**Note: This story is dedicated to Brian Coltrane and his author Cuz.
Thank you for all that you have done for me in my short time here in Hazzard.**
“Wild West Show” By: Big & Rich
I’m feelin’ like Tonto,
Ridin’ a Pinto,
Tryin’ to chase the Lone Ranger down.
I’m a little unraveled,
But I’m still in the saddle,
Cryin’ your name out to the crowds,
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
Why don’t you meet me,
Back at the tepee?
We’ll lay down by the camp fire.
There, in the dark night,
We’ll smoke the peace pipe,
Forget about who’s wrong or right.
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
Yeah, it was a big showdown,
Oh yeah, we stood our ground.
Shot out the lights:
It got a little crazy.
I don’t wanna see us go,
The way of the buffalo:
Don’t wanna have another wild west show.
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
Only forgiveness,
Will finally end this.
There won’t be a witness if we both fall.
There’s never a hero,
In a battle of egos.
There’s never a winner of the quick draw.
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
Yeah, it was a big showdown,
Oh yeah, we stood our ground.
Shot out the lights:
It got a little crazy.
Don’t wanna see us go,
The way of the buffalo:
Don’t wanna have another wild west show.
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
It’s like a ghost town,
Without you around.
Why can’t we just forget it,
Ride off in the sunset?
It was a big showdown,
Oh yeah, we stood our ground.
Shot out the lights:
It got a little crazy.
I don’t wanna see us go,
The way of the buffalo:
Don’t wanna have another wild west show.
Hey yaw, Hey yaw!
I’m feelin’ like Tonto,
Ridin’ a Pinto,
Tryin’ to chase the Lone Ranger down.
****************************************************************
Family Affairs
“Chet I called that eight ball in the middle pocket! I won fair and square!” Breyer Duke spoke calmly to his twin brother Chet Duke.
The elder Bo, Luke and Daisy Duke looked on from the bar as the brothers were playing a friendly game of pool in the corner of the room. Brothers, as in Bo Duke’s 19 year old twin boys, Chet Hugh and Breyer Sterling Duke.
Now, as the games friendly atmosphere took a dark turn Bo and Luke straitened up there relaxed posture where they were leaning against the bar, the boys were about to have a disagreement about the game an any disagreement between the two was not short lived.
“You didn’t call the eight ball, I’m half blind not half deaf remember.” Chet spate at his brother in a coy deep voice an then mumbled under his breath. “Soar looser.”
“What was that Chet?” Breyer looked at his brother as he placed the pool stick he had been using back on the rack. His brothers mismatched eyes, watched him glaring back at him with there own silent warning.
“You’re a soar looser Breyer! You called that eight ball, you’re a looser. You got to lie to win?!” Chet said spitting the words at his brother as if he were a rattler ready to spit venom.
A crash of thunder sounded outside and a strike of lightening flashed lighting up the dark night in the blink of an eye. An the lightening flash beamed through the windows of the Boars Nest, the thunder booming moments after Chet’s voice rang out in a coy, sarcastic tone, a warning in itself. An his eyes drilled his brother in a final warning not to defy him again, his thin black goatee twitched with irritation around his mouth as his lips pressed together tightly.
“I’m not a looser! Your just too proud to admit that you lost against….” Breyer’s voice was suddenly cut off as his brother threw his pool stick to the floor and tackled him to the ground with a bone racking thud.
The storm outside grew in strength and the winds picked up power an began to hurdle there mighty force against the trees an cover everything in sight, in sheets of down pouring rain. The dry, cracked ground quickly became a muddy mess, an the rain waved down from the sky like the ocean, encouraging the winds.
Chet pinned his brother to the floor his temper raging, his teeth gritted an his face twisted into loose anger. He fed his brother two quick punches in the jaw an was suddenly thrown to the side an onto the wooden plank floor of the Boars Nest. Breyer got to his feet fast in a quick recovery an backed away from his fiercely angry brother as Chet got to his own feet again as well.
“This is foolish Chet, fighting over a pool game!” Breyer said an plowed into Chet pinning him up against the wall.
Breyer hammered his fists into his brothers ribs holding his taller but thin an leaner twin against the wall. Soon Chet became winded from the blows to his chest, an gasped for air struggling to recover enough to answer his brother with a come back. Chet balled his fists together an drove them down into the center of his brothers back, an it was over. Breyer hunched forward from being stricken in the back by his brothers powerful double fisted blow an gasped for air.
An as suddenly as it had begun it was over, Luke Duke grabbed Breyer by his shirt and dragged him across the floor an forced him to his feet and backed him as far away from Chet as possible.
Only seconds after being relieved from his brothers hammering fists, Chet pressed himself from the wall and made another attempt to attack. His father, Bo, rammed into him sending him to the floor without losing his footing. Chet collided with the floor like a sac of potatoes and rolled over onto his side to get back up again, but not soon enough. Bo Duke pinned his son to the floor rolling Chet onto his back and holding him there.
“Just calm down.” Luke said to Breyer, who had willingly taken a seat at the bar on a bar stool.
Chet shook his father off and got to his feet also, his anger still flaring he gave his father a rough push away and stalked passed him giving his brother a cold glare as he headed for the exit of the Boars Nest.
“Get out!” Bo said pointing towards the door his angry voice echoing throughout the empty room. His blue eyes steady on his son as he gave the cold demand, his age and maturity ringing in his voice, a voice that had once been etched with a boyish tone now rang strong with a mans drawl.
“Don’t @#$%! worry I am!” Chet shouted back at his father his voice still boiling with anger.
He turned his back on his family an cousins, his boot steps echoing across the wood floor with every one of his long strode foot steps. An finally the entrance door slammed shut shaking the glass bottles an plates on the shelves.
Bo an Luke Duke shook there head, there was just so much you could do with a person like Chet, hot headed an young. The only thing the elder Dukes could do was pray that he would mature with age an grow to understand life, but most of all they hoped that he would grow out of his temper.
Chet stormed outside, the rain hitting him suddenly as he stepped out the door, but the storm wasn’t going to cease because of his presence an anger. Instead it wailed on harder beating down on the young enraged Duke as he strut towards his white 1970 Dodge Charger, properly entitled Ghost where it sat next to the famous General Lee.
He cussed angrily under his breath as he slide into the stock car with the ease and profession of a Duke. The car came to life in the flick of his wrist as he tossed his hat in the passengers seat next to him an threw the car into gear an pealed out. Ghost’s tires gripped through the mud of the wet parking lot an sped the car forward with a mighty jolt as Chet left the Boars Nest parking lot behind.
The storm raged on as Chet drove at high speed towards town, his windshield wipers slapping an throwing the rain out of his view. He clutched the steering wheel with his fist until his knuckles showed white an his fingers threatened numbness, an at that point he loosened his grip and searched his black leather jacket pockets for his pack of smokes and lighter. As he took the pack of cigarettes from his pocket one of them fell out of the pack an onto the leather seat between his legs.
Chet looked down briefly to see where the cigarette went but the car was dark an he could not see it, he looked back up at the road in just the nick of time. His right foot suddenly rushed from the gas to the brake pressing it hard in one fluent motion. Slipping an sliding at first, Ghost’s tires dug into the muddy earth an came to a mighty halt in the center of the road, its soaking wet chrome bumper only inches away from the tree that lay across the road.
The storms furry continued in a rampage of scourging the earth with its mighty fingers of rain, thunder and lightening racking over it and all around the young Duke. Chet cussed in irritation an slide out the drivers window as gracefully as he had gotten in, taking his black stetson still soaking wet an placing it back on his head. The brim of the hat naturally curved down an set forward on Chet’s head concealing his mismatched eyes from the world.
He strut up to the tree an looked down at it glaring, his wet sky blue shirt stuck to his lean body showing the movement of the toned muscles in his arms and back with his proud an sure footed movement. A powerful crash of thunder sounded, but the young man didn’t flinch an he didn’t blink as he glared down at the tree standing in his way.
An suddenly followed by the crash of thunder came a mighty bolt of lightening striking the tree behind Chet an shaking the earth under his feet. A large limb from the tree in which had been stricken came tumbling to the earth slamming Chet in the shoulders and the back of the head and throwing him to the ground. The force of the branch immediately pounding Chet to the muddy ground, the blow to the back of his head knocking him unconscious as if someone had turned the lights out.
Chet laid on his chest on the muddy ground, his hat laying close to his head, the right side of his face crammed into the muddy ground. The rain water fell onto his body, still coming in a heavy sheets that plastered the earth with every mighty whip of the wind. An in the dark of the late night, crimson drops trickled down the back of Chet’s head an quickly mixed with the rain water turning to a river of red that fell to the ground creating a puddle of its own beside the felled Duke boy.