by: Marty Chrisman
Bo and Luke Duke. The Duke boys. Rowdy as hell, charming as the devil and favorites with all the local girls in Hazzard. Closer than brothers, the two boys were usually together, fighting, chasing women, or cruising around Hazzard in their custom build stock car The General Lee. The General Lee was well known as the boys. With its distinctive orange paint job, the large black 01 trimmed in white on each door, the rebel flag painted on the roof and the name General Lee written above each door, the car was the fastest thing on wheels in three counties and the boys were the best drivers around. Some folks even swore that The General was half human the way the boys could make that car do just about anything they wanted it to.
In his mid twenties, Luke was the oldest of the Duke Boys. He had a lean muscular build, sapphire blue eyes and was ruggedly handsome. He was the one who usually thought up ways to get them out of the trouble that his younger more impulsive cousin got them into. 5 years younger than Luke, Bo had boyish good looks, baby blue eyes, blonde hair and the same lean, muscular build as his cousin. While Luke tended to be quieter and more laid back, Bo was more outgoing and impetuous.
The two boys and Daisy lived on a farm with their Uncle Jesse. Luke had come to the farm when he was only four years old after his parents were killed in a fire in their home. Bo came a year later when he was only a baby after his parents were killed in a car accident. And Daisy had joined them 2 years later when she was 6 years old. Her parents had also been killed in a car accident. Jesse and his wife Martha were the only parents any of them could remember.
For over two hundred years, the Duke family had made moonshine. It was a family tradition that the Dukes had perfected to an art. Everyone in 4 counties knew that Jesse Duke made the best sipping whiskey around. But that had all come to an end six months ago when Bo and Luke were caught while making a run. With his boys facing up to ten years in prison, Jesse had swallowed his pride and made a deal with the government agreeing not to make any more moonshine if they would let the boys go on probation instead of sending them to prison. The Government agreed and Jesse had kept his promise. The boys had ended up with 5 years probation and time served. Since then, the farm had become their sole source of income for the family other then the money Daisy contributed from her job at the Boar’s nest or the money the boys made racing the General Lee.
With their days work done on the farm, the boys were ready to let loose and have some fun. They were meeting a couple of local girls at The Boar’s Nest and they were looking forward to spending the evening having real good time.
“Hey, Luke….” Bo said with a big grin “You think we can talk Cindy and Mary Lou into going up to the lake later?”
“They went the last time didn’t they?” Luke replied with a grin of his own.
“Yeah…they did.” Bo said, his eyes lighting up as he remembered how much fun they’d had that night with the two girls. They’d went skinny dipping and both of them got lucky.
The Boar’s Nest was jumping when they arrived and the parking lot was crowded with cars and pickup trucks. Bo managed to find a place near the back of the dirt lot where he could park The General. The boys slid out the windows (the doors were welded shut to keep them flying open during a race) and headed for the front entrance. Several of their friends yelled out greetings as they went into the bar.
They quickly spotted their dates for the evening, Cindy Rogers and Mary Lou Carson, sitting at a booth near the back of the room. Daisy saw the boys come in and quickly filled four mugs with the watered down beer that Boss served at the Boar’s Nest and sat the glasses on a tray. The boys made their way through the crowd and sat down at the booth with the girls. Bo sat with Mary Lou, a pretty little brunette with a Dolly Parton figure, and Luke sat with Cindy, a pretty blonde who was almost as tall as Luke and he was six foot tall. Bo was even taller. He was six foot four. They were already making time with the girls when Daisy brought their drinks over to the table.
Daisy smiled as she walked away from their table. She loved her cousins, even if they did treat her like overly protective older brothers sometimes, and she was used to seeing them with one girl after another. (Sometimes even two different girls in the same night) Neither one of them had any inclination towards settling down but then neither did Daisy.
The boys were both experts when it came to sweet talk and it wasn’t long before the two couples were getting really cozy. Bo had just lifted his beer to take a drink when he saw the front door open and Lynn came into the bar. Hell, every red-blooded good ole boy there saw her come in and started drooling. She was dressed in blue jeans and a pink tank top that left little to the imagination with her hair falling down her back in a mass of tousled curls.
Bo almost choked on his beer when he saw her. He kicked Luke under the table to get his attention. He had his back to the door and hadn’t seen her entrance. “Luke, you ain’t never gonna believe this….” he told his older cousin “But look who just walked in the door.”
Luke looked over his shoulder and felt his stomach do a flip flop. Lynn Conway was the last person he expected to ever see again. He quickly turned back around hoping his sudden discomfort didn’t show on his face.
“Hey,” said Mary Lou, noticing Lynn too. “Ain’t that Lynn Conway? What the hell is she doing back in Hazzard?”
Cindy’s eyes narrowed at the mention of Lynn’s name and she quickly looked around in time to see Lynn take a seat at the bar. Turning back around, she leaned in closer to Luke, as if to mark her territory. She knew that Luke had a history with Lynn and she automatically felt a sharp pang of jealousy.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it…” Luke said, trying to keep his voice light and casual. “She probably ain’t sticking around.” Shoving himself to his feet, he walked over to the jukebox and put in some change. After making his selections, he walked back over to the booth and pulled Cindy into his arms to dance.
Lynn smiled as she ordered a coke from the bartender, Jim, who helped out when the bar got busy. She knew that Bo and Luke had both seen her when she came in. She also knew that they were making a conscious effort to ignore her. But that didn’t bother her. They couldn’t ignore her forever not when she was back in Hazzard for good.
Luke held Cindy close, nuzzling the side of her neck with his lips as they danced. He could feel her pressing against him, sending clear signals that they were going to have a real good time later when they were alone. But no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t forget that Lynn Conway was sitting at the bar. He didn’t know what she was doing back in Hazzard but he knew it was bound to cause trouble (probably for him). Besides the fact that she was his old high school sweetheart, whenever the two of them got around each other they tended to mix like fire and water.
When Luke finished dancing with Cindy, the two couples decided to leave and go some place a little more private. As they were leaving the bar, for just the briefest of moments, Luke locked eyes with Lynn. An amused smile tugged at her lips as if she could sense his discomfort with her being back in Hazzard. Pulling Cindy a little closer then necessary, he followed Bo and Mary Lou out into the parking lot.