by: Kristy Duke

Sitting on the floor behind the driver’s seat of the stolen van, Landon finds himself smiling in disbelief at the luck that had helped him and his gang escape from the hick jail. Luck that the local deputy acted as slow and as dumb as he looked. His plan wouldn’t have worked at the state pen or any other jail that was manned by competent and wise lawman, but they weren’t at the pen as of yet nor were they at any other jail. They were in the Hazzard County jail where the law seemed to have a hard time walking on their own two feet as it was not alone to be held responsible for the hardened criminal that was in their jail. Sure, the FBI was there to give them reinforcement, which made it a little harder to manipulate the local law, but it was easy enough once they got out the deputy’s gun and out of the cell.

If that wasn’t good enough, once they locked the local lawmen and their county commissioner into their own jail cells and shot the two FBI agents, they found the pretty little woman hiding out in one of the offices upstairs. Luckily, Landon had thought of searching the upstairs once they had escaped. His first thought was to run out and steal the first car or vehicle they found, the sooner they got outside of those doors, was the better. But instinct told him to do a quick search of the upstairs and he had learned years ago, it is best to follow instincts. And during that search, he had found the woman sitting at a desk, hunched over and whispering into a black dial phone. And now, the pretty little woman is sitting behind the wheel and fearfully driving him and his gang back to their hideout. Better yet, the name plate upon the wooden desk that she had sat at and read Kristy Duke. Garrett’s older sister. He never talked about her or any of his personal life other than his dislike of Bo, but through a bug he had planted upon Garrett’s phone and  through having him followed, he knew Kristy to be his sister. The sister that he was protective of and cared for. And after what Garrett had done to him, Landon had thought it was about time someone was to pay for what he did. That someone would be Garrett himself. Of course, Kristy would soon to pay for his mistakes. After all, they don’t leave witnesses.

“Get a move on it!” he hisses and he feels her tense up through the seat and he presses the agent’s gun tighter against her thigh to hear her hiss in out of fear and perhaps a little pain. “Your brother is going to pay for his stupidity. I’m just sorry it has to be through you!’

Silence flows through the van as he steels a look out of the window and is surprised to find that they are almost to their hideout as his mind washes heavily within him of what he will do once he gets there. Deep down, he knows he should dump the girl and drive his gang out of Hazzard, get as far away from Hazzard as they could get. But he couldn’t let the hick’s brother get away with what he did to him. No one double crosses him like that and gets away with it. Landon didn’t care if it meant bringing him and his gang down once more by the FB or worse to do so.

“We’re there,” Kristy states as the van comes to a halt and Landon peers out, once more surprised to see they are there.

“Very good. Give me the keys!” Landon snaps at her as he climbs up front while the rest of the gang jump out from the back. Landon grabs the keys from Kristy and reaches down to unbuckle her and she gasps in surprise. “Unlock your door,” he jams the gun in her ribs and she slowly unlocks the door for Cliff to roughly open the door and yank her out by her wrists. Landon smiles as he watches Cliff yank her thin wrists behind her back and forces her forward and towards the house.

Watching them walk into the house, Landon slowly steps out to take everything, making sure no one is watching before he walks over to a couple of lower rank men. “Guard the house. Give a shot out if you see anything,” he states and they both nod and Landon steps into the old farm house to find Cliff to be joined by Darrell and they are tying Kristy to the chair that he had Shawn tied up to a few days earlier. “Well, well, well,” he smiles as he walks over to her to touch her hair and she spits at him and yanks her head away from him, “feisty aren’t we?” he grins before he back hands her across the face and Kristy yells aloud in pain only to send Landon laughing. “We won’t have any of that around here. You serve us as one purpose and once that purpose is over, we will dispense you as we see fit. So if you want to see your pretty little children again, I suggest you behave your pretty self. Understand?”

Kristy looks at him in anger. “Don’t you dare even think of hurting them!” she yells and spits at him again only to get backhanded again.

Landon shakes his head at her as he walks around her before abruptly pulling on the back of her hair and Kristy hisses out in pain. “Well sugar, if you don’t want nothing to happen to your little brats, I suggest you give me what I want. Or else I’ll send Cliff over there to get your kids for me,“ Landon laughs as he lets go of her hair to bend down in front of her. Grinning at her, he points to Cliff who grins evilly back at her. After a brief moment, Landon points at him and Cliff steps forward to give Landon a black cell phone. “Give me Garrett’s phone number. Or else I‘ll send Cliff out to get ‘em.”

She eyes him for a long moment and when she doesn’t respond, he thrusts the gun to her head and once more she gasps in fear. “I wouldn’t be testing him, sugar,” Cliff says bending over and breathing in her face, “he gets real violent when people stab him in the back as your brother had. Being in jail didn’t help him any. And now you’re only making it worse. You make it worse for him, he’ll make it worse for you.”

She eyes him for a long moment before he slowly backs away from her. Looking at the gun and then up at Landon, she slowly tells him Garrett’s cell phone number, knowing there is no way out. “Very good,” Landon smiles at her as he begins to dial the number, “you are to tell him to meet you at this address. He’ll get the idea of the message. If not, then I’ll be glad to tell him.” He grins evilly as he forces the gun tightly against her sweat dampened skin as he presses the send button.

 

***GARRETT DUKE***

 

The still silence screams loudly at me as I numbly walk through the empty hallway and into the dark kitchen and I hit the light switch to watch the dim lights slicing through the shadowy darkness. Sighing heavily, I slowly step over to the refrigerator to heavily yank the door open and blindly grab a bottle of beer off of the top shelf before closing the door and silently walking over the family sized table that sits near the back wall. Sitting heavily down into a wooden chair, I twist the metal top off of the beer and take a long drink of the beer before sitting back against the back of the chair to feel the cool liquid melting down my throat.

Placing the bottle back down upon the table, I find myself staring ahead blankly, my thoughts falling back through the past couple of days’ events to send relief rippling through me. Relief of facing the feds and making a deal with them. Of being able to reach the deal with bringing Landon into them. Relief that Landon and his gang are in jail and no longer able to hurt anyone else. Relief, despite my feelings for Bo, that he should be OK in time. Relief that all of this has come to an end. For them and for me.

Slowly I reach forward to grab my bottle of beer from the table and stare at the wet circle of condensation that the bottle had left before glancing up at the clock. Only to send questions through my tired mind. Questions of where everyone is at. Normally at this time LB would be returning home and Kristy would be fixing dinner for the kids with Shay and Jamie running around playing. Yet the house remains empty except for me. Taking another cold drink of beer, I am quick to come up with answers to my questions. Kristy could be visiting Bo at the hospital and LB could be working late for Cooter who also could be visiting Bo. Which would probably leave the kids at Kristy’s friends house if not with Daisy at Cooter’s old house.

Setting my beer back down upon it’s circular mark, I find myself resting against the back of the chair, staring at the wall that is scattered with pictures of the kids or of the kids’ artwork. Staring at the familiar wall with guilt and relief mixing within me. Guilt at my involvement with the gang, for what I had done. And once more, relief that it was all over and everyone has survived it. Everyone, but Shawn who had to be stupid and greedy to do what he had done.

Abruptly the silence is punctured by my cell phone’s familiar ring going off at my hip and I grudgingly sit forward to take it off of my belt to see an unknown number set across the screen. Hesitantly, I pull it open and say, “Hello.”

“Garrett,” Kristy’s familiar voice is quick to respond, fear and horror seems to be entrapped within my name.

“Hey Kris,” I slowly state as I pick up my bottle to stare down at the wet circle once more before taking a long drink. Setting it back down, I force myself to ask, “what’s wrong? You OK?”

“No, I’m not OK!” she yells at me and I silently picture her angered green eyes that flare up whenever she is upset,  “What have you done?!” she pauses, her voice is strained and full of rage and fear. After a short moment, she continues in a stern and firm voice, “You need to meet up with me. You have a lot of explaining to do to me. You owe me an explanation for why I’m tied to a stupid chair with your Landon threatening my children!”

Landon. Her children. Fear streaks through me. “My Landon? Look Kris, Landon’s in jail,” I hear myself saying aloud despite the firm knowledge that he’s not in jail. That he has Kristy in order to get to me for what I have done to him.

“Then tell me why he’s standing in front of me with a damn gun!” she hisses through the phone at me, “He wants you to meet him at your old hide out. Says if you don’t do what he says that the next time you see me or the kids, will be at our funerals!” she goes silent and I can hear her tears. “I can only imagine what you done to cause all of this, Garrett. Please don’t make Jamie and Shay pay for what you did!”

“I. . .I won’t, Kris,” I numbly hear myself saying as I rise upon numb feet to weakly walk away from my beer and back out into the dark living room, my mind blank, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

She goes silent for a long moment and I hear her breathing heavily and for a moment, my mind goes back to tying Bo half awake and half unconscious onto the wooden chair. Of all his blood, his raspy breathing, and the look of death wrote across his bloody face. Of the shock and surprise that had filtered in his pained baby blue eyes as he finally saw who was tying him to the chair before the look of shock had abruptly turned into strong accusation and hatred. I was the one that had tied him to the chair, the one that helped Shawn beat him nearly to death, the one that had helped Landon and the gang take not only Bo hostage but his whole family as well. Yet I was also the one that brought Landon down that had ultimately got the whole gang arrested. Everyone, but Shawn who was too full of hate for Bo and greed at his revenge to think properly. But in doing all that, now I have brought Bo’s old fate upon Kristy, upon myself. I was able to help Bo out in time, if all goes the way it looks to be going, but that was all by luck. There’s no way I could do it again with Landon free and full of his own rage towards me. . .

Guilt and fear abruptly consume me, making it hard to breathe as I step outside into the late afternoon as my mind quickly goes through all the events that has led me to here. To blackmailing myself into the gang to robbing Hogg’s house and to tying Bo to the chair and making the deal with the FBI. Chills harshly cross my body as my thoughts fall upon Kristy tied and at gun point with the threat of them hurting her children. Hurting the only things that has made life living for her. Of her fear for them and her anger towards me. Rightful anger.

Climbing upon my motorcycle, my fear seems to accumulate within me in bold realization that even if I show up as I was instructed to do, Landon won’t just let Kristy go. Or I go. They don’t leave witnesses behind. I now have placed myself in his evil wrath and made Kristy an innocent witness. The best scenario would be that they would only kill us and leave the kids as orphans for Jesse or LB to take care of. To bring the FBI would perhaps help them arrest Landon and his gang, but it’d be too late for Kristy and I. One scent of the feds, Landon would put a bullet into both of us for a clean kill before turns his and his men’s guns upon the FBI.

Pulling out of the driving, I quickly gun my motorcycle and quickly drive through the familiar street I drive, not seeing anything but the road ahead of me. My thoughts continue to swirl from thought to thought to send my emotions plummeting deeply within me. If only I hadn’t blackmailed my way into their gang…if only I hadn’t been so readily to join their gang as I was, I would have no responsibility  for what Shawn did to Bo and Kristy wouldn’t be tied to a chair with Landon threatening her kids. But I did and now it’s up to me to make it right…But how?

 

*                                              *                                              *

 

Taking a deep breath, I slowly pull my motorcycle to a halt in front of the front door of the old and abandoned farm house that Landon had made their hideout in and I once again am reminded of my involvement. Of what I had done. Attempting to shove the past and my guilt behind me, I slowly step off of my motorcycle to give it a last look while running my hand along the seat and the handle bars. Throwing my half lit cigarette upon the dry dirt, I stare up at the old farm house that looms threatenly ahead of me in attempt to gather the courage to step forward and to do what I have to do. Sighing heavily, I finally begin to walk towards the front door to step over the fallen log they had made me trip over on my first visit to the hide out before slowly making my way to the closed wooden door. Reaching the door, Kristy’s feared and angered voice from her phone call yells accusingly within my head once more and once again, I silently imagine all that she has gone through to get where she is at. Because of me.

Shaking my head in disbelief towards my own blindness and stupidity, I slowly turn the golden door handle to shove the wooden door open and my heart comes to a halt in fear, anger, and in guilt as I see Kristy. “Kristy,” I hear myself say aloud, my mouth has gone dry as for a long moment, all I can see is her sitting tied tightly to the same wooden chair Shawn had been tied to after he had beat Bo the first time. Her hair is tangled and tears stain her pretty face that is now swollen and bruised on her left cheek.

“Ah you’ve finally arrived. For a minute there,” Landon states to pull my attention away from Kristy and onto him who stands right behind her with his gun tightly to her head, “I thought you were going to run off and cower away as you did at your farm. Thought I was going to have to send Cliff out to get Jamie and Shay!”

“Don’t you dare touch them! Get your filthy hands off of my sister! She done nothing to you!” I yell and as I angrily step forward both Cliff and Darrell shove me back and hold tightly onto my arms, “It’s me that you want! Not her…let her go!”

Landon laughs that echoes off the walls. “You know I can’t do that, Garrett. That’d be leaving a witness behind and you know as well as I do, that we just don’t leave witnesses behind. Even pretty ones,” he states as he runs his free hand through her hair and she tightly closes her eyes; seeming full aware of the consequences would be to struggle against him. “We trusted you Garrett. We thought you were one of us. After all, you helped with robbing the county commissioner’s home, helped us get to that stupid brother of your’s. Helped us tie him up, helped Shawn do what he should have done the first time he attacked him in the barn,” with that he yanks Kristy’s hair back and she yells out in pain to send an evil smile across his face, “Yeah you really had us fooled. Until you went and stabbed me in the back. You called Shawn a coward. At least Shawn was man enough to be one of us.” He shakes his head over Kristy’s head. “No, he’s not the coward. He died for us. He took that bullet to be one of us. Shawn’s not the coward. You’re the coward, Garrett. Had to go run off and tell on us just like a little kindergartener would do on his younger brother. Coward.”

“Call me what you want, Landon,” I say, my voice coming out more calm than what I feel, “I did what I had to do. I joined your gang to fit in. To do what I once did. That never included torturing people to death…innocent people to death. Bo did nothing to Shawn but walk into his own damn barn, Shawn was stupid enough to be hiding your dirty money in it. Bo did nothing to you…it was Shawn that got him involved by what he did. I couldn’t just sit back and allow you to kill him for what Shawn did.”

Landon shrugs. “Coward or brave…both is going to get you and your pretty sister killed. But since you came right over, I’ll make it a little easier on your sister and kill her first and fast. She won’t even see it coming. Poor kids though. Will lose a mother and an uncle all in the same day just because of your stupidity!” with that he forces the gun tighter against her head and Kristy bites onto her lower lip to stop herself from crying out in fear and I struggle against Cliff’s and Darrell’s grip only for them to tighten it and pull me back and away from Kristy.

I look at Landon and as words fail to come, I glance down at Kristy to see her staring up at me with angered accusing eyes and I find myself nodding at her. “I’m sorry Kristy. I didn’t mean to get you involved or the kids. You’ve done a lot to me and for me and yet I’ve done this to you. To your kids. To your family,” I hear myself saying, knowing how pitiful it must sound.  “I’m sorry, Kris.”

She eyes me hard for a long moment before she forces her eyes away from me before Landon’s laughter shatters the silence that had began to form around us. “You’re as pathetic as your twin, you know that? I’m finally hearing the resemblance between the two of you. I guess you are twins after all.” Landon laughs again at his own joke, “I hate to do this to you, Kristy. You have Garrett to blame. Don’t worry, though, his punishment will be next. And it won’t be as quick and clean as your’s is. I’m looking forward to seeing the look of pain on his face, through all his blood of course. I’m excited to hear him plead and beg me to stop. Sooner I’m done with you, sweet heart, the sooner I will be able handle that backstabbing brother of your’s. Afterwards, perhaps we’ll pay your other brother a visit in the hospital on our way outta town, see if we can stop his weak heart once and for all. Wouldn’t want Shawn to die for nothing, now would we?” Another roll of laughter.

I eye him for a long time, listening to his evil laughter as his words echo within me, before I look down at Kristy at her large tears that melt down her bruised cheeks. With Cliff’s and Darrell’s fingers sinking into my arms, a heavy and numbing feeling of helplessness washes over me at not being able to stop Landon and to save my sister from what I had done. “Please Landon. Leave her out of this,” I plead him, “she didn’t do anything to you. Bo didn’t do anything to you. I did. I’m right here.”

“Oh trust me, Garrett, you’ll get your turn. Your turn will be next,” he states,  his gun firmly stuck against Kristy’s head, “just be patient. You’ve got to see what you done before you face your punishment.” Once more he begins to laugh at his own joke, sounding sinister and evil as he eyes me with hardened eyes.

His laughter is quickly cut short as a loud voice yells from outside, “Landon. It’s the FBI,” it goes silent once more and Landon points to a couple other gang members to look outside, “we got you and your hideout surrounded. We’ve got our sharp shooters plated where they can shoot your ugly head off your shoulders, just as they had done to Shawn. It’s your choice. Throw the gun down and step outside with your hands up. It could all be done and over with. Otherwise, we’ll take you out of there just as we did Shawn.”

“It’s the FBI,” the gang member fearfully states, “they got us surrounded with guns and vehicles. There’s no way out, Boss.”

“Damn it,” Landon hisses as he looks around, “well I ain’t leaving here unless I accomplish what I came for. I didn’t go to all these lengths to escape only to come back with nothing!” With that he moves away from Kristy and confidently walks over to me where he back hands me across the face with the butt of the gun, “Guess you get what you want after all, Garrett. Too bad your pretty sister is going to have to watch us kill you and live to tell about it. Just think of the nightmares that’ll keep her awake at night of me killing you in front of her, of your blood and that little brain in that head of your’s. That’ll be the last look she’ll have of you to remember you of.”

I eye him for a long moment as I allow my body to go relax in their grip before I quickly spit in Landon’s face and as he instinctively pulls his left hand up to his face to wipe it away, I rely on Cliff’s and Darrell’s hold upon my upper arms to pull my feet out from under me to kick Landon harshly in his stomach. Landon cries out in pain and surprise and as he bends over from the pain and shock, I send a quick knee up into his face to send him to the ground. I yell out in pain as Darrell and Cliff both turn at me to run me back into the wall harshly to allow Landon to his feet just as a herd of darkly dressed and heavily armed FBI agents run in with their guns aimed at Landon and his gang members. Several of Landon’s younger members, quickly succumb to the FBI who shed a couple of agents to lead them away.

Agent Mills walks past them and quickly to Landon and as Landon goes to pick up his gun that he had dropped when he fell upon the floor, Mills tightly places his gun to Landon’s head. “I’d think twice before picking that up, Landon,” his voice lacks any emotion, “you put one finger on that gun or make one false movement, my finger is going to press onto the trigger which will send your head through the wall over there. Want that?”

Landon stays leaned over for a long moment, eyeing his gun before he lets out a heavy sigh of defeat before he slowly stands up where Mueller quickly comes from the back to yank his arms behind his back. Mueller once again reads him his rights as Landon stares harshly at me while Cliff and Darrell both let go of my arms in their own surrender as agents approach and I instinctively rub my arms that have gone red from where they had grabbed me. “It’s not over, Garrett,” Landon hisses at me before he spits at me to land on my shoulder, “one day, I’ll find my way out and when I do, you’ll be the first person I’ll be looking for. You don’t back stab me and get away with it! You’re good as dead, Garrett!” he yells at me as Mueller begins to pull him away from me. As they reach the door, Landon yells out to me, “I’ll send my brother out to kill you! He’d do anything for me. You’re dead, Garrett!”

I sigh heavily as I watch Mueller yank him away, yelling and screaming at me before I turn back to Kristy who is now free from her ropes and his rubbing her wrists while talking to a female agent.

“You OK, Garrett?” Mills asks besides me and I slowly turn back to him, “I’m sorry. They made a move on the local law in town this morning after we left them. Locked the law in their own jail and kidnapped your sister as she was calling us. Lucky she did, otherwise we wouldn’t be here and you two…” He goes silent as he eyes Kristy for a long moment and then me. “Anyway, Mueller and I figured he’d be calling you and that was why he kidnapped Kristy and not locked her away with the rest of them. We followed you from your home to here.”

I sigh heavily as I pull a cigarette out of it’s hard box with my lighter. “I’ll be fine once I know how she is,” I motion towards Kristy before shaking my head and looking down at the ground. “All this is my fault. If I hadn’t done what I did, she wouldn’t have had to go through that. Or hear that. Or had her kids’ lives threatened. Can’t believe I was so dumb to think I could get away with it,” I slowly look up at him and am surprised to see an understanding look across his hardened face, “Thank-you for saving her. For what you did.”

He nods with a small smile. “All in a day’s work, huh?” he goes silent, “It’s all over now. The bus arrived while we were on our way over. They’re all being loaded on it as we speak. They’ll be in Atlanta before it get’s dark out.”

“Thank-you,” I say again as Mueller approaches us and I nod at him, “I’m going to go check on Kristy.”

Mills nods and pats me on the back while Mueller stares and watches me go by them before I quickly walk over to Kristy who eyes me with accusing eyes. “If you knew best, Garrett, you’d stay far away from me right now!” she yells at me, “They threatened to hurt Jamie and Shay because of you. Because of what you done! Bo’s in the hospital fighting for his life right now because of what you done!”

I slowly nod at her. “All I can say  is, I’m sorry,” I slowly state, “I’ll admit, I joined their gang, forced my way in. I even helped them rob Hogg’s house that night. I hung out with them. But I didn’t think they would hurt or try to kill anyone. If it wasn’t for Shawn, the whole thing wouldn’t have happened! He’s the one that was stupid and tried hiding their stolen money in the barn that Bo saw. Which got him beaten almost to death. That’s what started it. I warned Bo…ask him!” I pause as I place the unlit cigarette in my mouth, “I couldn’t get out, Kristy. If I did, they’d have killed me and went along with all of this anyway. Perhaps not with you…but with Bo and them. I had little to do with it. They’d have done it with or without me. So I went along with it before making the deal with the FBI and brought Landon to them. That’s what all this is about. I brought Landon to them thinking it would help Bo, save him from their plans. But Shawn was too stupid and greedy to surrender like everyone else did…like I thought he would.  I’m sorry, Kris!”

She eyes me for a long thoughtful moment before looking away. “Look Garrett. We all make mistakes. We all do things we wish we didn’t do. Things we regret later. But this? All this could have been prevented. You were suppose to come down here to get away from the gangs. Not to join one. You of all people should know how dangerous they are. Of what they would and could do. If you want to be dumb and get your own stupid self into trouble, then, fine…that’s you! Just don’t be bringing me, the kids, or my family down with you!” she eyes me with accusatory eyes, “Perhaps one day, I’ll be able to move on and forgive you for what you did, but not right now. Not tomorrow. My kids were threatened because of you. They could have been hurt, because of you. Bo’s in the hospital, in pain, fighting for his life, and may never be able to walk again, because of you. No, Garrett…this time you’ve gone too far.” She pauses as she leans on the female agent for support, “Just get away from me for right now. I don’t want anything to do with you. I’ll let you know when I’m ready to talk to you. When I’m ready to give you another chance. But right now, I’m not ready to.”

I stare at her for a long moment as I feel the emotions tugging harshly away at me from within. Slowly I nod as I light my cigarette. “OK Kris. You’ve got my number, you know how to reach me,” I slowly take a couple of steps backwards as I feel the calming affect the cigarette has over me, “I’m sorry, Kristy. For everything.”

“Tell that to the kids who look up to you. Tell that to Bo who is suffering in pain right now. You can tell me that later, when I’m ready to hear it. Not now.” she snaps at me before she turns her back towards me and the agent eyes me with hard eyes, warning me to move on.

I nod at the agent before I slowly turn back around and walk past several more agents on my way out to the door where I see the white state pen’s bus parked behind my motorcycle along with a lot of dark SUVs and cars that surround the old house. The bus’ windows are tainted dark, but through the tinted  windows, I can see the bus to be half full with Landon and his men who are staring out their windows. After a long silent moment of eyeing the bus, the diesel engine purrs to life and hisses before the tires and breaks squeak under the pressure before the bus slowly rolls away from the house and my bike. I watch it for a long hard moment, recalling Landon’s threat in hope that he will not be able to full fill his threat. But at least it was on me. No one else. Only to redirect my thoughts back upon Kristy and her harsh words. Harsh words that I deserve to hear. Her anger well deserved. Her truths that she had spoken to me seems to puncture through my heart and guilt floods through me for what I had done.

Climbing on my motorcycle, I glance up at the darkening sky as relief joins my guilt. Relief to see the bus taking Landon and his gang away. Relief to see them surrounded by heavily armed and dangerous guards that shed little ways for Landon to escape again. Relief to see the finality of it all; again.

Inhaling a deep puff of cigarette, I turn the key into the key hole and a small smile flashes across my face at the power that comes to life with the motorcycle. Eyeing the old farm house once more, I throw down my cigarette and stump it out with my boot before I slowly back up and drive past the parked federal cars and back out into the road. Driving down the road, I am quick to realize, I have no where to go. Kristy made it clear she wanted nothing to do with me or to see me until she was ready; meaning I can’t go home.

Sighing heavily, I quickly do a U-turn as I am filled with dread, realizing what I else I have to do if I am to take responsibility for what I had done. If I am to prove myself to Kristy. I have to walk into Bo’s hospital room, face Luke or Jesse or Daisy, before reaching Bo. Before facing Bo and admitting I had done him wrong. To apologize to the one person I dislike the most in Hazzard; my twin brother who has done nothing to me other than to show me his mistrust and anger towards me. Mistrust and anger that I had earned through how I have treated him. Which has also warranted anger and mistrust from Luke who seems to be over protective of Bo. Only to force more dread through me of having to face them. But sooner or later I’ll have to face them, better off that I approach them and not the other way around.

 

***BO DUKE***

 

Staring up at the shadow covered ceiling, I silently listen to the hissing of the air machine behind my head and the annoying and un-rhythmic beeping of the monitors. A heavy wave of exhaustion continues to wash over me, attempting to pull me back into sleep. Sleep that is bound to bring upon more harsh and vivid nightmares of what had happened at the farm yesterday or what may have happened at the farm if the FBI hadn’t shown up when they had.  Fighting off sleep, my mind quickly falls back upon what Luke had told me a few hours ago. Landon and his men have escaped and are believed to have kidnapped Kristy as leverage against Garrett. Only to send anger and resentment deep within me towards the man that is supposedly my twin brother as my thoughts fall upon first awakening in the barn, after I was beaten in the kitchen, to find Garrett tying me to the chair. Not only did Garrett tie me to the chair that had forced me to watch Shawn threaten my family, put the gun to Jesse’s head, but he has not gotten Kristy in trouble with the gang  he was associated with. And with the gang escaping from jail, Kristy may not be the only person to be in danger as it leaves the whole town of Hazzard open and vulnerable to the violent gang. What was once over and done with is now reopened to send harsh and intense fear rushing through me.

Abruptly, my thoughts are interrupted as the front door swings open and the hallway light slices through the dim darkness that has fallen upon the room and I slowly watch a dark tall figure step into the room before closing the door behind him. Weakly, I slowly raise my arm up to hit the light switch and watch the bright light chase the darkness and the shadows away to send fear and anger rippling through me to find Garrett standing three feet away from me. “What you want?” I harshly ask him as pressure begins to build in my lungs once more; my mind going back to wakening up to find him tying me to the chair. His cold eyes staring back at me as he checked his handy work with the ropes before he coldly hissed in my ear, ordering me to listen and do as I was told to do. “You come to do more damage?” I stare up at him, attempting to hide the fear that swarms within me, “Luke’s around here somewhere…”

He glances around his shoulder a moment before looking back at me. “No, I’m not here to do more damage to you. All I did to you was tie you up,” he shrugs, his icy cold eyes seem to dig within me, “Shawn and them was the one that did the beating and everything else.”

“All you did is tie me up?” I sarcastically mimic him, “You tied me up so Shawn and the rest of your friends could beat me. You tied me up so I had to watch Shawn threaten to shoot and kill my family. No Garrett, you did more than just tie me up. “ I weakly pull up my wrists and hands to show him the thick and ugly rope marks that bruised and cut around my wrists and ankles where I had been tied at. “Landon and Shawn or anyone else didn’t do that. You did, Garrett.”

He exhales loudly as he angrily looks away from me for a long moment as he forces deep breathes and his hand goes through his thin dark blond  hair. “Look Bo, I did what I had to do. I’m not proud of it. Once I joined the gang, there was no way out unless I wanted to disappear if you know what I mean. So I went along with it. I mean, if it wasn’t me tying them ropes to you, it would have been Darrell or Cliff or another one of Landon’s men. So I went along with it with every intention of intervening if I saw the opportunity to do so. But there is so much of them and only one of me. What was I to do, Bo? You tell me,” he goes silent for a long moment as his right hand nervously goes to his neck and begins tracing his mysterious ugly scar, “I go against them, it would be me that got the bullet. Perhaps worse. I go along with them, I’m forced to watch and participate in the killing of my supposed family. I -”

“Stop your whining, Garrett. You want me to feel sorry for you? Forget it,” I interrupt him to receive a startled and angry look from him, “you made your choice of what you wanted to do the moment you decided to join up with them. You didn’t do what you needed to do, you did what you wanted to do. As always.”

He eyes me coldly for a long moment as he yanks his hand away from the scar to bury them into his pants pocket and his eyes fall away from me and onto the floor.  Looking up at me, he slowly states, “OK fine. Yeah it was my choice to join them at first, but that was before Shawn was stupid and tried to hide their dirty money at the farm and he beat you up that first time. That’s when I started to look for a way out or for a way to stop them from doing what they were planning on doing. Why else did I write you that note?” he goes silent as I give him a questioning look and he slowly nods, “Yeah that was from me…who else would it have been from? Surely not Landon or Shawn. They both wouldn’t warn you before they killed you…Shawn was just looking for his chance to pull that trigger and to kill you. Landon wanted you dead because Shawn made you a witness. I wrote you that note to warn you not to do anything stupid that would farther risk more danger to yourself or to your family.” He goes silent as glances around the room, taking everything in long and slowly. He slowly looks back at me with tired eyes. “Also, I’m the one that helped flag the FBI down and instruct them they had you and them in the barn so they wouldn’t run into the house and give them away. Gave them a chance to ambush Landon as they did. I was also the one to take down Landon and turn him into the FBI. I tried to undo what I did.”

“Yeah right,” I give him a sarcastic laugh before falling silent and giving him a hard angry look, “stop playing the hero, Garrett. The only one seeing you as the hero in all of this, is you. I’ll give you credit and appreciate the heads up with the note, but flagging down the FBI? Turning Landon into the FBI? You’re damn selfish, Garrett. This all about you,” I go silent as I notice Garrett tensing up in anger towards my bold accusations and he takes a step back. The pain in my leg seems to scream at me as each breath I manage to take seems to get heavier. “The only reason you flagged the FBI down and turned Landon into them was so that you could make a sweet little deal for yourself so that they’d turn a blind eye on your involvement in the gang. So they’d get heavy jail time while you got to walk away from it all. And it worked, didn’t it?” I eye him skeptically as I begin to cough forcefully, my lungs swelling up in fiery pain with each cough and breathe I take. As my coughing resides I force heavy eye contact with him before finishing, “That is until they escaped and kidnapped Kristy to get to you. That’s got to make you feel real good about yourself, now don’t it? By the way, I assume you being here, that it means the FBI got to your gang in time before they were able to finish their job on you. How about Kristy?”

He eyes me again with emotion-less gray eyes. “Kristy’s fine. Upset and angry, but fine all the same.  And yes, the FBI showed up and arrested Landon and everyone before they could get to me or to Kristy. It’s all done and over with. This time, for real. They loaded them all up on the state pen bus and was on their way to Atlanta…probably almost there by now,” he goes silent as he refuses to make eye contact with me, too ashamed to do so. “Perhaps I did make a deal with the FBI to bring Landon to them if I could slide on by without getting arrested, but that’s not the only reason why I did what I did. I may not care for you much, but that don’t mean I want to see them kill you, either.”

“So, you’re saying that if the FBI declined your offer and refused to make a deal with you, that you’d do the same thing you did anyway?” I critically question him and he quickly looks away before nodding a half nod at me. “You sound so convincing, Garrett. But I really don’t care anymore. You being there, you doing what you did, only signifies that you are or were one of them. No Garrett, you didn’t just tie me up. It goes beyond that.”

He stares at me for a long moment with a hard look of anger spread across his cold  hard face as his muscles tense up while he exhales and inhales loudly as if attempting to calm his anger without succeeding. “Like it or not, Bo, but that’s my explanation of what had happened. Of what I had done. Sure, I messed up by joining their gang, but I also had done my share in attempting to stop them from killing you as they all wanted to do. To kill you and your family. Like it or not, Bo. I did what I had to do. End of story.” He comes to an abrupt halt and silence floods over us, silence despite the hissing and beeping of the machines that helps keep me alive. He glares at me with his hard eyes, as if trying to convince me to believe him through intimidation. After a long moment, he quickly turns around to walk toward the door just as Luke shoves the door all the way open, a look of intense anger and hatred crosses his normally calm face.

                                ***LUKE DUKE*** 

 

Resting against the old and stained white hallway wall, everything seems to come to a complete halt as I overhear Garrett’s and Bo’s tense conversation that sends anger and hatred ripping through my body. Anger and hatred towards Garrett for what he had done to Bo as I am shocked and startled to hear that Garrett had joined Shawn and his gang, that it was him who had tied Bo to the chair. Garrett and Bo may be twins, but they have more differences than they do similarities with each other, which seems to send them both to resent each other. Yet, I would never have guessed he shared a part in Shawn’s gang and all that they had done in Hazzard, what they had done to Bo.

“Like it or not, Bo, but that’s my explanation of what had happened. Of what I had done. Sure, I messed up by joining their gang, but I also had done my share in attempting to stop them from killing you as they all wanted to do. To kill you and your family. Like it or not, Bo. I did what I  had to do. End of story.” Garrett abruptly goes silent and the beeping of the machines and the hissing of the air tank seems to scream throughout the small room.

I allow a small moment to pass before I step over to glance through the small crack in the door to see Garrett turning around from Bo and begins towards the door to reignite my anger and hatred towards him. Towards my own cousin. Without much thought, I find myself quickly throwing open the door the rest of the way and take a short moment to enjoy the odd look of shock and fear cross Garrett’s face, before I take a couple of long steps towards him. Reaching him, I powerfully punch him across the face and he yells out in pain and surprise as his body crumbles under the pressure and he falls down upon Bo’s bed. “You low down piece of dirt,” I hiss angrily at him as I grab him by his shirt to yank him up to find his nose to be heavily bleeding as I drag him away from Bo and across the room where I smash his back against the hard wall. “You’re worse than dirt. Dirt has a purpose. It’s helpful and useful. You’re none of that.” I let go of his shirt with one hand to send an elbow into his face and his head is thrown back and against the wall behind him to send a loud thunk sound. “Ain’t bad enough that I had trusted in the enemy. Called the enemy my friend for years. But now find my own cousin to be part of the enemy! And yet, you walk. Free! Look at him!” I yell as I grab tightly onto his bloody chin and step to the side to force him to look at Bo who lies in his bed, staring up at the ceiling, and gasping for air despite the machine that hisses air into him. “Does he look free? Huh Garrett? Answer me!”

Garrett eyes me with wild eyes as he grips and grabs at my arms and I grab on tighter onto his shirt as I feel my adrenaline pushing me forward, feeding on my anger and hatred of what I  had just heard. “No,” Garrett finally gasps as I shove him harder into the wall and press him tighter against the wall, “he doesn’t.”

“Because he’s not. He’s tied to that bed through IV needles, through machines. He is relying on those machines to live right now. And after all you did, you walk free. You walk free,” I pause dramatically, listening to Bo fighting for air. His fight only intensifies my anger towards Garrett. “while his doctors say he may never be able to use his right leg again. You think that’s fair?”

“Life’s not fair,” Garrett says through a half smile full of blood and I quickly respond with  pulling him away from the wall and shoving him towards the open door before I send another powerful and hard punch across his face. He sends out a small yell as he falls through the open door way and before he falls to the ground, I grab tightly onto his shirt once more to throw him against the wall. Hitting his head against the wall with another loud thunk, his cold eyes roll shut momentarily before they shoot open again as I grab onto his shirt and shove him back against the wall.

“Perhaps I should make it a little more fair, then. How about that? I could beat you as bad as Shawn beat Bo in the barn while he was tied to the damn chair that you tied him into! Use some of my Marine training I had learned while training for war. I can guarantee you that you’d be in worse shape and in more pain than Bo is in right now when I am done with you. Now that’s fair. Bo didn’t do nothing wrong. He didn’t ask to be tied to that damn chair. And yet he was. And beaten and almost killed. Yet you go along with the gang and do what they want you to do and you get to walk away free from everything! And all you have to say for it is that you did what you had to do?” I snap at him, oblivious to anyone or anything around me, “What you think, Garrett? Should I make life a little more fair. You’d be pleading for Bo’s forgiveness when I’m done with you.”

He eyes me coldly. Too proud to back down and away from his position and I quickly send another elbow into his nose and his head is twisted with the pressure. “No,” he looks boldly back at me, “I don’t think you should make life more fair.”

“Tell me why not, Garrett. Tell me why I shouldn’t beat you worse than Bo was beaten,” I hiss back at him, placing all my pressure upon him.

“Let me go, Luke. I already tol’ him I messed  up. What more can I do?” he finally states, his voice becoming more pleading with me as he gasps through the blood that runs into his mouth.

“Luke!” I  begin to hear familiar voices yelling at me, sounding distant through my emotions and adrenaline, “Luke!” Slowly, I glance away momentarily from Garrett to find Cooter and Daisy running towards us down the hall while doctors and nurses circle around us and a security guard turns the corner behind Cooter and Daisy.

Turning back to Garrett. “Try apologizing. Perhaps show some guilt and responsibility for your own stupid actions! You’ve done more than just mess up. You are a mess up, Garrett!” I shove him harder against the wall as I feel everyone getting closer to us. After a moment, I pull him away from the wall and throw him away from me to send another powerful and hard punch at him, this time hitting the side of his face and pain shoots up my fist. I watch numbly as Garrett falls from my punch and Cooter is quick to catch him before he sends me a hard accusatory look before he glances down at Garrett who quickly pulls away from  him, eyeing me with hard swollen eyes,

“Luke!” Daisy cries besides me as she  yanks at my bloody arm.

“Anyone care telling me what just happened?” the security guard finally makes his appearance, glaring at Garrett and then at me, “Anyone care telling me what this fight was about?”

“Fight? What fight?” a doctor yells out from behind me, “There was no fight…he attacked him. That guy didn’t have a chance to fight back.”

The guard hisses as he glares back at the doctor and then back at Garrett and I. “Nothing happened,” Garrett is the first to speak up as he glances up at me before quickly looking away.

“Nothing?” the guard asks sarcastically, “You’re covered in your own blood while your blood covers his hands. I’d say more than nothing happened.”

Garrett eyes him harshly. “If I say nothing happened. Nothing happened,” Garrett sounds nasally with each word and breath he takes and guilt settles deeply within me as I take in the damage I had forced upon him with my anger. “I’m sorry I raised such a commotion here, but I’m willing to bet you all have patience to tend to and more and better things to be doing than watching this. Sorry to waste your time, sir.”

The guard shakes his head as he looks at me. “I don’t care what he says, out you go,” he lays an authoritive hand upon my shoulder.

“I told you, nothing happened. If nothing happened, there is no reason he has to go. What don’t you understand?” Garrett steps in between us to force the guard to back away as he seems to ignore the pain and the blood that covers him and his shirt, “I’m the one that got beaten, so I don’t understand why you care so much to be blaming it all on him as to be kicking him out. If I’m willing to let it drop, so then should you.”

“What? He threaten you too? Or are you just too afraid of him now that he beat you up to see charges set against him?” the guard states, upset, “Charges will be made for what -”

“No they won’t,” Garrett shakes his head as he concentrates on breathing for a long moment, “I’m not pressing charges. I got what I deserved.” With that he looks up at me with understanding eyes that seem to plead with me to understand him and what he is doing. “Now if you don’t mind, I think I’ll go clean up some.” He eyes the guard harshly who exhales loudly before nodding at him. Garrett eyes me once more before looking at Daisy and Cooter before he turns and slowly walks down the hallway with a limp before a doctor is quick to reach him, talking to him. Garrett nods at the doctor before he seems to follow the doctor down the hall. Supposedly to get checked out.

“What has gotten into you, Luke?!” Cooter is the first one to break the silence, “What was all that about?!”

I eye him before shaking my head at him and I go to run my hand through my hair before seeing Garrett’s blood covering my hand that seems to shake uncontrollably. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I just got so angry. So hateful. I couldn’t stop myself,” I glance up at Daisy and Cooter, “I left Bo to go to the restroom. I got back in time to see Garrett walking into Bo’s room. He didn’t shut the door all the way, so I listened in,” I pause as I force myself to breathe and I shake my head again at them, “Garrett was apart of Landon and Shawn’s gang. Had helped tie Bo to the chair,” I pause again a strong wave of nausea hits me, “and all he had to say about it is that he did what he had to do. After seeing what they did to Bo and seeing him in there in pain and all that, I just lost control after hearing him say that. First Shawn, now him.”

“But didn’t Garrett bring Landon to the FBI? Didn’t he help tell the FBI where they were at? That’s what the agent I had talked to said,” Daisy said, always the one to think positive about the people she cares for.

“Of what I over heard in there, yes he was,” I pause as I feel my heart rate fade slowly along with my intense emotions, “but he did it all in order to make a deal with the FBI so they wouldn’t arrest him for his involvement and activity within the gang. Landon and them get arrested while he gets to walk around free as if he didn’t do nothing wrong. While Bo lies in there in pain and with the thought of not being able to use that leg again!”

They both go silent. “His doctor said they thought he would most likely have use after the surgery. Said there was a small chance that surgery won’t help it. If surgery won’t help it any, nothing will,” Daisy is slow to inform us before she steps in to tightly hug me before stepping back, “well at least Garrett isn’t willing to press charges for what you did to him. Must feel some responsibility for what he done. I’m not defending him or anything, but if he didn’t tie Bo to the chair, someone else would have. It would have happened with or without him.”

I reluctantly nod at her as I find myself glancing up and down the hall that is now pretty much deserted now that the action is done. Looking back at Daisy and Cooter I heavily let out the breath I had been holding while running a shaky hand through my hair once more.  “Yeah, maybe so,” I slowly state before falling silent as Bo’s words silently return to me, of his own firm accusation towards Garrett. Only to force me to wonder why he hadn’t said anything to us about Garrett. “but it still makes it worse, it coming from Garrett. Damn,” I cuss as I shake my head in disbelief as the events replay in my mind once more. Looking up at Cooter and Daisy, I continue, “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have had to see that. I shouldn’t have done that. I just got so angry. I lost control.”

They all numbly nod at me. “Well,” Cooter states, “whether you think you lost control or what, I think you gave him what he deserves. Perhaps now he’ll have a little more respect for all of you. Perhaps he’ll drop his attitude he has towards his own family. Perhaps now he’ll think about things before going ahead and doing them.”

Daisy slowly nods as she gives me another hug. “I just hate to see everyone fighting. I just want all this to come to an end once and for all. All of this is hard on everyone,”’ she pauses, “especially Bo.”

I nod. “Talking of which, I better go check on,” I slowly state, recalling his wheezy grasping for air as I had thrown Garrett into the wall, “I think he was heading towards another attack when I threw Garrett out of his room.”

They both sadly look at me before I slowly turn around to walk back into Bo’s room to find a nurse working on the air machine and checking everything. “He had an attack,” she states matter of factly and I glance down to find that Bo had fallen asleep, “so he used his inhaler and I am increasing the air flow from the air machine. It gets any worse, Dr. Lu may have to resort to the tube down the throat again.” She eyes me sternly to increase my guilt within me. If I had been thinking straight, I would have ignored Garrett and went to Bo. But I had allowed my anger to have control over me and instead I attacked Garrett.

I watch as she swiftly walks past Bo and past me to walk back out the door before I slowly to the side of Bo’s bed to watch him sleeping for a long moment as I think of his harsh words towards Garrett. “I’m sorry, Bo,”’ I slowly say as I place a soft hand upon his shoulder before removing it and sitting back down in the chair next to his bed to stare down at my stained hands, thinking of what I had just done.

 

***BO DUKE***

 

Fear and confusion build rapidly within me as I fall from lying on the hay and dirt covered ground under the barn, with Shawn lying halfway on top of my chest, looking at me with shocked dead eyes, to lying on a hard bed with a loud beeping sound echoing besides me. “Bo,” a familiar voice pulls my attention towards the side to find Luke sitting in the chair next to the bed with Jesse standing right besides him. Seeing Luke, I slowly realize that I had fell from a nightmare of the events that had led me to the hospital and had awakened back in the hospital where I had fallen asleep. Where I had fallen asleep after Luke had angrily charged into the room to violently attack Garrett with a hard punch that had sent Garrett falling into my bed. Of the attack my emotions that Garrett’s visit and Luke’s attack on Garrett had thrown over me, of the intense panic and fear that had fallen over me as the pain in my lungs worsened and I felt the darkness sweep over me; until the nurse had came in to help me with my inhaler. Before she gave me more air and more medicine to fight away the attack. As relief had settled in, I had reluctantly fallen victim to the sleep that had threatened to overtake me before Garrett had walked into the room.

“Luke, Uncle Jesse!” I force a small smile at them, my thoughts fall back upon last night, of the strong look of anger and hatred that had crossed Luke’s face before he had charged Garrett with his punch. Of his continual attack on Garrett that had slowly managed to escape my room and into the hallway

“How you feel, Bo?” Jesse is the first to ask the seemingly popular question as his eyes seem to flood in worry as he eyes me patiently, awaiting my answer.

I eye him and then Luke who also eyes me with worried interest and I attempt to shrug at them to send a bolt of pain rushing through my body that seems to intensifies the pain that had already been there.  “It all hurts,” I hear myself forcing out the truth, knowing they’d see right through my lie if I told them I was alright, “I wanna go home.”

They both nod at me. “We all do too. The FBI still has a cleaning crew left behind at the house. Seems there was quite a mess left behind,” Jesse says in a voice that is thick with sadness as his eyes fall down to Luke momentarily and then back at me and I am reminded of Shawn’s and his friend’s attack on me when I had returned home. Of the broken table and chairs. Of the thick puddle of blood on the counter after they forced my head into the edge.  “Cooter has been nice enough to open  his house to us, but it’s a bit cramped with us all in there. I’m forced to share a room with him,” he pauses to point at Luke and forces a disgusted face upon his face and shakes his head, “I don’t know how you’ve managed to share a room with him all this time and have survived his snoring and all his talking. It’s been hard. Daisy has been forced to sleep on Cooter’s ratty and torn couch. At least you  have your own room. Don’t have to share it with Luke or have to sleep on the couch that is covered in holes and dog hair.”

“Yeah perhaps,”’ I slowly state and a thick silence swells between the three of us.

“Look Bo,” Luke slowly interrupts the silence and I slowly glance over at him, “I’m sorry for last night. For what I done. I  overheard you and Garrett talking. What Garrett said. What he did.” Luke goes silent as he exhales deeply and heavily as he shakes his head in regret, “I just lost control. And in losing control in my anger towards Garrett, I had helped throw you into your attack. To make it all worse on you. I heard it and ignored it. I was too consumed in anger and hatred at Garrett for what he did, that nothing else had mattered at the time.” He exhales loudly again, a shaky hand is thrown through his thick  hair, “I’m sorry, Bo.”

I eye him for a long moment, not knowing what to say. To say he didn’t do anything, everyone would know I was lying. To say it was alright would seem to imply he was correct to feel responsible for it all. “I was already starting to have the attack before you came in the room,” I slowly state, “he’s the one that did it. Not you.”

He shakes his head at me. “I surely didn’t help. I helped make it worse on you. I’m sorry,” Luke insists, “If only I hadn’t been so blind and so dumb to believe in Shawn. To fall for his act. All of this wouldn’t have happened,” he motions over me, “I wouldn’t have allowed it to happen.” He goes silent as he shakes his head at himself, “instead I saw what I wanted to see, believed what I wanted to believe. Now and in the past. I’m sorry, Bo.” He eyes me for a long moment with saddened eyes before he quickly stands up to walk around the bed where he walks over to the window to stare outside of it.

I watch him for a long moment as he stares out through the window, uncharacteristically lost in his own emotions. Emotions that he is normally so good at hiding from the world to see as he displays his heavy armor of strength and confidence for everyone else to see.

“Why didn’t you say anything about Garrett?” Jesse slowly asks to direct my attention away from Luke and back to him as he takes Luke’s chair, seeming to resent that I had hidden that bit of information from when I had told them what had really happened; when I answered their few questions they had for me yesterday.

“I don’t know. Guess it didn’t seem important,” I state and he eyes me sternly in disbelief, “well it didn’t. I already tol’ Mills and he said they were already aware of his involvement. That Garrett made a deal with them in order to seek protection and assurance from them that they wouldn’t press charges upon him for his own involvement. Said they weren’t happy to make it, but felt like that was the best option at getting Landon without getting us all killed. Said that Garrett’s role was minimal, especially when compared to Shawn and the rest of them. After all, they all killed the mayor. Not Garrett,” I stop as I forcefully cough to receive a worried look from Jesse, “I guess I figured it wouldn’t do any good  to tell you all and upset you all when there was nothing to be done about it. It is over and done with. I guess that’s how I looked at it, until he walked into the room last night.”

He slowly nods at me while giving me a small smile. “I know you are getting tired of all the questions about everything, but I have at least one more,” he pauses with an apologetic look crossing his face momentarily, “it has been bugging me ever since the whole thing in the barn had happened.” He goes silent in sadness at the mention of the barn. “Was there any truth behind what Shawn had said?”

I eye him questionably as he goes silent. “I doubt it. I doubt he even knew how to speak the truth,” I hear myself saying before guiltily looking over at Luke who remains staring out the window. Looking back at Jesse, I ask, “About what?”

“About you being the one that ratted him out to the cops when he set fire to Will’s car? I mean, the one who went to the police about what had happened to Will’s car?” he slowly asks before shaking his head, “I just can’t imagine that it was you. I mean, I remember Luke being sixteen at the time as was Shawn. I think it happened a day or two after Luke’s sixteenth birthday. Which would make you ten years old. Almost eleven. I mean,” he pauses his nervous rambling, “how could an eleven  year old get from our farm to Will’s farm several miles away in the middle of the night? But where did Shawn get the idea it was you? I guess, I’m sure he was probably just accusing you for everything, but I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

As Jesse comes to a halt, Luke turns from his window to look at me with his own questioning eyes, interested in my answer. I eye Luke slowly before turning to eye Jesse as the night so long ago seems to flash vividly behind my eyes to send a harsh shudder through my body and I quickly look away from Jesse to stare up at the ceiling. “He was telling the truth,” I slowly state, “it was me.”

“You?!” Luke yells in surprise as he takes a large step closer to me, “How?”

I eye him for a long moment as I feel the pressure building within me as it had started last night and I force myself to relax against the pillow, to relax my breathing and attempt to relax my harsh emotions in order to prevent another attack. “Yeah. Me. I was the one that told Rosco. And how? By you, Luke,” I slowly state, “I don’t remember the details. But I remember you waking me up that night by slamming the door and then you got all upset at me because I wouldn’t go back to sleep.”

 

Abruptly, I am thrown awake from my sleep by a loud banging sound that screams loudly around me and I slowly open my eyes to find my cousin, Luke walking quickly to his bed to throw something down on top of it. Through the intense darkness that lingers heavily in the room, I see his familiar dark shadow and listen into his familiar breathing, his familiar breathing that seems rushed and intensified. As if upset or angry at something. Fighting off from falling back to sleep, I glance over at his alarm clock, the bright orange numbers read ten thirty at night. An hour and a half past his curfew on a school night. Perhaps he got caught again by Jesse for being late; perhaps he’s upset at Jesse for his punishment that Jesse would be sure to hand to him when caught disobeying him. But the house remains deathly quiet. No footsteps or anything that is normally softly heard when Jesse is up and awaiting for Luke’s return or after his return.

                I feel myself sigh heavily in worry and wonder for Luke and why he’s so upset. Luke was in a good mood when he went to Jake’s house to hang out. Perhaps there was a fight. Shoving my own explanations away, I slowly sit up and Luke quickly falls still as he seems to look at me and he lets out an exasperated breath. “Lie back down, Bo. Go back to sleep,” he firmly states which sends chills to wash over me. Chills at the cold hardness that seemed to be locked behind each word. A cold hardness in his voice that I have never heard from him before. “What I say, Bo?!” he yells as he seems to grow more upset as I remain sitting in bed, “Lie back down and go back to sleep!” More cold harness in his voice.

                “What’s wrong, Luke?” I boldly ask, ignoring his anger and his orders, “Why are you so upset?”

                “Because you’re not listening,” he is quick to respond, “I told you to go back to sleep.”

                I shake my head at him. “You were upset before you walked into this here room. Otherwise you wouldn’t have slammed the door shut as you had to awaken me,” I firmly state and his dark shadow shakes his head at me, “What’s wrong?”

                He remains silent for a long moment. “Nothing that you should be worried about right now. I’m sorry for waking you up,” he slowly states, his tone softens towards me as he seems to recognize that he was taking out his anger on me, “Everything is fine. Just lie down and go back to sleep, before you get into trouble for being awake and talking.”

                I eye him for a long time, knowing he’s not telling me the truth, but also know better than to be questioning him now when he’s upset. Sighing heavily, I slowly lie back down despite no longer being tired.  “If you say so, Luke,” I slowly state and he nods at me and I fall back into watching him silently.               After a long moment of standing still and watching me, Luke sighs heavily and walks over to his bed where he picks up the dark object that he had thrown on the bed to pick it up and I watch as he puts it on and realize it his denim coat. Only to send more questions through me. Sneaking in at ten thirty on a school night is enough to upset Jesse that Jesse would normally increase Luke’s work load for a week and yet he’s putting his coat on to signify he is going back out. Why? Where?

                No longer able to contain my questions to myself, I sit up in bed as he goes for the door. “Where you going, Luke?” he halts abruptly at the closed door and  he angrily breathes in to turn around to look at me and I envision his blue eyes flooded in anger at me. But why?

                “What’s it to you? It’s none of your business,” he hisses angrily at me, the coldness back in his voice, “now lie back down and go back to sleep as I told you to do. I’ll be back in a little while.”

                “Tell me where you’re going first,” I state, no longer willing to back down to his anger, “then I’ll go back to sleep.”

                He exhales loudly. “Promise?” he finally states, exasperation is heavy in the one word, as if I am putting him out through my questions. I slowly nod, not knowing exactly what I am promising to. “Fine,” he takes another step closer to me, “I’m driving over to Shawn’s to make sure he‘s still at home. As I had made him promise me he would when I dropped him off there,” he pauses, his answer sending me more questions through me. Shawn is Luke’s best friend, Luke would do anything for Shawn, it seems. Often times, seeming to take Shawn’s side over mine. Yet, now anger is thick in his voice and seemingly directed at Shawn. “And once I am satisfied that Shawn‘s still home and hopefully in bed, I am going back to Jake’s to clean up the mess that Shawn had created before I escorted him out and back home.”

                I stare at him for a long moment as I think of what he had just said. Obviously there was some sort of a fight and Luke seems to have placed him in the middle of it, which only sends the question of why through me. Why would he get in the middle of a fight that would require him to escort Shawn away from it? Luke went out of the way, it seems, to not upset Shawn any. Makes common sense that it’d make Shawn furious if Luke were to side with the other guy or person he was fighting against. Unless it was the law that Luke had pulled him away from, to save him from getting arrested. “Why?” I hear myself ask aloud to interrupt the silence.

                “That’s none of your business. Now you made a promise,” Luke sternly states, “now lie back down and go back to sleep. Not a word to anyone what I just said or what I’m doing. Jesse wakes you up to ask you about me, say I never made it home yet. I’ll take the blame for it.”

                I eye him once more for a long moment before reluctantly nodding at him and I slowly lie back down to face my own questions and my imaginations of what Luke is doing. Luke nods in satisfaction at me before he turns back around and I watch as he walks to the door where he quietly opens it and walks through it. I wait for him to close the door behind him before I stand up to walk over to the window that hangs in between our beds to quickly throw it open. Normally, a promise is a promise, but with questions and worry washing over me, I can’t see how I could just lie there to await for Luke to return. Luke never keeps secrets from me, never seems to get upset at me for nothing, and him getting in between Shawn and someone else only signifies something is wrong. But what? No sensible answer comes to me other than that Luke could be in trouble. I know if it were me that was in some sort of trouble with a friend or anyone else, Luke would be the first one there to help me out of the trouble. Knowing that, how can I stay home and in bed when I could be out there to help him. But how?

                Ignoring my own skepticism and questions of what I am doing, I quickly open the window and at a heavy gust of chilly air hit me and I quickly climb out of the window to be standing on stiff dirt and grass. Nervously I glance over at the front door and am relieved to see the kitchen lights off and the door remaining close and Luke nowhere in sight. Taking a deep breath, I quickly run to his rusted truck where I climb into the back of the bed of the truck to quickly crawl under the blue tarp that hides the cut wood that Luke had cut up this morning. Peering out through a small opening, I watch as Luke steps out of the house to glance nervously around before he runs to the truck where I hear and feel him open the old door and slams it shut before the engine comes to life. A hint of fear and nervousness hits me as the truck moves forward as I once again begin questioning myself what I am doing. What I’m going to do once I see where Luke’s going. I’m only ten years old, almost eleven. Luke and his friends are sixteen or seventeen. How could l be of help to Luke?

 

                                *                              *                              *                              *                              *

 

                Sitting up under the tarp and hugging my legs up against my thin and bare chest as the cold air hits me as I continue to stare through the flapping tarp to see the road fading behind us. We had stopped momentarily at Shawn’s house where his known car was parked and the lights were all off, Luke must have been satisfied, because he had drove off after a brief moment of stopping at the drive way.  Now he has set the truck to the speed limit and seems to hit every hole in the road only to make it worse for me. The wood constantly rocks back and forth to hit me and I wonder how I’m going to explain the splinters in my arm to everyone. My thoughts remain stuck on how Luke had acted when he got home, what he had said and sends questions through me, of what he is up to and what I am going to do whenever I find out what.

                Abruptly, my thoughts are interrupted as Luke slows down and I glance through the opening in time see a dark figure lying behind a parked truck and as the figure looks up, through the bright moonlight, I spot the familiar face of Shawn looking at me. My questions fade from Luke and falls upon Shawn and what he’s doing hiding besides a parked truck, at someone else’s house. Questions of what he’s up to and what I should do about it. To tap on the window would only tell Luke I had snuck in with him and get him all upset. He’d never believe that I saw anyone, not alone Shawn hiding there under the truck. And what if it wasn’t Shawn? Perhaps it just looked like Shawn through the light. But I couldn’t just ignore the suspicious way he was hiding, he had to be up to something. But what could I do to stop him?

                As the truck comes to a slow stop, I am quick to pull myself to the edge of the bed of the truck to roll off and onto the dirt road just as Luke starts off again. Upon hitting the road, I quickly run to the thick bush where I peer through the leaves as the dark figure stands up from his hiding place and looks at a parked car for a long moment. Not seeing much, quickly crawl down the hill and  towards the bed of the parked truck to get a better view.

                 After a moment of silence, the man begins to pour liquid out of what looks to be a jar looking like one of Jesse’s shine jars all over the car before tossing the jar to the side. A moment later, he small flame of fire is present before he throws the flame at the car and I hear myself gasp in surprise as the car quickly ignites in a thick and heavy explosion. As the car explodes, I feel a heavy force smash painfully into me and  I hear myself yell out in fear and pain as I am thrown several feet away from where I had been hiding at.

                Lying upon the dry dirt road, pain instantly rushes through my numb body from landing harshly upon the ground while a sharp fiery pain slices within my lungs with each breath I attempt to take. Only to remind me that I had left my emergency inhaler on the nightstand at home. Thinking of my inhaler and feeling the upcoming attack, I can instinctively see Jesse’s stern worried look looking back at me within, his stern voice echoing within me, lecturing me to never leave my inhaler behind. No matter what.

                Attempting to ignore the pain that resides within my chest, seeming to cut deeper and sharper with each breath I take, I slowly force myself to sit up as I stare fearfully at the muscle car that is now ignited in thick fiery flames. Only to send my attention towards Shawn who is now on his feet, his dark eyes planted angrily upon me and I feel my heart abruptly come to a halt in intense fear.  Slowly looking away from Shawn, I  glance back at the large fire that had once been a car. Questions rush rapidly within me of what I had just seen only to remind myself of what Luke had said. Of the underlying anger that had seemed to be entrapped within him towards Shawn for reasons he was unwilling to tell me.

                “Hey retard,” Shawn’s taunting voice forces me to jump in surprise and fear to force panic to settle deeply within me as I feel an attack quickly falling over me. An asthma attack and my inhaler is miles away within the dark walls of the room I share with Luke. “What you doin’  here?”

                I force myself to look up at Shawn who looms over me and Shawn quickly begins laughing at me and I slowly pull my legs up to hug them tightly against my bare chest. Tears quickly begin to sting my eyes as the pain quickly engulfs my lungs, seeming to grow more powerful with each breath I struggle to take. “Nothing,” I hear myself say aloud before I glance back at the car Shawn had lit afire before looking back up at him in fear. In fear of what I had just saw and in fear of Shawn and all that he is capable of doing to me when no one else is around.

                “Nothing?” Shawn mimics me with a sneer spread across his face, “Your Uncle Jesse know you out here…so late? Does Luke?” Shawn shakes his head at me, “I’m willing to bet they don’t…won’t they be upset when they find out  you snuck out. That little innocent Bo snuck out of the house when he should be in bed. Hate to be you when Jesse finally decides to punish you.” Once again, Shawn laughs evilly out loud to send more chills racing up and down my body as my thoughts slowly drift upon what he is saying. Of the consequences that will be awaiting for me when I return home.

                Despite the fear that rings loudly within me towards the person that Luke considers his best friend, my anger seems to grow deeper and bigger than my fear. Anger for the words he has spoken to me, the attitude he has for me, for his laughing at me, and of the way he looks down at me. Not just tonight, but always.

                Looking away from him and back at the car that shines brightly in a heated fire, I numbly sort through my thoughts momentarily. Thoughts of what I had just saw, of Shawn’s accurate statement of what awaits for me when I get home, and back to what Shawn had just done. Looking back at Shawn, I hear myself boldly saying, “Trust me…after they find out what you did,” I pause to fight for air, “they’ll be quick to overlook the fact that I snuck out. So will Sheriff Coltrane.”

                Fear quickly mutates within me as Shawn goes deathly quiet for a long moment, his dark hateful eyes staring down at me as if looking through me. From the distance, the fiery car’s thick flames makes a loud roaring sound to interrupt the night’s quietness that would normally fill the warm air. I glance nervously at the heavy flames that  sends hot air against my bare skin for a moment before looking back at Shawn who continues to dominantly stand over me and am shocked to see a look of fear cross his face.

                Abruptly, the look of fear that had momentarily been stuck upon Shawn’s face reverts back into the intense anger and hatred that seems to shine brightly in his green eyes each time he looks at me. Only to send my own fear to propel within me. After a moment of eyeing me evilly and angrily, he quickly reaches over and slaps me harshly across the face and I hear myself cry out in pain as I am once again thrown upon the ground. My hand instinctively goes to my cheek that now stings in pain from the slap  just as his hard boot hits me in the chest to knock the air out of me to send panic flooding rapidly within me. I glance up at him for a short moment, I force myself to ignore the pain and fear to quickly push myself farther away from him before coming to a halt several feet away from him.

                Shawn once more goes silent, staring evilly at me, to send more chills rushing across my body in bold realization that I have never seen him this hateful. This angry. Bold realization that he has now moved beyond just the bully he had been to me in the past and is now something worse and is capable of doing a lot worse things than he has done to me in the past. The car he has just lit afire proves it. He has always hated me, disliked me, and was annoyed by me. Would constantly laugh and pick on me, taking things away, and calling me names. The normal bullying. But now he has slapped me, kicked me, and the look in his eyes screams of his strong yearning to hurt me; or worse.

                And as I sit upon the dirt road, feeling the thick and heavy pain in my lungs as I struggle to breathe, looking at Shawn and the car he had lit, I know there is little I can do to stop him from doing whatever it is he is thinking of doing. And, since I had snuck out of the house and into the back of Luke’s truck, there is no one to save me as there always has been in the past when I got in trouble. It’s me against Shawn. A muscular normal sized sixteen year old against a small and weak ten year old.

                “Damn you!” Shawn abruptly yells as he seems to snap out of his evil thoughts before he thickly spits at me and I feel myself flinch away from it to send me into chronically coughing, only to worsen the pain. “Shut up! You aren’t going to be winning any pity with me with your coughing and your asthma. I ain’t gonna feel sorry for you as Luke and Jesse seem to!” As he goes silent, Shawn quickly rushes across the road to me where he sharply  kicks me again in the ribs and as I cry out in pain, I hear his wicked laughter echo throughout the dark world around us.

                Pain screams from my ribs as I lie upon the dry ground, the thin pebbles of rocks and dirt dig into my bare skin as I feel the attack hit me forcefully and I find myself closing my eyes as more tears streak my face. I attempt to ignore the roaring of the blaze and Shawn’s heavy breathing as I concentrate upon my breathing, upon relaxing myself and my breathing as my doctors has explained to do over and over again in order to control my asthma. Feeling slight relief, I force my eyes open to stare at the large fire before glancing at the house that remains dark within it before looking back up at Shawn. A gasp of fear escapes from me as Shawn abruptly falls to his knees besides me to grab tightly onto my shoulders to send pain down my arms and he pins me tightly to the ground.  “Stop it, Shawn!” I hear myself yell at him and am surprised to smell alcohol heavily upon Shawn and am quick to realize that he is drunk.

                “No, Bo. You stop it! What you just saw was between Will and I. It has nothing to do with you! Now you butted yourself in and now I am forced to deal with you!” Shawn yells at me, each breath reeking of alcohol, and he quickly picks me up by my upper arms to begin shaking me harshly, my head being thrown back and forth. “you are not to say a word of what you saw, of what I said, of anything here tonight! You got it?!” Shawn yells at me as he eyes me with wicked eyes and I slowly find myself nodding at him. “Good,” Shawn slowly states before shaking me once again with great force. “You tell anyone what you saw -”

                Shawn is quickly interrupted by another loud explosion sound to force us both to jump in shock and fear and a moment later, Shawn is thrown on top of me to send more pain and pressure throughout my body. Shawn eyes me with wide eyes before he quickly rolls off of me and we both look up to find the hood of the car to have hit the side of the house and is now lying in the thick bushes. Large and evil flames abruptly spread out and away from the hood as it climbs up the side of the old farm house while dark evil smoke billows up into the night sky. For a long moment, I lie silently upon the dirt road, watching in fear as the flames grow taller and bolder while it crawls up the wall, threatening to swallow the house whole. Only to send more fear screaming rapidly within me with thoughts of Will and his family within the house that remains dark and quiet from the inside.

                Shawn cusses aloud besides me to interrupt my thoughts and I watch as he stiffly stands up to look at the house and through the bright flames and the bright moon light, see a look of horror and shock spread across his face. After a brief moment of watching the house, Shawn quickly turns to me and harshly kicks me in the ribs once more and I cry out in pain before I force myself to sit back up. “Don‘t say a word!” Shawn yells at me as I quickly crawl away from him. Coming to a halt a few feet away from him, Shawn’s haunty eyes remain on me for a long moment before he eyes the house and the damage he had done before eyeing me once more. Shawn cusses under his breath before he quickly runs away from me and I watch as he climbs into the truck I had been hiding behind before the first explosion. A moment later the engine roars to life and I watch as Shawn quickly drives past me in the same direction Luke had went, running the stop sign.

                As Shawn’s truck quickly disappears around the corner, I glance back up at the house and my heart comes to a halt to find most of the side of the house to be engulfed in the flames that claws towards the sky, the black smoke to have grown thicker and heavier. Ignoring my weak and numb legs, I slowly stand back up to glance around me at the woods and pastures that thickly surround the Jenkins’ farm and down the road. It would be several miles in any direction to the nearest phone or the nearest house. There’d be no way I’d make it to the nearest house in time to save them from the evil flames that are continuously spreading. And with daylight hours away, it could be hours before another car passes by the old big farm.

                Fear and adrenaline seem to consume me as I find myself quickly walking back across the street and towards the large house before I stop next to Mr. Jenkins’  old blue Ford truck. Reaching the driver’s door, I heavily pull at the door handle before the door loudly squeaks open and I quickly crawl into the truck and grab the CB that rests in the middle. “Anyone on in Hazzard?” my voice is weak as I try to call in for help, “Anyone? There’s an emergency…I need help. Fire at -” I stop as I begin to cough chronically once more. As the coughing subsides for the moment, I continue, “Jenkin’s farm. Their house is on fire!”

                Static is quick to answer and more panic floods me. Not from my asthma, but for the people trapped within the flamed up house. “This is  Tom Sheltron,” a thick and heavy voice and relief slowly falls within me at hearing the Hazzard County Fire Department’s chief, “I am reporting back to the caller who just called in. We are on our way. Anyone in the house?”

                I hear myself gasping for air and once more I force myself to relax which only helps minimally. “I think so,” I finally state, “hurry. It’s growing.”

                “Ten four,” he states once more, “we’ll be there. You are to get to a safe place far away from the fire in order to protect yourself. Understand?”

                I eye the CB for a  long moment before looking up at the house and the harsh flames as my thoughts fall upon Will and his family lost within the smoke and flames. It could take several minutes for the fire department to get here. By then, the house could be consumed wholly by the fire with the family within to be left for dead. Or the car could explode again.  If I don’t do anything, it could be too late.

                “You understand?” Tom asks again, his voice sounding agitated now.

                “I hear you,” I state firmly as I struggle with what to do. Jesse had always said to do the right thing, no matter what. Not to lie and to respect authorities. Tom was clearly an authority and he is now telling me to stay away from the house. But how could watching a whole family die be the right thing when I could go in and warn them? If I could go to the left of the house, that is not on fire yet, I should be able to help warn someone about the house. “I understand,” I state as I throw the CB mike down and as I climb out of the truck, I hear Tom say something else in reply before I close the door behind me. Eyeing the house once more, I am hit with more possibilities and questions. If I go in there, I could die along with them.  Or worse yet, be burnt and left to suffer. But I couldn’t just sit back and watch the Jenkins’ be burnt to death either.

                Relying on instinct, I find myself slowly walking up the sidewalk as the heavy smoke seems to press tightly onto my lungs with each breath. Moving up the sidewalk and up the front porch, I listen to the roar of the fire from the car and the side of the house before I go to touch the door handle to find it to be hot to the touch. I yell out in pain as I remove my hand to rub it while kicking at the door and after the third kick, the weak  door cracks open and I shove it the rest of the way open. Stepping into the old house, I am surprised and startled by seeing the right side of the room to be thick of fiery flames and smoke and I quickly move to the left and down a hall way.

                “Mr. Jenkins! Will!” I hear myself yelling before going into another coughing fit and a wave of dizziness hits me and I momentarily wonder if I can move forward. If my asthma will be what forces me into death. Pushing myself forward, I find myself praying over and over again for help as I have been often taught and told to do in hope of it working. After what seems to be forever, I reach a closed door, and I find myself knocking it on it out of habit. “Mr. Jenkins!” I yell again as I open the dark room and slowly walk in to find it a room. In the middle of the room lies a large bed with a couple of dark shadows within it. Continuing my prayers, I walk up to the side of the bed and firm touch the shoulder of the figure that stirs at my touch. “Come on. Wake up!” I yell and the figure mumbles and I assume that it is Mark Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins.

                “What is it, Josh?” Mark tiredly asks, calling me by Will’s youngest brother’s name and I quickly attempt to think of how many kids they have. Four. Two boys, two girls. And an indoor dog.

                “I’m not Josh. It’s Bo, sir,” I hear myself say before falling into coughing and Mark quickly sits up in bed and I hear Elizabeth groan next to him.

                “Bo?” he asks, still half asleep, “What are -”

                “Sir, don’t worry about why or what I’m doing here. You’re house is on fire!” I yell at him and his dark shadow shakes his head at me, “It is. I saw it from the outside, so I came in to help!” I begin coughing once more and I hold myself upright from his firm bed. “The flames…the fire are on the right side of the house right now. But they’re moving and quick.”

                “The alarm didn’t go off. This is just some sort of bad joke,” he accuses me as he shoves his legs over the bed and I step back in order not to get kicked from him and he steps quickly towards me, “out of my house. Wait til I talk to you’re Uncle Jesse come morning!”
“Fine, Mark. Tell Jesse. But please,” I pause as Elizabeth sits up in bed, “get your family out of the house before it gets any worse. I already called it into the fire department by the CB in your truck. C’mon Mark! You’ve got to hurry!”

                “Mark?” Elizabeth questions behind him, “I smell smoke.”

                Mark seems to eye me in the darkness as he eyes the open door. “This better not be a joke,” he hisses at me as he pushes past me to walk into the hall way where he cries out in fear, “Elizabeth! Fire! Go get the girls. I’ll get the boys!” Elizabeth is now out of bed and running to Mark before she looks back at me. Mark says something to her and she runs around the corner and he comes back in after me. “Look Bo, our dog, Ginger, is in the kitchen. Could you get her out for me? The dog is family.”

                I find myself nodding as the pain and the thickness of the smoke sets my asthma off worse than it had already been. Mark seems to say something that I can’t understand before he quickly turns and runs after Elizabeth and I slowly find my way out of his room and turn the opposite way to walk back towards the front door. Reaching the end of the hall way, I turn to the left of the door and into an open room that lies the large farm kitchen and I quickly drop to my knees to begin crawling around to look for the kennel. A dog begins to bark fiercely nearby and I follow it into a corner where I find the metal kennel at and I quickly unlatch the locks to grab the German Shepherd’s red collar and he reluctantly follows me. 

                “C’mon Ginger,” I whisper at it in order to keep my own self focused. After what seems to last an eternity, I once again find myself at the front door where I find Will carrying something big through the open door. I fall back into prayer as I follow Will outside on my knees and feel the fresh air hit my nose and the distant siren screaming at us. “We can do it, Ginger,” I state as I weakly make it to my feet where I let go of the dog’s collar and it excitedly runs over to Will  who is walking towards the dirt road.

                I jump as a hand lands upon my shoulder and I glance up to find Mark next to me with his youngest daughter in his arms, Elizabeth stands besides him with their oldest daughter; their oldest child. “Let me help you,” Mark states as he places a hand under my left arm and lifts me half way up to half carry and half drag me across the street. Once we reach Will and Josh across the street, Mark lets go and sets his daughter down who runs over to Elizabeth who picks her up and hugs onto her. The siren increasingly grows closer and closer. “Bo,” Mark states to grab my attention and I look up at him to find him looking at me with great worry, “what you did was very brave. I don’t know how we’ll be able to repay you for what you did. If not for you -” he starts to say before he is interrupted by a loud roar of the fire as the roof of the house concaves and the fire jumps to the other side of the house, “we’d still be in there.”

                I eye him through tear filled eyes as the sirens continue to grow louder and as I glance down the road, two sets of headlights are quickly approaching. “My car,” Will finally cries out a few feet away to grab everyone’s attention for a brief moment.

                “Bo,” Elizabeth states after a moment of watching the fire trucks approaching and I glance up at her as she bends down to my level. “you saved my family. Our dog. We are all very grateful.” She pauses a moment, looking me over, “But what are you doing out here by yourself? What happened to you?”

                I eye her for a long moment and up at Mark who awaits my answer before the trucks come to a halt in front of us, their sirens become deafening before the sirens turn off and the lights stay on. “Please don’t say anything. Jesse. Luke. They’d kill me if they knew,” I plea them as I see Tom walking towards us as several fire fighters run towards the house while a few more get the heavy hose. “I snuck in the back of Luke’s truck and when…”I glance away, remembering what Shawn had said. Looking back at them, I say, “I saw Shawn put something on Will’s car, so I jumped out to see what had happened,” I continue to tell them, no longer caring what Shawn had threatened. Tom listens over their shoulder and a angry look crosses his face as I admit to going against him into the house. “I had to do it, sir. The fire,” I quickly look away from Tom and down at my bare feet, “there was no time.”

                “Shawn Graham!” Will breaks the silence and we all look up at him and he begins pacing, “He did this…he saw me kissing Kim. He did this,” he motions around the house and his car, “to get back at me.”

               

*                              *                              *                              *                              *

 

As I finish telling my story of what had happened that night at the Jenkins’ farm, the room grows deathly quiet as both Jesse and Luke eye me for a long moment. The scenes and the sounds remain vivid in my mind as I pull myself out of the old flashback, the flashback that I had been able to bury until Shawn had brought it up in the barn. The night that I had thought everyone would find out about once people got to talking, but everyone in the Jenkins family had kept their word not to tell anyone. Even Tom and Rosco refused to give out my name as the one who had stepped forward, the one that had saved them from that fire that night. I had gotten away with it all until now and as I glance at Jesse and Luke, guilt seeps deeply within me for what I had done. Yet if I hadn’t snuck out of the house that night and gotten into the bed of Luke’s truck, what would have happened to the Jenkins? Perhaps they’d have woke up on their own, but it would have been too late if they did. Their fire alarms didn’t go off and according to Elizabeth, they all were heavy sleepers, it took a lot to wake any of them up.

“Tell me,” Jesse is the first to break the silence, his voice stern, “how did you keep this a secret? You said yourself that this being a small town and all, everyone is bound to find out. And Rosco? It’s his civic duty to tell me these things.!”

I painfully shrug. “Mark and them all promised me they wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t want anyone to know and I begged Rosco not to tell you. He finally said he’d do his best not to say anything, that I shouldn’t be the one to be punished. But he couldn’t promise anything,” I pause for a long moment, “I’m sorry.”

“Not as sorry as you would have been if I had found out!” Jesse quickly responds before he eyes Luke, “Both of you are damn lucky I hadn’t found out what you did. What you both did! You could have been killed doing that!” He goes quiet for a long moment, his anger in his eyes resides a little. “You said your asthma was acting up…how they not take you to the hospital if it was that bad?”

“After I told Tom what had happened he made me use his air tank. Said if it didn’t get better that he’d take me to the hospital himself if he had to,” I state slowly, “after a few minutes it got better. So he went to handle his fire and Rosco interviewed me before he took me home. Dropping me off at the front gate. It was three in the morning and Luke was still not home.” I pause to look up at Luke, “So I snuck back in through the window.”

More silence creeps into the room as they all seem to digest what I had just told them. Luke finally shakes his head to get a questioning look from Jesse. “Damn, we should have put it all together,” he finally says to get more questioning looks, “your asthma didn’t get better with the damn air tank. Maybe it did for the moment. The next day you got sent home with a bad asthma attack, didn’t you? Doctor Applebee came over and checked you out, said your lungs looked like it was full of something and couldn’t tell what. Gave you some medicine. Then that night you had another bad  attack. A worse attack. You stopped breathing if I remember right,” he pauses thoughtfully, “Jesse rushed you to the emergency room and they said it was no wonder you couldn’t breathe. Your lungs were filled with smoke. No one knew how that could be at the time…you weren’t by any camp fires or any other type of fire to have smoke in your lungs. It was kinda declared a mystery  and was treated. But that’s why. Wasn’t it?”

I glance up at Jesse and then at Luke to find them both eyeing me with interest, awaiting for what I have to say despite probably already knowing the answer to it. “Yes,” I softly reply, quickly glancing away from them as I go back to listening to the monitors and the hissing of the air.

“Damn Bo,” Luke hisses out as he shakes his head at me, “you could have been killed doing a damn stunt like that!” He goes silent a moment before he speaks up using a deep mimicking voice, “Bo Duke dies at the age of ten trying to save a family in a burning home.” He shakes head again at me. “And I’d have my own stupid self to blame for transporting you there! Damn,” he goes silent for a long moment as he looks down at me with a look of mixed emotions, “you’re a damn hero.”
I shake my head at him a heavy wave of exhaustion melts over me and I glance up at Jesse again and his anger has seemed to dissipate into pride as well. “No, I’m not,” I finally state, “I just did what I thought I had to do. I’m sorry.”

Jesse smiles down at me as he pats the back of my hand with his own hand. “That’s a hero in my book. All I have to say is, you both are damn lucky you were able to keep this a secret for this long. I’d have either died of a heart attack or you’d be facing up to some pretty tough punishment,” Jesse states with a warm smile on his face before he glances up at Luke, “Well, I think I’ll go see what Daisy is up to. Sure Cooter has work that could be done at his place that I could do to show my appreciation for putting up with us for so long.” He goes silent for a moment as he looks back up at Luke and down at me once more. “I think we should be letting you get some rest. Perhaps, I can find a car magazine lying around Cooter’s that I can steal for you to look at when I come back in the morning. You get some rest.”

“Yes sir,” I slowly reply as I glance over at Luke who nods and steps back to the window, seeming hesitant to leave.

Jesse slowly leans over to give me a hug. “Still don’t know how you can keep something like that a secret for so long.  Damn foolish, but brave all the same,” he stands up to give me a stern look over a caring smile before he pats me on the shoulder before he slowly walks away and I watch silently as he slowly opens the door to step back out into the hallway and closing the door behind him.

I tiredly glance up at Luke to find him standing at the window again, but this time looking over at me and not out through the closed window. “You could have been killed and yet you didn’t say anything? Not even to me? I thought we told each other everything?” he forces a smile, “You could have been killed a couple of days ago, too. Damn Bo. After walking into the kitchen, saw the table, the blood,” he goes silent for a long moment, “and then heard you scream on the phone. Saw your picture. And then saw you tied up in the chair, in person,” he goes silent, hangs his head for a long moment before looking back up again at me, “I thought you were dead. If not then, that you had little chance of making out of it all alive. And all I could think of is that I had my own stupid self to blame. For being so stupid not to see through Shawn’s lies, to see what he had become. For siding with him over you. “ He goes silent once more as he walks over to my bed, “And once again, you come out the damn hero. If not for you, probably the whole Jenkins family would be dead right now…would have been dead for fourteen years. And now, if not for you, we’d all be dead right now.”

I shake my head at him. “I’m no hero. Not then and not now. I just did what I thought I had to do. The only thing I could think of to do. And that alone could have gotten you all killed all in itself,” I pause for a long moment and for the first time, relief begins to build within me. Relief at feeling it all come to an end. “And you need to stop blaming yourself. Stop being so hard on yourself, Luke. You didn’t know. You saw what you were meant to see.  Shawn betrayed you. He used you. It’s all Shawn…not you.”

“As Jesse said, that’s a hero in my book,” he forces a tired smile at me, “and perhaps one day, I’ll stop blaming myself or being hard on myself. I don’t know. Just right now, that’s how I feel. What I know. Shawn may have used me. May have betrayed me. But I have betrayed you as well by what I did. By me being so stupid and so -”

“Stop, Luke. OK? Just stop,” I quickly interrupt him, “I don’t want to hear it anymore. I don’t blame you, so don’t blame yourself. End of story. OK?”

He reluctantly nods and gives a sad smile. “OK. I’ll try. That’s all I can promise you right now. I’ll try not to,” he goes silent for a long moment, a comforting hand lands upon my shoulder and he gives me another smile, “Jesse’s right. You need to get some sleep. Doctor Lu says he’ll be in in the morning to access how you’re doing. See when and if you’re ready to have surgery done on your knee. So get some rest.”

I nod before a yawn escapes from me and sleep slowly falls over me and I am once again thrown back into the barn, looking back at Shawn’s dead eyes.