would finish the book; then hopefully, she’d enjoy many more years at Crestview; then over to St. Martin’s in the Pines for bridge, lovely bus trips, and maybe golf lessons; and then, too, in the meantime, there was Charles.
As it turned out, he had been a widower for over six years and had called her and told her he was moving back home for good in a month and would love to take her to dinner. And if that wasn’t a good enough reason to be glad she hadn’t jumped in the river, she didn’t know what was.
Of course, as the new owner of Crestview, she was now also the new owner of the Crocker skeleton and was left with the responsibility of deciding what to do with it. Maggie thought about that. She knew that if people found out the truth about Edward Crocker, there would naturally be a lot of talk; anything involving someone’s sexual life (dead or alive) was fodder for the worst kind of titillation and gossip, and his life would wind up being just another amusement for people to speculate about; all the good he’d done forgotten, and just the one fact remembered. Maggie decided that he deserved more dignity than that. So in the end, the Edward Crocker legacy would remain exactly as it was: Edward Crocker, a kind and generous human being who had been lost at sea. She would have the remains buried in the gardens below, and they would remain at Crestview with her.
It was the least she could do.
Life continued to be full of unexpected surprises. Not more than a month after Babs Bingington bought Red Mountain Realty, her hotshot money manager in New York (the one she had pushed and shoved to get to) was hauled off to jail, and she was completely wiped out in one day. She had to sell everything. It was a terrible blow and quite a comedown, after owning her own agency, to now have to apply for a job as just another agent. She submitted a job application to the brand-new owner of Babs Bingington Realty, Ethel Clipp. No surprise, she was turned down flat.
As for Maggie, she had heard people say, “Be careful what you wish for, and make sure it’s what you really want.” All her life, Maggie had imagined she would be happy if only she could live in a big beautiful home atop Red Mountain. And whether it was luck or not, she had been right. She loved living in the house as much as she’d dreamed she would, even more so.
A YEAR LATER, although Maggie was in her living room arranging flowers and couldn’t see her, a skinny ten-year-old girl was visiting the statue of Vulcan with her fifth-grade class. When she looked up and saw Crestview standing up on the mountain for the first time, she thought:
A. That’s the most beautiful house I have ever seen!
B. I wonder if it’s haunted?
C. That’s where I want to live someday.
The End
or
Maybe just the beginning.
Epilogue
A few years later
BIRMINGHAM HAD ELECTED ITS FIRST LADY MAYOR, WHO HAD WON by a landslide. Her campaign slogan: “Compassion … to a point.”
With Brenda, there was no “three times and you’re out.” With her, it was one time. Two days after she was elected, when she appointed her no-nonsense OA sponsor, Ja’ronda Jones, as the new police commissioner, all three of Brenda’s deadbeat wannabe-rap-star nephews suddenly joined the army.
The other big news in Birmingham was that at age ninety-three, Ethel Clipp had just been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living working real estate agent in the world. Of course, Ethel was furious. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know how old she was.
Charles and Maggie had married and were very happy. How kind nature is. Just when she was beginning to wrinkle, Charles’s eyesight was beginning to fade. But for Charles, Maggie would never grow old. He would always look at her and see a beautiful young girl in a white evening gown.
I Still Dream About You
A NOVEL
Fannie Flagg
A Reader’s Guide
A Conversation with Fannie Flagg
Random House Reader’s Circle: How did you come up with the idea for I Still Dream About You?
Fannie Flagg: I think as we get older and we all have something we still dream about—a time, a person, a home, etc. I suspect we all tend to dream about a time when we were happy, and had a rosy future. So I wanted to explore that theme.
RHRC: This is a very funny, rollicking, happy novel, though it deals with a very serious subject. How were you able to strike that balance?
FF: Yes, it is a serious subject, and I worked hard to try and balance it and show that even in the worst of times, how people handle serious moments is sometimes very funny.
RHRC: Hazel Whisenknott is, in so many ways, the heart and soul of the novel. Is she based on anyone who influenced you in your own life?
FF: I believe everyone has met or has had a Hazel in their lives, a special teacher or someone who seems to have endless energy and enthusiasm that make people want to do more. The Hazel in my life was a man named James Hatcher. He was the director of the little theater in Birmingham where I started working at age fifteen. Most of my lifelong friends are ones that I met through him. I was very shy at the time and he pushed me (and everybody) to do things we never thought we could. I still miss him.
RHRC: And what about Babs? It seems as if we all know someone like Babs Bingington.
FF: It seems there is always a Babs somewhere. I have to confess, so far everyone who has read the book says, “Oh, I know who that is, there is someone in my town exactly like her.”
RHRC: The book has been described as a love letter to Birmingham, Alabama. Can you talk a little bit abo
ut your feelings about that city, and what made you set this novel there?
FF: I love my hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, and I loved growing up there. I set the novel there, because to this day—forty something years later—the only thing most people know about Birmingham is what happened there during the civil rights movement. I wanted to show another side of Birmingham, the one that I know and love. The one you never hear about.
RHRC: What inspired you to create the mystery at the center of the book, about Edwina Crocker-Sperry?
FF: I have studied a lot about life in the Victorian era, and learned just how hard it was back then for single or married women to make a decent living. They had no choices, other than becoming a prostitute or a maid, and a lot of them passed as men to get a job as a waiter or some other profession that did not hire women. I wanted to show that even a wealthy woman like Edwina had no real power. I think it is a way to remind people, myself included, just how far women have come in such a short time.
RHRC: Much of the story revolves around the joys and frustrations of Maggie’s life as a real-estate agent. What made you choose that line of work for your characters? Have you ever worked in real estate yourself, or what is it that appeals to you about that profession?
FF: I have always loved real estate! I go to as many open houses as I can. Many of my friends are real-estate agents. If I had not been a writer, I would have liked to have been a Realtor. I love going into people’s homes. It is a wonderful way to study people. As Hazel says, “A home says so much about a person.”
RHRC: Crestview itself practically comes alive as a character in I Still Dream About You. Is it based on a house you yourself have owned, or wished you had?
FF: The house, Crestview, is based on several big, beautiful homes atop Red Mountain in Birmingham. When I was a young girl, I would look up at them and dream of one day owning one. I still do.
RHRC: What inspired you to set the story at such a specific moment in history, beginning in the fall of 2008?
FF: Well, honestly it was fall of 2008 when I was writing the first draft of the book. I have set so many other novels in the past, so I suppose I was trying to be contemporary for a change. Also, I wanted Maggie to be a baby boomer, so I more or less had to put it in that time period.
RHRC: Maggie and Brenda seem to have very little in common, yet they’re such dependable, supportive friends for each other. Do you feel this represents an ideal kind of friendship, in which the friends complement each other’s strengths?
FF: I love the fact that Maggie admires Brenda and wishes she could be more like her and Brenda feels the same way about Maggie. I think it is the secret of a good friendship or marriage or business partnership: You complement each other.
Questions and Topics for Discussion
1. Maggie’s life hasn’t turned out the way she’d hoped, and at the beginning of the book she makes her big decision to fix it once and for all. Why do you think she feels this way, and what makes her decide that the time has come to put her plan into action? Have you ever felt the way Maggie does, and if so, what did you do to solve it?
2. Maggie’s decision comes at the end of a perfectly ordinary day, with no bells and whistles or dramatic events. In your opinion, is this typical of the way big changes happen in real life? Can you think of examples in your own life where a major event happened on an otherwise ordinary-feeling day?
3. What are Maggie’s “16 Perfectly Good Reasons to Jump in the River”? If you were making the list, what would you put in your “pros” and “cons” columns?
4. When Charles proposed to Maggie years before, she turned him down. Why did she do this? Do you think she made the right decision, given the circumstances at the time? In hindsight, should she have made a different decision? What would you have done?
5. Both Brenda and Maggie each think that the other’s life is easier and happier. Brenda is envious of Maggie’s good looks and constant cheerfulness and charm, while Maggie wishes she had Brenda’s practicality and the comfort of her big family. Why do you think they believe this—is the grass simply always greener on the other side of the fence? If you had to choose between Brenda’s and Maggie’s, which kind of life would you prefer?
6. Edwina Crocker-Sperry spent her life protecting a huge secret, one that both gave her tremendous freedom and tightly curtailed her world. What do you think that life was like for her? Would you like to have been Edwina, or to have lived a life like hers? What do you think would have happened if her secret had been discovered?
7. Everyone who meets Hazel Whisenknott falls in love with her, with her energy and enthusiasm and optimism. Even five years after she is gone, she still brightens the lives of all her friends and employees. Do you know anyone like Hazel?
8. Hazel refused to let anything get in the way of her dreams. What lessons could we all learn from Hazel’s story? What about Maggie’s?
9. At one point, Maggie meets a schoolmate who is surprised to hear that Maggie never became Miss America—the friend has been bragging about knowing Miss America for years. When Maggie tells her she was just the second runner-up, she laughs, “Honey, it’s like the Oscars; after so many years, nobody ever remembers who won, just who was nominated.” How does this change Maggie’s perspective? Do you think the observation is true, or not? Can you think of examples?
10. One effect of Maggie’s decision, she realizes, is that she no longer has to worry about the consequences of her actions. She stops going to the gym and watching the news, and starts having a lot more fun. She even speaks her mind to Babs Bingington! If you didn’t have to worry about the long-term consequences of your actions, what would you do differently? Is there anything on your list you might want to do anyway? Is there anything you might want to give up, despite the consequences?
Read on for a preview of Fannie Flagg’s novel
Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven
Elmwood Springs, Missouri,
Monday, April 1
9:28 AM, 74 degrees and sunny
After Elner Shimfissle accidentally poked that wasps’ nest up in her fig tree, the last thing she remembered was thinking “Uh-oh.” Then, the next thing she knew, she was lying flat on her back in some hospital emergency room, wondering how in the world she had gotten there. There was no emergency room at the walk-in clinic at home, so she figured she had to be at least as far away as Kansas City. “Good Lord,” she thought. “Of all the crazy things to have happen this morning.” She had just wanted to pick a few figs and make a jar of fig preserves for that nice woman who had brought her a basket of tomatoes. And now here she was with some boy wearing a green shower cap and a green smock, looking down at her, all excited, talking a mile a minute to five other people running around the room, also in green shower caps, green smocks, and little green paper booties on their feet. Elner suddenly wondered why they weren’t wearing white anymore. When had they changed that rule? The last time she had been to a hospital was thirty-four years ago, when her niece, Norma, had given birth to Linda; they had all worn white then. Her next-door neighbor Ruby Robinson, a bona fide professional registered nurse, still wore white, with white shoes and stockings and her snappy little cap with the wing tips. Elner thought white looked more professional and doctorlike than the wrinkly, baggy green things these people had on, and it wasn’t even a pretty green to boot.
She had always loved a good neat uniform, but the last time her niece and her niece’s husband had taken her to the picture show, she had been disappointed to see that the movie ushers no longer wore uniforms. In fact, they didn’t even have ushers anymore; you had to find your own seat. “Oh well,” thought Elner, “they must have their reasons.”
Then she suddenly began to wonder if she had turned off her oven before she had gone out in the yard to pick figs; or if she had fed her cat, Sonny, his breakfast yet. She also wondered what that boy in the ugly green shower cap and those other people leaning over, busy poking at her, were saying. She could see their lips moving all
right, but she had not put her hearing aid on this morning, and all she could hear was a faint beeping noise, so she decided to try to take a little nap and wait for her niece Norma to come get her. She needed to get back home to check on Sonny and her stove, but she was not particularly looking forward to seeing her niece, because she knew she was going to get fussed at, but good. Norma was a highly nervous sort of a person and, after Elner’s last fall, had told her time and time again not to get up on that ladder and pick figs. Norma had made her promise to wait and let Macky, Norma’s husband, come over and do it for her; and now not only had Elner broken a promise, this trip to the emergency room was sure to cost her a pretty penny.
A few years ago, when her neighbor Tot Whooten had gotten that needle-nosed hound fish stuck in her leg and wound up in the emergency room, Tot said they had charged her a small fortune. On reflection, Elner now realized that she probably should have called Norma; she had thought about calling, but she hadn’t wanted to bother poor Macky for just a few figs. Besides, how could she know there was a wasps’ nest up in her tree? If it weren’t for them, she would have been up and down that ladder with her figs, making fig preserves by now, and Norma would have been none the wiser. It was the wasps’ fault; they had no business being up there in the first place. But at this point she knew that all the excuses in the world would not hold much water with Norma. “I’m in big trouble now,” she thought, before she drifted off. “I may have just lost ladder privileges for life.”