by: Marty Chrisman

A whimper slipped from Luke’s throat when he realized that the guards had come for him again. Rough hands reached out to grab him pulling him to his feet. Two guards grabbed his arms and drug him into the building. He was taken to a small room with a metal table sitting in the middle. The guards forced Luke to lie down on the table and then they strapped down his wrists and his ankles, with another strap around his waist, securing him to the table so that he couldn’t move. Luke lay there, staring at the ceiling, as he passively waited for whatever torture they had in mind for him this time. Like the other prisoners he was slowly becoming conditioned to accept whatever fate they had in store for him.

“You are nothing…” one of the guards hissed at Luke “You live because we let you live, you will die if we choose to kill you…we control your fate.”

Luke didn’t bother to respond. He knew that answering would only make them hurt him. The guards constantly told the prisoners the same thing. They were nothing, they lived only because the guards let them live. They could kill them at any time and not give it a second thought. To the guards they were less than human, animals and no longer men.

One of the guards held up a knife with a wicked looking eight inch blade, holding in front of Luke’s face to make sure that he saw it. Luke flinched and clenched his teeth to keep from crying out as the guard took the knife and cut a series of small cuts across Luke’s chest, shallow cuts not deep enough to be serious, just deep enough to cut the skin and hurt. Luke knew the guard was just teasing him he wasn’t ready to really hurt him yet.

Luke felt the guard pressing the blade of the knife against his thigh and he screamed out in pain as the blade was plunged into his flesh and then jerked the downward, slicing open a deep wide gash in his leg. Luke fought to remain conscious as the pain swept over him, making him weak and nauseous. He could feel the blood soaking through the ragged pants he wore. Luke couldn’t stop the whimpers that slipped from his throat or the trembling of his body. He could hear the guards laughing at his expense. He just wanted them to stop hurting him. He couldn’t take being hurt much more.

“You are nothing…” one of the guards hissed in Luke’s ear “You are just dirt under my feet….” To empathize his point and make it perfectly clear just how he felt about Luke, he unzipped his pants and deliberately urinated in Luke’s face. Luke closed his eyes and turned his head away at being degraded and humiliated in such a manner. And in that moment, Luke felt something inside of him give up and he retreated into the relative safety of his own mind where they couldn’t hurt him anymore at least for a little while. He went back to Hazzard where he was safe and he was loved.

“I promise you, little cuz…” Luke said trying to comfort his younger cousin who was so upset because Luke was leaving for boot camp soon. “I’ll come back….I won’t die over there….”

“You swear?” Bo asked through his tears, clinging to Luke desperately. The boys had always been close. They had even become blood brothers when they were younger. Both of them had a faint scar on the palms of their hands, Bo on his right and Luke on his left, where they had cut themselves with a knife so they could mix their blood together. Cousins on paper but blood brothers for life. Bo had always looked up to Luke and wanted to be just like him. Luke was his hero and his best friend and now he was going away.

“I swear.”

“On your word as a Duke?”

“On my word as a Duke.”

“I don’t want you to go…” Bo cried as he threw himself into Luke’s arms. Luke held him close in a warm embrace and gently stroked the fourteen year olds thick blonde hair. Bo buried his face against Luke’s shoulder and cried as if his heart would break.

Luke held back his own tears as he listened to Bo cry. He knew that his leaving would be hard for both of them but he had never expected it to be this hard. He and Bo had always done everything together ever since they were children. Luke had even lost some of his own friends when he refused to do things with them unless Bo could be included. Now they were going to be separated for four years and neither one of them was handling it very well. Luke hoped that he could keep his promise to Bo about coming home alive.

Billy Jo sat beside Luke’s limp unconscious body and gently rubbed his shoulder. This time he didn’t seem to be waking up and Billy Jo was afraid that this time the guards had finally gone too far. Everyone has their limits even a man as strong as Luke Duke always seemed to be. And Luke seemed to be one of their favorites, one of the unlucky prisoners that the guards seemed to like to torture the most. “Come on, Sarge….” Billy Jo said “Hang in there….don’t give up now…..” Billy Jo swallowed hard and blinked back his own tears. Luke’s courage had always given Billy courage too and he genuinely liked the young officer, everybody in the unit did. He was tough but he was fair. At the same, he was still a good ole county boy who genuinely enjoyed the company of the other men he was assigned to work with.

Billy could remember him telling stories about Hazzard and how much he missed his family and wanted to go home. Hell, they all did. He hoped that Luke would get the chance to do just that and not die here a thousand miles from home in this hell hole. “Come on, Sarge….” Billy coaxed him again “Open your eyes….”

Slowly, Luke’s eyelids fluttered and then opened. There was an empty dead look in those sapphire eyes that Billy Jo had already seen in the eyes of so many of the other men here. Luke was giving up the guards had finally broken him and left behind just a shell of the man he used to be. Billy Jo shifted positions so that he could pull Luke into his lap and he sat there holding him, letting Luke feel his embrace and hoping that Luke would realize that he wasn’t alone. Billy Jo was scared to death in this place and he needed Luke’s companionship as much as Luke needed his.

Luke closed his eyes and let his mind drift free. The harsh realities of the camp may have broken his spirit but it hadn’t totally destroyed him yet. As long as he could retreat for awhile into his mind, he could find the strength to face another day. And for the moment anyway, Luke was safe. He had left this place behind and he’d gone home again in his mind.

Bo and Luke were in their bedroom with the lights out. It was late and they were supposed to be sleeping but instead like many nights before, they were awake and talking about the car they planned to build together someday. They could already picture it in their minds, the fastest sleekest and best car around. They would race it and use the money to help out on the farm. They had poured over stock car magazines getting ideas for their car, modifications that they could use to make it faster and better than any car around. Designs they could use to make it unique and make sure it stood out in a crowd.

The boys stopped talking and quickly ducked under their covers when the bedroom door opened and their Uncle Jesse stuck his head in the room. “Boys,” he said in a firm but gentle voice “I know you two are awake so stop playing possum.”

“Yes, sir.” Ten year old Bo’s meek voice came from his side of the room.

“Yes, sir.” Fourteen year old Luke said from under his covers.

“You both have school tomorrow so stop talking and get to sleep before I take you both over my knee and tan your hide.” Jesse told them, closing the door behind him.

The boys smiled at each other in the darkness and giggled quietly. Then they buried their heads in their pillows, closed their eyes and dreamed about their car they just knew they’d have someday.