By Jax & Shaman
(rewrite of the episode “My Son, Bo Hogg.”)

The Duke Farm’s front lawn was a symphony of crickets that sang their reedy songs in the stillness of one a.m.  It was nearing the end of May, and several white-winged moths circled the porch light several feet above Bo Duke’s head as he sat on the porch steps, gazing off into the night. He wore nothing but a pair of faded denim cut-off jeans and a red and black plaid blanket wrapped around his shoulders to ward off the dampness.  In the distance, thunder rumbled.

Bo’s dark blue eyes were bleary with broken sleep and he rubbed them with both hands as an unstoppable yawn rose up from his chest.  He made no move to suppress it, and the sleepy sound ended in a sigh that seemed to come from somewhere near his toes. The sigh seemed to loosen something inside of him and suddenly he felt tears prick at his eyes.  He closed the lids tightly, and his fists clench.

“Come on Bo.”  He said to himself softly, “Knock this nonsense off and get back to bed.”  His voice, which he wanted to come out sounding like his usual self-confident self, sounded weary and full of shakiness.

 

Deep inside the quiet slumbering farmhouse, Min Duke opened her eyes. The approaching storm had dropped the temperature; the air blowing in through the open window now chilly and damp. She rolled over and saw her cousin fast asleep on her back, unaffected by the coldness of the little room. Rising from her bed, Min shut the window and gave her arms a rub. Glancing over her shoulder at the door, she saw a single thin ribbon of light from underneath it.

“Hmmm, someone’s up.” She opened her closet door and took out a purple robe, slipping it over her shoulders. Quietly as she could, Min left the bedroom, and headed for the source of light.

Bo didn’t bother to glance up as the front door opened, he could tell it was his sister by the softness of her footsteps.

“It’s late, Min.”  He said as a stiff breeze tumbled his blond curls over his ears and forehead.

“I know it is Bo, what are you doing up?” She walked out onto the porch, her bare feet silent against the wood. Her hand slipped into the pockets of her robe as she walked around her brother and sat down beside him on the steps.

“I don’t really know.  I woke up awhile ago and just couldn’t go back to sleep.”  Bo replied, still not looking at her.

Min gave her brother a sidelong glance, noticing his avoidance of her eyes.

“Really? You were pretty quiet at dinner too, sure there isn’t anything bothering you?”

Bo shrugged.  “Guess I’ve been thinking about Susie a little.”  He sighed deeply.

“I just wish things had ended differently, Min.”

Just the mention of that name set Min’s teeth on edge, her brown eyes flashing as she set her jaw.

“You do? You wanted to be with her, Bo? After she lied to you and used you and then cheated on you with that guy from Chickasaw?” She tried to keep her temper in check knowing how deeply Bo felt for this woman, but the very idea that she had deceived her brother almost instantly angered Min.

Bo looked away, ashamed.  “I know what she did, Min.  You don’t have to tell me.  But it’s like I told Luke and Uncle Jesse, I just can’t turn off my feelings for her.”

“I know you can’t Bo.” Min sighed, and turned to glance at her brother. She could see the pain in his face and slung her arm across his shoulders, drawing him closer to her.

“I don’t think she meant to hurt me, Min, honestly.”  Bo ventured, knowing full well how Min felt about Susie Gebhart.  She had given Susie’s departing trailer a look of such seething despise the day it left Hazzard that Bo was surprised the thing hadn’t burst into flame.

“That’s where you’re wrong Bo. She knew what she was doing when she…lured that guy into her bed.” Her hand stroked through Bo’s thick blond hair, trying to comfort him.

“Min!”  Bo exclaimed, and from the glow of the porch light, Min could see his face redden with a mixture of anger and humiliation. “Don’t talk about that, and don’t talk about him!”

“Why not? That’s the truth and you know it!” Min raised her chin and stared into her brother’s eyes. “You feel strongly enough about her…but that doesn’t change what she did!”

Suddenly needing to be in motion, Bo sprang up from the porch steps and began to pace the worn wood of the porch itself.

“Yeah well . . . . it doesn’t matter now, does it.  She’s gone, and she’s not coming back.”

“Bo it does matter.” Min also got up and stood in the path of her brother, forcing him to stop right in front of her. “Don’t tell me it doesn’t matter to you because it does. We can all see you’re hurting.” She stepped closer to him and touched his hands.

“You don’t have to keep it all bottled up. We’re your family and we’re here for you.”

“Min, there’s some things a man just has to figure out for himself.”  He told his sister, echoing the words of his Uncle Jesse when he’d overheard his cousin Luke ask the old man what he could do to help Bo.  However, Bo could tell by the expression on Min’s face that she wasn’t at all impressed by the words.

“I ain’t trying to be macho, Min, it’s the truth!”  He exclaimed.  “I know you’re here if I want to talk, and I appreciate that, but I think I have to puzzle out my feelings on my own.”  He sighed and squeezed her hands.

“Think I’ll go fishing in the morning.  That usually helps when I have to take time to sort something out.”  Bo leaned down and kissed his sister’s cheek.  “Go on back to bed now, okay? I’ll be fine.”

Min studied her brother for a moment seeing the sincerity in his eyes. She knew he spoke the truth; he had to sort things out on his own but it wasn’t easy watching him do it.

“Okay Bo.” She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know you’ll work it out.”

“Yeah.”  Bo offered her a smile before she went back into the house and into the room she shared with Daisy.

Knowing he probably wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, Bo went out behind the barn into the small shed where he and Luke kept their fishing gear.  He pulled his rod, tackle box from the stacks of sports equipment, and began to load them into The General by the light of the front porch.  After he loaded up the car, he would grab a bite to eat, pack a few sandwiches for the road, pull up some night crawlers from the moist patch of ground near the vegetable garden, and be gone by five.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

“So are you excited? You’ve talked about wanting to go see the Grand Ole Opry for years, and now you’re finally getting to go!”

Min sat sideways on her bed, a pillow clutched to her chest. She watched her excited cousin go back and forth between the closet and the dresser, a huge grin on her face.

“Excited?  Honey, I’m just about ready to jump out of my skin!”  Daisy piled two more stacks of clothes into her suitcase before forcing it closed.

“Me and Donna Jean have been saving our tips from The Boar’s Nest for just about ever!  I can’t believe we finally saved enough money!”

“All those extra shifts finally paid off.” Min tried to smile glad that her cousin’s dream had finally come true, but the situation with Bo and his early morning departure for Hazzard Pond kept creeping back into her mind. She sighed and lowered her chin to the feather pillow in her arms.

Daisy looked at her askance, and then patted her shoulder as she went to pick up several extra pairs of shoes.  “Min, you have to quit worrying about Bo.  He’s young, and chances are he’ll have his heart broke more than once before he settles down with a girl who loves him.”

“I know I haven’t been here too long Daisy so I’ve missed other times when Bo’s been heartbroken, but things are different this time. This wasn’t just some cute country girl with a mean Papa and a shotgun. Bo loved Susie and he probably thought she was the one for him.” Min set her pillow aside and got up from the bed deciding to help her cousin pack; she picked up a bottle of Daisy’s perfume along with some hairspray and added them to Daisy’s little overnight bag.

“I just hope this fishing trip helps him put things into perspective.”

Daisy laughed and shook her head.  “Oh honey, both Bo and Luke are probably going to go through at least a half a dozen ‘perfect’ women before they turn thirty! Bo will get over Susie, you’ll see.”

“Maybe, but…” Min started to open her mouth about to tell Daisy that Bo had truly been in love with Susie Gebhart and that her cheating on him and the whole town knowing about it had hurt him deeply. In respect of her brother’s privacy and dignity, her jaw snapped shut.

“But what?”  Daisy asked curiously, noticing the strange look on Min’s face.

“Oh nothing…I’m just an overprotective little sister I guess.” Min laughed as she sat back down on the bed folding her legs under her, hoping her cousin bought her explanation.

“Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”  Daisy laughed, and then turned as a car horn sounded in the front yard.

“It’s Donna Jean!”  She squealed, and gathered her things.  She kissed Min on the cheek, and then stopped long enough to kiss Jesse and Luke, who were having breakfast in the kitchen.  She waved wildly as she threw her things in the back of her friend’s blue Nova, and then they were gone, speeding down the road toward Nashville.

Luke smiled and shook his head.  “I’m amazed she slept at all last night.  Going to the Opry’s all she’s talked about for the past year.”

“Yeah but I’m glad she’s getting to go, broadening her horizons.” Min stood behind her cousin and put her hands on his shoulders, giving them a squeeze.

“So what’s on the agenda for today, cousin, since it’s just you and me while Uncle Jesse does chores?”

“While Uncle Jesse does chores?”  The old man spoke up, raising his eyebrows.

“Seems to me that gathering the eggs and sweeping the barn aisle are your chores, young lady.”

Min felt her face blush as she was pierced by her uncle’s paternal gaze.

“I meant…that you’re going to be plowing the back forty today, right?”

“That’s right, and while I’m doing that, I expect you two to keep yourselves out of trouble.”  Jesse replied as he finished his coffee.

Luke hid his smile in his own coffee cup, always amused when his uncle’s gruffness was aimed at someone else and not him.

“We’ve got something to do, don’t we, Luke?” Min leaned down, her dark hair spilling to one side as she peered at her cousin’s profile, hoping he would have an answer that would get her out of hot water with Uncle Jesse.

“Sure.  You can help me fix the porch roof.  Bo was supposed to help me, but he took off early this morning.  His note said he went fishing at Hazzard Pond and he’d be back around lunchtime.”

Min inwardly sighed in relief as she sat down beside Luke. “Yeah he mentioned going fishing last night, I’ll take care of my chores and then we can do the roof. After that, how about we go into town?”

“Sounds good.”  Luke shrugged as he finished his coffee.  “Do you have to work this afternoon?”

“Boss closed the Boars Nest for the inventory shipment that should be coming in some time this morning.” Min poured herself a glass of milk from the pitcher sitting in the middle of the table.

“If he closed down for the day, you know he’s going to charge twice as much tomorrow just to make up for it.”  Jesse said as he got up from the table and rinsed his plate in the sink.

“Don’t forget your chores,” he reminded them as he went out the door, “And after Bo gets back maybe we’ll have time to make some ice cream before dinner.”

Min sighed as she sipped her milk and took a piece of toast from the plate in front of her. “Luke, I’ll go do my chores and then we’ll get to the porch.” She stood up, pushing the chair back as she did so.

“All right.  And remind me to kick Bo’s rear end when he comes back for ducking out on us when there’s work to be done!”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Bo whistled along with the Merle Haggard tune playing on the General’s radio, his heart feeling lighter than it had in days.  Being by himself at Hazzard Pond, casting his line and having time to think by himself had truly helped put his relationship with Susie Gebhart in perspective.  He’d been angry with himself for falling for her lies, and angry at her for hurting him intentionally. In the end, he realized that he had to forgive not only himself, but her as well.  Now, as he drove back toward home, he felt considerably more cheerful.

As he rounded the bend of Route Seven, The General’s right front tire suddenly blew out with a loud bang, sending Bo into a struggle with the steering wheel in order to stay on the road. Finally, he wrestled the stock car onto the side of the road and got out.

Grumbling in irritation, he opened The General’s trunk in order to pull out the spare tire, and then his grumbling quickly turned into one or two colorful expletives when he saw that the spare was flat too.  Luke had neglected to haul it out of the trunk last time they’d had a flat.  Wondering how effective the flat spare would be as a tool with which to strangle his older cousin with when he got home, Bo slammed the trunk shut and headed off down the road on foot.  Maybe someone would come along and give him a ride, or better yet, he could take the shortcut through the woods and across the old railroad trestle.  That would cut at least twenty minutes off of his walk.

Bo jogged across the small expanse of scrubby field that ran adjacent to the woods, and then ducked into the cool canopy of trees.  It was shady and quiet there, and Bo began to smile as he followed a narrow footpath across the woods.

Fifteen minutes later, the train trestle loomed into view, its rusted girders an auburn skeleton against the blue sky.  As he approached it, he heard voices, angry voices, carrying on the quiet early afternoon air.

“I don’t care what you say! You’re not exactly in a position to give orders Doyle! If the office finds out about you, not only are you looking at losing your badge but some of your freedom too! I suggest you do what Boss says!”

“Don’t you threaten me little girl! If it weren’t for me, you’d be stuck in that damn typing pool till you were old enough for Social Security! I’m the one taking the risks here and I think I should be the one calling the shots!”

Bo’s eyebrows rose in pure curiosity and he peered down over the rusted railing of the trestle.  Down below him, in the shadows of the concrete foundations, a man and a woman were arguing.  The man was big, heavyset and gray-haired, the woman willowy with red curly hair that rioted in the afternoon sun.

“You listen and you listen good Doyle! You’re well paid for your risk and you aren’t even taking that many! Except sitting on your fat behind and making a phone call whenever a suspected moonshiner’s still is found! Then the evidence and the still conveniently disappear! I’m the one doing the running and all the risk taking and you don’t see me barking for more money!” She pointed a finger directly at his broad chest, the size difference between the two akin to a little girl scolding her father. The breeze kicked up, tousled her hair, and made her blue sundress flutter. She turned her head away a moment as the wind kicked up dirt, spraying the both of them with it. Once it passed, she faced the stout man again, her hands on her hips.

“If anything you should be giving me part of your cut!”

An ATF agent and a shine runner arguing out here in the middle of nowhere?  Bo thought to himself.  Although it was obvious that the agent was on the take, Bo wondered about the girl.  She had to be working for Boss Hogg, since he ran all the still operations left in Hazzard.

The idea of sharing his cut of the shine money obviously didn’t sit well with Doyle.  His blue eyes flashed anger.

“You ain’t getting one thin red dime from me Cat! You should be damn grateful I don’t take you in for all the shine you’ve been running lately! It’d be enough to lock you up and throw away the key! But you tell that fat butterball that if he don’t start coming across with more money I’ll take my business to Boss Hinkley! Then we’ll see if that fat clown will even have a county to brew his shine in much less run it!”

Leaning over even further, Bo could see a familiar shadow near the opposite foundation.  It was Rosco, no doubt keeping an eye and an ear out for intruders.  Suddenly realizing the danger he was in, Bo crept across the trestle as quietly as he could.  When he reached the other side, however, one of the old wooden ties cracked loudly and sifted dust and flakes of rust down onto the ground below.  Bo squeezed his eyes shut, and a moment later Rosco came barreling up the slope.

“FREEEEZE!”  He wailed, pulling his pistol from its holster, and Bo took off running toward the direction of The Duke Farm.  In another ten minutes he’d be at the path that led right up to the edge of their own back forty, and from there, he’d be safe.

“Get him! We can’t let him get away with what he heard!” Doyle huffed and puffed as he ran right behind Rosco, the rotund man’s face as red as a cherry.

“You freeze it right now, Bo Duke! I’m serious!”  Rosco shouted as he watched Bo’s lean form pound down the footpath toward home.  He suddenly took a sharp left, and Rosco skidded on the pine needles that covered the forest floor as he tried to follow.  He fell hard, and Doyle all but kicked him aside as he continued the pursuit.

Bo risked a glance behind him and saw that despite his girth, the ATF agent was gaining.  Another few minutes and I’ll be safe-

His thoughts of safety were cut short, however, when he saw that a huge jackstraw jumble of fallen trees and rotted logs were blocking the path that opened up onto the Duke’s property.  It was the result of the last summer storm they’d had, for the property ahead of it ran downhill and often flooded during wet weather.  The trees and uprooted bushes had ended up here, creating a blowdown that rose a good six feet over Bo’s head.

Breathing hard, Bo planted one booted foot on the bottom log and began to climb the tangle of branches, praying they wouldn’t come tumbling down and crush him.

Doyle’s wheezing grew louder until finally he couldn’t run another step. Catching his breath a moment, he watched the distance between him and the blond man widen. Reaching into his coat pocket, he withdrew a small pistol and took aim.

“You stop right now you hear! Stop or I’ll fire!” He watched the fleeing man reach the massive pile of decaying trees, tree branches and leaves all gnarled together and called out again.

“This is your last warning!”

Taking the chance that the ATF agent wouldn’t fire and attract attention with the gunshot, Bo kept climbing.  A moment later that proved to be a poor gamble as the gun went off and Bo felt a sharp pain in his right temple.  His head jerked forward from the shot, causing him to lose his grip on the branches.  He felt himself falling, and landed on his back with a bone-jarring thud that knocked the air from his lungs.

Doyle saw Bo fall and grinned as he walked over to where the blond man had landed. The grin slid from his face however, when he saw the bullet had done no more than given him a gash on his head. He crouched down a moment feeling for a pulse on Bo’s neck; he figured that since the bullet didn’t get him, the fall from the height must have. A strong thud against his fingers made him scowl in disappointment and that grimace sunk even deeper in his face when he saw the young man beginning to stir.

“Ohh no you dont!” Doyle turned the gun over in his hand and drew his arm back.  He brought the butt end of it down across Bo’s head. The sound was loud and deep, and the blow caused Bo’s body to jerk once, violently, before it slumped back to the ground, unconscious once again.

“Doyle!”  Rosco called as the sheriff saw the big revenuer raise his arm to strike Bo again.  The young man was already obviously unconscious, and Rosco’s heart dropped into his shoes as he realized just what kind of man Doyle was.

“Doyle, no!  Have you lost your mind?”  He ran up behind the bigger man and grabbed his wrist, stopping Doyle from striking Bo again.

“He heard everything!” Doyle snatched his wrist away from Rosco’s grasp as he rose to his feet. “That kid saw and heard me arguing with Cat! When he wakes up the first thing he’s going to do is go running to my superiors!” He then took a step towards the sheriff and jabbed a finger in his chest.

“And when he does its over and I don’t just mean for me but I mean all of us! Including you! Now you get out of here and let me do what I gotta do!” Doyle then turned to Bo and cocked his gun, aiming it at the fallen man.

“Then we’ll drop him off Kissing Cliff and make it look nice and accidental.”

“Are you off your rocker?”  Rosco shouted.  While he had no love for any of the Dukes, he certainly wouldn’t stand by and let one be brutally murdered.

“So you’re willing to go to jail over this? And lose your career and your freedom over what this hayseed saw and heard?” Doyle shook his head. “Well I ain’t!”

Rosco’s mind raced.  “Look, Doyle, just give me a few minutes to radio Boss Hogg on the CB.  He’ll know what to do for sure.  If’n your lucky, you won’t have to waste any bullets out of your pretty little gun, there . . . ” Rosco gulped as the weapon was briefly aimed at him.

“You’ve got 24 hours Rosco!”  Doyle took a closer step towards him, and the gun tilted up to aim directly at his nose. Rosco crossed his eyes a moment as he stared down the barrel. “You keep that kid quiet or I’ll silence him, permanent like. And not only him but that fat cheap skate Boss and you as well!” Doyle hissed the words then backed up, aiming the gun’s end down at the ground. With the threat spoken, he turned around and stalked off in the opposite direction.

“He’s mean.  Mean.”  Rosco shook his head and hurried back to his patrol car, hidden under the abandoned trestle.  He leaned in, grabbed the CB mike and pushed the button.  “Breaker breaker, this is Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, Boss Hogg, you got your ears on?”

“Yeah I got my ears on, over and why ain’t you here with me?” Boss’s mouth sounded full as he spoke. “And how many times have I told you to not interrupt my lunch?”

“Which lunch?”  Rosco asked, puzzled.  “Your one o clock, two o clock, three o clock or four o clock?”

“The one I’m eating now so what do you want, over?”  The gruff response crackled through the CB mike.

“Boss, I’m in a bit of a pickle down here at your number three still site.  That lady shine runner of yours was arguing with big Jim Doyle, and well . . . . Bo Duke heard everything they said.”

The sound of heavy coughing came over the speaker and Rosco glanced down at the mike a moment. “Boss, you okay? Sounds like one of them pickled pig’s feet when down the wrong way.”

“Bo Duke? What was he doing there and what exactly did he hear?”

“I don’t know what he was doing there, but when Big Jim Doyle saw him listening, he chased Bo down that old runner’s trail and into the woods.  I tried to stop him, Boss, but . . . . I didn’t get there in time.  He beat Bo up pretty bad.”

Rosco swallowed hard.  “He wanted to kill him and make it look like an accident.”

“Kill him?” Boss grew quiet a moment, the tone of his voice dropping low. “As much as I want them Dukes gone from Hazzard for good…I don’t want to see them come to any harm!” He paused a moment. “Rosco…you keep an eye on that boy, I’m coming in my Caddy, over and out!”

“Over and out.”  Rosco sighed, and jogged down the trail to where Bo lay quiet on the carpet of pine needles.  He put a hand on Bo’s shoulder and shook his head.

“You sure put your foot in it this time, Bo Duke.”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Boss arrived a short time later, his white Cadillac coming to a halt a short walking distance from the blowdown. It was a rare sight; Boss driving himself around was about as common as a sober preacher on Sunday morning.

With a grunt, he slammed the driver side door and waddled over to where Rosco stood.

“All right, now where is he?” He asked as he took off his white hat and fanned his flushed face with it a moment before stuffing it back onto his head.

“Right over here, Boss.”  Rosco led him to Bo’s unconscious form, sprawled on the ground.  “He ain’t moved since Doyle hit him.”

“Let’s see what we got here.” Boss got down on one knee, placed a chubby hand on Bo’s shoulder, and carefully rolled him over. His beady eyes widened a moment when he saw the young man’s face.

“Oh my!”

Rosco gasped aloud, his heart starting painfully. Bo’s face was smeared with blood that almost totally obscured his features.  The blood ran from a large gash just above his hairline, his blond hair streaked with red at the front and at the sides where it had dripped down when Boss had turned him over.  Now, as Rosco watched in shock, a thin drizzle trailed its way down Bo’s face and dripped off his chin.  The sight of it plopping onto Bo’s white tee shirt and spreading there like groping fingers made Rosco shiver.

“This is a mess Boss, a real mess! Doyle said he’s giving us 24 hours, if Bo Duke talks then its curtains for you, me and him! And I mean—” Rosco gritted his teeth and dragged his finger across his throat.

Boss gasped loudly, his eyes bugging out with fear.  “Then we gotta make sure this boy doesn’t talk!”

“But how we going to do that Boss? As soon as he wakes up you know he’s going to open his mouth to the first Duke he comes across!”

“If that’s true, then we have to keep him away from his kin!”  Boss frowned.  “Let’s get him out of here, pronto!”

Rosco hesitated a moment then nodded. He walked around the chubby man in white and sat down on the ground, easing Bo’s head in his lap. Grimacing a moment, he gently touched Bo’s bloody neck feeling his pulse. “He’s breathing…I don’t know Boss, hedon’t look good.”

“Well he never looked good!”  Boss taunted, lighting his cigar.

“We best get him to Doc Petticord.” Rosco glanced up at Boss, his gaze then returning to the unconscious Duke.

“Uh uh.”  Boss said gravely.  “Doc can’t help him now.”

“Why?”

“Doc’s out of town.”  He shrugged.

Gently, Rosco laid Bo’s head back down to the ground and he stood up. “What about we take him over to that Tri County Emergency?”

“Oh, let’s do that!”  Boss nodded.  “They got a good charity ward!”

Together, the two men picked up the injured Duke; Boss had him by the shoulders while Rosco took a hold of Bo’s long legs. They then lifted him from the ground and headed for Boss’ Cadillac.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Luke hammered another shingle onto the porch roof as Uncle Jesse looked on, nodding approvingly at his nephew’s work.

“Looks good, Luke.  It’s about time we got to it, you kids have been shucking-and-jiving me about it long enough.”  He said with a gruff smile.  Luke tossed a smile at Min, who sat beside him and handed him another shingle.

“We weren’t shucking and jiving you about it Jesse, between the races and the repairs on the General Lee, we just haven’t had time to get to this.” Luke sat back on his haunches a moment and plucked a nail from between his lips.

“Just the same, it’d be nice to sit on the porch in the rain and not get wet.”  Jesse replied.  Luke laughed and nodded. “All right, all right, you win!”

Min couldn’t help but laugh at the exchange, moving her bucket of nails over so her cousin could fish a few more out of it. The bucket nearly toppled as a pain rippled through her stomach, one hand immediately touched it as she hunched over a bit.

“Min?  Are you all right?” Luke turned to her, alarmed.

“I…I don’t know.” She cringed a moment, her eyes closing as she leaned forward, her palms flat against the roof.

Luke wrapped his strong right arm around her waist and shuffled her forward.

“Help her down, Uncle Jesse.”  He said, and Min’s uncle caught her under the arms as Luke lowered her down.

“Min?  What is it?”  He asked.

“I’m not sure Uncle Jesse,” Min stated through her gritted teeth. Her feet hit the ground and Jesse guided her to the picnic table by the door and helped her sit down.

“I…I thought I saw something but I’m not sure.”

“Saw something?”  Luke jumped down from the porch roof in one fluid motion.

“Yeah,” She paused a moment, lifting her gaze from the ground to straight ahead.

“It was like…a big pile of logs then suddenly everything was swirling around.” Min shook her head. “I don’t know what it means.”

“A pile of logs.”  Luke shook his head.  “You mean like a campfire?”

“No logs that were blocking something.” Min ran her hand across her forehead. A slight pain had developed there and she thought that perhaps she had just gotten too much sun.

Luke frowned.  His cousin’s abilities had always unnerved him, but he tried to be supportive for both her sake and for Bo’s, who loved his sister deeply.

“What do you think it means?”  He asked at last.

“I don’t know Luke, those were the only clues I got.”  She sighed as she finally stood up. “Let’s just finish this roof up so we can go to town. I’m sure it’s nothing.”

Luke hesitated, and glanced out over his shoulder at the place where Bo usually parked The General.

“Didn’t Bo say he’d be back before lunchtime?”  He asked.

“That’s what his note said; maybe he got a flat or something.” Min put her hands on her hips as she stood beside her cousin.

“Even with a flat tire he should have been here by now.”  Jesse put in.

Min stared thoughtfully at the empty space where the General was supposed to be and bit her lip a moment.

“Maybe…maybe he ran into trouble?” She glanced at her cousin. “I’m a mess from chores Luke, let me go change and we’ll go into town.”

Luke nodded, and Jesse picked up the bucket of nails.  “I’ll stay here in case he calls in or comes back.”

“Okay Uncle Jesse.” Min opened the screen door and went into the house. She came out a few moments later dressed in blue jeans and a blue sleeveless shirt.

“We’ll be on channel nine Uncle Jesse, call in case he shows up.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys to Li’l Darlin’ tossing them to her cousin.

“I think you better drive Luke.”

Luke slid into the Mustang, not unhappy despite the worry over his cousin that had begun to gnaw at him.  He enjoyed driving the Mustang almost as much as he enjoyed driving The General.

Beside him, Min sat in the passenger seat chewing on her thumbnail as he started the vehicle up. “You think he’s okay Luke? Or maybe we’re just jumping to conclusions?”

“It’s not like Bo to say he’d be back at a certain time and then not show up.  I’d feel better if I knew he was all right.”

“Yeah, me too.” Min gave her cousin a smile, trying to find reassurance in his eyes. She saw none there and that only made a feeling of dread form in her stomach as she looked out the passenger side window at the passing scenery, hoping and praying her brother was all right.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Doctor Jackie Broadway gently lifted the eyelid of her patient, the beam of the penlight striking the pupil within and she watched its reaction closely.

“Hmmm pupilary reaction normal–” She said to herself as she leaned over and checked his other eye. “A normal reaction to the light, looks like he doesn’t have a concussion.” Jackie turned away from the table a moment as she picked up her chart and made a few notes, glancing down at the shirtless blond man on the table.

“Deep wound close to hairline, required ten stitches… additional wound high on the right temple, no stitches needed.”  She mumbled as she wrote. “We won’t know what sort of other head trauma he suffered until he regains consciousness.”

The dark haired doctor finished her notes and closed the chart, tucking her pen into the pocket of her green scrubs.

“Well that’s that.”

“So, doctor, when do you reckon he’ll come to?”  Boss asked.

Jackie studied the rotund man in the white suit and raised an eyebrow.

“It’s really not up to me Mr. Hogg; he took a bad blow to the head.” She motioned with her chin to Rosco. “From what the Sheriff told me, this young man got thrown from a rolling vehicle, he’s lucky he only got this cut on his head. He could have broken something or got internal injuries.”

Bo stirred on the table with a small groan and his eyelids fluttered open.  They roved around the room for a moment and then locked on Dr. Broadway.

“Where am I?”  He asked after a moment.

Jackie leaned over, her long dark hair shifting forward. “My name is Doctor Jacqueline Broadway and you’re at Tri County Emergency.” She smoothed his hair from his face and gave a smile. “Do you remember what happened to you?”

Bo shook his head dazedly.  “No ma’am.”

The doctor’s gaze shifted up to both Boss and Rosco a moment before focusing back down on Bo. “You don’t recall being in an accident?”

Bo shook his head again, and Rosco stepped forward.

“You ran The General off the road, don’t you remember?”  He asked, glancing a moment at Boss, who gave a nod. Bo frowned.

“No, sir.”  He replied, creasing his brow. “Who’s the General?”

“Oh dear–Sometimes it’s common for a patient to not remember an accident.” Jackie replied as she helped Bo sit up and put both hands on his bare shoulders.

“All right, now I want you to tell me exactly what you do remember.”

“I . . . ” Bo blinked.  “Nothing.”

“What about your name? Or where you live?” Jackie looked into Bo’s face searching for some spark of recognition in his dark blue eyes.

“My name is, uh . . . ”  He looked up at her, confused.  “Doc I don’t remember my name, or where I live!  What’s the matter with me?”  He asked as he tried to get up.

“Hang on a second!” Jackie stood in front of Bo, blocking him from getting down off the table. “You need to take it easy, you’ve been through a terrible ordeal and you’ve been injured.” Once satisfied that Bo wasn’t going to leave, the doctor turned to Rosco and Boss. “I’m sorry to say this but it looks like your son has a case of amnesia.”

“His son? Amnesia?”  Rosco scoffed.  “Doc, you have made one horrendous mistake!”

“I’m sorry Sheriff but I haven’t made a mistake. I know what amnesia is when I see it.”

“That’s not the mistake I’m talking about.”  Rosco countered.  “I’m talking about him,”  he pointed at Bo, “being his-”

Boss suddenly reached out and grabbed Rosco’s finger, pulling the sheriff into his shoulder and holding his head there with one hand.  Rosco’s arms wind milled, his face muffled in Boss’s suit coat, and Boss grinned at the doctor.

“Pay no mind to the boy’s uncle, Doc! He’s frightful worried about his nephew here and now he’s gone and worked himself into a state!”  He shoved Rosco away and held his arms out to Bo.

“Bo! Say hello to your daddy!”

Bo hesitated a moment not sure what to think, but after a moment he climbed down from the table and stepped into Boss’s embrace and returned it.

“It’s good to see you, uh…Daddy.”

“That’s my boy!”  Boss exclaimed, and hugged Bo tightly.

“If you’ll come with me we’ll get your clothes.” Dr. Broadway took her patient by the arm and guided him out of the room, feeling sympathy at his confusion and disorientation.  “Now if you’ll excuse us a moment, Mr. Hogg.”

“Of course.  Now you do just what the doctor tells you to, Sonny Boy.”  Boss instructed as Bo left with the doctor, and Rosco goggled at him.

“Boss, are you sure you’re not the one who hit your head?  I know for a fact that you and Lulu never had any children!”

Boss watched the swinging doors close shut before giving Rosco his full attention.

“Well of course we never had any children! But…this is just the chance I was waiting for! A chance to save my hide! And yours too!” He glanced at the doors again making sure they were alone. “Not only that but I don’t want Bo Duke having any recollection of Doyle and Cat arguing!”

“Looks to me like Bo Duke doesn’t have a recollection of anything right now.” Rosco glanced over his shoulder at the door a moment.

“He even swallowed that line I gave him about rolling The General like it was a fact!”

“Not right now he don’t remember, but it won’t be like that forever. That’s why I told that there lady doctor that he was my son.” Boss took a cigar out of his pocket and lit it. He saw Rosco’s confused face and rolled his eyes. “You see Rosco…if Bo Duke remembers that argument between Doyle and my runner they’ll be planting all three of us with the spring crops! We ain’t got no choice!”

“You might be able to convince Bo he’s your son, but what about the rest of the Dukes?  I’m pretty sure they’re going to know it’s not true!”

Boss looked aghast, making a pained face. “You’re right… and I never thought I’d see the day when you’d be right about anything!” He stuck his cigar in his mouth and started pacing back and forth, puffing smoke like a locomotive.

“Gotta find a way to make those Dukes leave my Sonny Boy alone!” He muttered to himself and then suddenly stopped; he gasped loudly his expression brightening as he reached up and plucked the cigar from his mouth.

“We’re going to use the law!”

“The law?” Rosco asked, and then he jumped as if someone had goosed him.

“Oo!  You mean- you . . . and me . . . . we’re going to make it all nice and legal?”

“We are indeed Rosco!” Boss switched his cigar to his other hand as he patted Rosco on the back, laughing. “Come on, let’s collect Sonny boy and get back to the Courthouse. We got work to do!”

“Boss, speaking of work, you still haven’t paid me my ten percent of ten percent from the whiskey runs that little gal’s already done for you.”  Rosco said, then managed to look amazed and offended at the same time. “Boss!  Were you plannin’ to cut me out of my usual ten percent of ten percent?”

“Uhhhhh…” Boss turned away from Rosco, his eyes shifting from left to right as he thought of a reason he didn’t cut Rosco in and fast.

“Well of course not Rosco!” He turned back, a big Cheshire cat grin on his face.

“I was just waiting for the profits to start rolling in! Your ten percent of ten percent was so small it was hardly nothing. I was just going to tell you all about it right this very day.”

“Oh, well, that makes much more sense.  I think.”  Rosco shrugged.  “We best get Bo and go to the Courthouse.  I love it I love it!”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Luke drove Min’s red Mustang slowly along Route Sixteen as Min sat cross-legged on the hood, looking carefully at either side of the road for any signs of her brother.  Finally, she waved Luke to a stop.

“I don’t see any signs of an accident, Luke, and this is the main road back from Hazzard Pond.  There’s no skid marks . . . “

“Ain’t no busted tree branches or bushes, either.”  Luke sighed, and shook his head at Min.

“Then where could he be, Luke?  It’s way past lunchtime and there’s no sign of him!”  She exclaimed, and then her eyes widened.

“Oh my God.  Luke, you don’t think he ran away, do you?  I mean, he was pretty upset about this whole thing with Susie Gebhart.”

“No, I don’t believe that.” He opened the Mustang’s door and got out.

“Bo was upset over how things worked out with Susie yeah, but he wouldn’t leave his family over her Min. He wouldn’t do that.”

“Then where is he? Why can’t we find any trace of him?” Min got down from the hood and walked around the front of it. “It’s like he just disappeared into thin air!”

“Well…the Hazzard air has been known to swallow up people before Min, that’s no surprise there but usually they leave some clue behind. Like a tire track or…something!”

Luke tucked his hands into his back pockets as he stared down at the ground, studying it between his slow easy steps.

“Come on Bo…give me any sign–” He muttered to himself as he walked away from

Min and the red mustang. “Just one clue…”

Min watched her cousin, arms crossed over her chest as she leaned against the driver’s side door. Her mind began to imagine a thousand scenarios that would explain her brother’s disappearance, each one more terrible than the last. She lowered her head, rubbing her fingers across her forehead as she closed her eyes.

“There’s got to be something Luke…anything.”

“I know Min, I know.” He replied as he stopped suddenly and straightened up.

“What did you say you saw?” He asked as he turned around to face his cousin.

“Logs—a pile of logs.” Min sighed, her hand still rubbing her aching forehead.

“Stacked up all neat like for a house?”

“No…they’re all messed up like they were on the back of a semi and the cable broke, scattering them all over the road.” Her eyes opened and she glanced over at her cousin.

“Do you think that means something?”

“I don’t know, but it’s the only clue we’ve got.” Luke went back over to Darlin’ and put both hands on Min’s shoulders, giving them a squeeze.

“You have to keep your chin up Min, wherever Bo is we’ll find him.”

She lifted her gaze, staring into her cousin’s cool blue eyes.

“You mean that Luke or are you just saying it to make me feel better?” There was a tinge of worry in her voice despite the joke and she tried to give Luke a small smile.

Luke returned it and pulled Min into a gentle hug, one hand coming up to touch her long dark hair. “I mean it Min, I wouldn’t lie to you. We’re going to find him and bring him home.” His jaw clenched a moment as he closed his eyes, grateful that Min couldn’t see his face and the worry that tightened his lips into a thin line.

“Come on…let’s keep looking.” Luke patted her back as he let go of her, then got back behind the wheel of the Mustang.

Min sighed, nodding. “Okay Cousin, we’ll keep going, Bo wouldn’t give up on us we can’t give up on him.”

“Believe me; I have no intention of giving up.”  Luke pulled back onto the road and continued down it at a snail’s pace.  As he rounded the sharp curve of Route Sixteen, his eyes widened.  On the side of the road sat The General Lee, its right front tire flat.  Min yelled out at the same time he saw it, and vaulted off of the hood of the car.  She ran at the Charger as Luke pushed the driver’s side door open to follow her.

“Oh my God!” Min bent down and poked her head in the driver’s side window. Everything seemed to be there; even the keys and she plucked them from the ignition.

“I don’t get it Luke.. its like…its like he just walked away from it!” She closed her eyes a moment as she gripped the keys in her hands.

“Where are you Bo?” The low question asked, she saw the flash of logs again and opened her eyes.

“What is it about those logs Luke?”

“I don’t know of anything around here like you’re seeing in your head, Min.  Are you sure it even has anything to do with Bo?”  Luke opened the trunk and hissed through his teeth when he saw the spare was flat too.

“Oh, I bet he was calling me a name or two because of this.”  He slammed the trunk shut again.  “He must have started walking towards town.  Might be that he’s already there, or someone gave him a ride.  Come on, we’ll call Cooter on the CB and have him tow The General into town, and I bet we’ll meet Bo there.”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Boss pulled up to The Boar’s Nest in his Caddy with Bo riding shotgun and Rosco close behind in his cruiser.  As Bo hopped out and looked up at the sign over the wooden building, Rosco sidled up to Boss.

“Boss, how come you didn’t take him home to Lulu?”

Boss lit a cigar and looked at Rosco as though he’d lost his mind.

“Because, mini-brain, Lulu’s done gone to the fat farm for the week and for another thing, her cooking would kill a buzzard!”

“Well that’s true.”  Rosco nodded.

“Besides, you know that by now them Dukes are out looking for Bo, and with The Boar’s Nest closed today, it’s a perfect hideout!  My house is too close to town, and you know they’d have everyone and their momma out looking for my Sonny Boy!”  Boss walked over to Bo and smiled grandly.

“Well, Sonny!  Do you remember this place?  It’s your home away from home!  You practically live here!”

“The Boar’s Nest.”  Bo sighed, squeezing his eyes shut.  Then finally, he shook his head.  “Daddy I’m sorry I just don’t remember a thing!”

“Well that’s all right.  I’m sure it’ll come to you in time.”

“Hey!”  Bo said, smiling.  “I bet once we get inside it’ll help me remember!  Cos then I’ll get to see all my own things!”

“Your own things?”  Boss frowned, and then he smiled widely.  “Oh, that’ll be just fine! Come on then, let’s go inside.”  He unlocked the door and let Bo enter.

“I think I’ll go in too . . . “ The door was abruptly slammed in his face and Boss backed him off of the threshold with a stubby, pointed finger up in his face.

“You hightail it over to the Duke farm, quick-like!  And then what you’re gonna do is swipe a bushel full of Bo’s personal things!  Souvenirs, pictures anything!  After that, you get over to the courthouse and bring me them papers that we’re gonna need, you hear?  And be quick about it!”

“But Boss, taking stuff from the Duke farm would be stealing!  You mean you want me to steal in broad daylight?”

“It ain’t stealing!”  Boss declared, puffing on his cigar.  “When you’re sheriff, it’s confiscating!  Now get!”  He shooed Rosco away, opened the front door to The Boar’s Nest, and stepped inside.

“Sonny? Oh, there you are!”  He smiled when he saw Bo standing in the middle of the darkened room, and flicked on the lights.  “Now, we’re closed today, but Daddy his-self is going to whip you up some vittles!”  Boss donned a large checkered apron.  “Hog jowls on cornbread!”

Bo sighed.  “Daddy, I really ain’t as hungry as I thought.”

“Dipped in molasses!  That’s your favorite!”  Boss went through the swinging doors to the kitchen, and then his chubby face appeared briefly in the little square window.

“Trust me.”  He nodded with a wink, and vanished into the kitchen.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Later that afternoon, Jesse stood with Cooter in front of the younger man’s garage.  Cooter was worried; he had never seen Jesse Duke look so pale and distracted.

“Worrying never helped anything, Jesse.”  He said gently, and the old man ran a hand over his face.

“I can’t help but worry, Cooter.  We’ve looked everywhere, and it’s as if the earth has just opened up and swallowed Bo whole!”

“I’m sure he’ll turn up.”  Cooter soothed, and then turned his head as he saw Rosco turn the corner of the square and pull up to the courthouse.

“There’s Rosco!”

Jesse turned in the direction and raised his chin. “Come on Cooter, we have to tell him that Bo’s missing.”

“Shoot, what good is that gonna do?”  Cooter drawled.  “Ol’ Rosco is about as helpful as a screen door in a submarine!”

“Helpful or not, he’s the only law we got here in Hazzard.  Come on.”

The two men called out to Rosco as he climbed the steps to the courthouse.

Rosco turned when he heard the sound of Jesse Duke calling him, and his eyes widened.  His cruiser was parked right in their line of sight, and the bagful of stuff he’d swiped from Bo’s room sat in the backseat.  He hurried back down the steps and stood in front of the car, using his body to hide Bo’s belongings.

“What is it now, Jesse?  I ain’t got time to fool around, I got work to do!”

“But Rosco, Bo is missing!”  Cooter exclaimed.

“Of course he is!”  Rosco replied, and both Jesse and Cooter exchanged a puzzled glance.  “I mean . . . he is?”

“Yeah, he went fishing to Hazzard Pond this morning and we ain’t seen him since.”   Cooter stated raising an eyebrow, glancing at Jesse as he shrugged his shoulders.

“Tuh.”  Rosco grunted.  “Is that all?”

“What do you mean ‘is that all?’  Rosco, didn’t you hear what we said?”  The older man shouted.

“Well of course I did, I got ears.”  Rosco glared at both Cooter and Jesse.

“Look, I’m sorry about Bo and all, but I haven’t got time to mess around with stuff like that!  I’m on urgent business here at the courthouse!  Now you two just get before I arrest the bunch of you for loitering!  I mean it, now!”

“Rosco, you glorified night watchman!”  Jesse roared, and Cooter flinched.  Jesse Duke didn’t lose his temper often, but when he did, the result was more ferocious than a summer twister.

“Do you mean to tell me that you’re just gonna stand there and threaten to have us arrested when we’ve just told you that we got a missing family member?”

“Like I said, Jesse, I got urgent business.  Now go on . . . . I mean it!”  He shooed them from his cruiser.  Tossing Rosco a seething look of anger, Jesse turned to Cooter.

“I got a feeling in my gut that Boss and Rosco are involved in Bo’s disappearance, and with the way Rosco was acting just now, I’m sure of it.”

Cooter Rosco vanish into the courthouse.

“I got the same feeling, Uncle Jesse.  We best fill Min and Luke in on what Ol’ Rosco said the minute they get back.”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

When Rosco returned to the Boar’s Nest with the bag full of Bo’s personal things, he snuck in through the back door and scattered them all over Boss’s office.  He could hear Boss and Bo talking in the barroom, and just as he was putting up one of Bo’s trophies, the door to Boss’s office banged open, hitting him square in the face.  Bo pulled it back as he walked in, and shrugged at Rosco.

“Sorry Uncle Rosco.  What were you doing behind there?”

“I’ll put a-”  Rosco began, raising his fist, but clamped his mouth shut when Boss casually  kicked him in the shin while he smiled at Bo.

“Say Sonny, look around here!  This is your favorite room, and these are all your own things!”  He glared at Rosco in case the Sheriff tried to speak up again.  Bo looked over the pictures and trophies, and his brow furrowed.

“Some of these posters bring back a few memories, daddy.”

“They do?” Boss switched his cigar to the other hand and touched a racing banner.

“Well, you love to race, Sonny, and you’ve got your Daddy’s natural talent for it too.” He gave Bo a big, squinting smile, his cheeks rounding like apples.

“Now you just look around, see if any of this other stuff jogs your memory while I talk to you Uncle Rosco.”

Taking a hold of Rosco’s arm, Boss steered him through the open office door and out into the darkened bar. “Well? Did you get them?”

“Khee!  I got ’em Boss, just like you said.”  Rosco handed a bunch of papers to Boss, and then his brow furrowed.  “You know, Boss, them Dukes, they’re already out looking for Bo!”

Boss flipped through the papers and nodded before sticking his cigar in his mouth. He had a puff of it and blew the smoke at the Sheriff, who coughed and waved his hand in front of his face.

“Of course they are Rosco, that’s just what I expect them to do. That’s why I had you get these, to put an end their meddling all nice and legal like.”

“But Boss, what worries me is that amnesia will wear off of Bo’s brain.  What’ll we do then?”

Boss glanced over his shoulder a moment and gripped Rosco’s arm moving him further away from the open door. “We won’t do nothing! Cause by then Cat will have delivered all my shine to all my clients and then I pay her to get lost for a good long time.” He let go of Rosco’s arms and brought his hands up.

“No shine! No evidence!” He said with a bright sunny grin, his eyes wide.

“But Boss, Bo will remember what he saw.  And if he talks, then Big Jim Doyle will-”  Rosco made a fssshhht sound and drew his finger across his throat.

“Rosco!” Boss pulled the sheriff almost to the middle of the room. “Don’t you go talking about stuff like that! As long as we keep Bo quiet Jim Doyle won’t have no reason to . . .  uhh . . . uhh…” He waved his hands in the air.

“You know what! When the twenty-four hours are up, I’m gonna have Bo Duke so brainwashed that he’ll think he’s been a Hogg his whole life!  He’ll be totally loyal to me, and besides, you done heard what that lady doctor said!  It’s people, not things, that’ll bring Bo Duke’s memory back, and we’ve already got that covered!”  Boss patted his suit coat pocket with a grin.

“When Big Jim Doyle sees that Bo doesn’t know nothing excepting the fact that he’s a Hogg, he’ll have no reason to . . . “  Boss grimaced.  “Commit violence on my person.”

“I hope so.”  Rosco replied worriedly.  “Cos you know Boss, it’d be hard to eat those pig’s feet you like so much if Big Jim fsssshhht!”  Rosco mimicked cutting his throat again and Boss shoved him aside.  “Would you stop with that noise already and get out on patrol like you’re supposed to?”  He turned and waddled back into his office, where Bo was waiting.   “Come on over here, Sonny!  Got something to show you.”

Bo obeyed, but as he passed a mirror, he pulled up short and examined himself.  The thick, almost curly blond hair and the deep blue eyes were familiar, and he put a hand to his face.  “You know daddy, it’s kind of funny you and me being father and son.  We don’t look a thing alike!”  He exclaimed.

“That’s cause a lot of years has passed since I looked like you do Sonny Boy.” He put a hand to his stomach and gave it a pat. “And I’ve gained a pound or two since then.”

“Or ten, or twenty.”  Rosco put in helpfully, and then withered under Boss’s glare.  He slipped out the door, and Boss beamed at Bo, who looked in the mirror again.

“I still don’t think we look much alike.”  He sighed, and Boss grinned around his cigar.  “Oh, you don’t eh?  Well Sonny Boy, we can soon fix that!  You come along with me!”  He took Bo by the arm and led him out the back door, to where his caddy was parked and waiting.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Jesse, Luke, Min and Cooter stood outside of Cooter’s garage in a small circle, their faces grave.  Jesse sighed and wrung his red cap in both hands, his expression one of distress and grief.  “There was no sign of him? Just The General?”

“Just the General.” Min sighed as she crossed her arms over his chest, her head hanging. “His fishing gear and cooler were still in the backseat, the keys were still in the ignition.” She raised her face and gazed at her cousin.

Luke felt just as helpless, and wiped his hand over his face. “We searched the woods around where we found The General.” He shook his head and sighed. “No sign of Bo anywhere.”

“Well he can’t just have fallen off the face of the earth!”  Jesse snarled suddenly, anger masking his worry.  Cooter patted his shoulder.

“Of course he didn’t, Jesse.  He’ll turn up soon, you’ll see.”

“Sure seems like he did.” Min moved away from leaning against her car and walked around it, running her hand over the bright red paint. She heard the sound of an engine and glanced across the street; there she saw Boss pull up in his white Cadillac. The passenger side opened, and Min’s eyes went round as a loud gasp hitched out of her.

“Min?  Are you okay? Min!”  Luke said sharply when his cousin didn’t reply.

Her dark eyes were wide in genuine shock and she raised a trembling hand to point across the street. Following her extended arm, the three men saw what had made her pale and they too gasped.

“Holy Smokes–” Luke muttered as he swallowed hard.

Cooter watched Boss climb the courthouse steps with a companion at his side.  The man was dressed in a white suit identical to Boss Hogg’s, and he was well over six feet tall.  Cooter shook his head numbly.

“Either somebody done run Huey Hogg over with a giant rolling pin, or that there’s Bo.” He said with surety.

“Bo!” Min finally snapped out of her stupor and began running, a wave of relief washing over her at the sight of her brother, alive and unharmed. She could hear the thuds of Luke’s boots behind her as she ran.

Cletus, just leaving the courthouse, met Boss and Bo just as they came up the stairs.

“Hi Cousin Boss, hey Bo.”  He smiled, and then stopped short.  His eyes widened, and he turned back.  “Cousin Boss? What’s Bo Duke doing in one of your suits?”

Boss opened his mouth about to give his kin what for when he heard the shout. Turning around he saw the Dukes racing over and grabbed Cletus, using him like a human shield. “Never mind that! You just keep them meddling Dukes of this building! You hear?” He then grabbed Bo by his arm, his tone changing from stern to gentle.

“Come on Sonny Boy, we best get inside.”

“Bo wait!”  Luke shouted, but his shout was drowned out by that of his uncle, who was red-faced with rage.

“J.D. Hogg you overstuffed marshmallow! What have you done to Bo?”

Bo heard the commotion and glanced over his shoulder seeing the group of people. He blinked a moment, their faces causing a stirring in his mind.

“Daddy? Who are they?” He rubbed his gauze-covered cut a moment under the brim of his hat, flashes of images poured forth and made him slightly dizzy.

“Never mind who they are! You just get inside and wait for me by the door!”  Using his bulk, Boss shoved Bo through the courthouse door and slammed it shut.  He then used his body to block it, his arms spread out, as he faced the angry mob of Dukes.

“You Dukes get on out of here before I have Cletus here arrest you for loitering!”

“Arrest us? Maybe we should arrest you! What are you doing with Bo and why is he dressed liked a tall, skinny Pillsbury Dough boy?” Min scowled, the fire of her temper slipped through as she tried to get past Boss, who shifted from side to side blocking her efforts.

Luke vaulted up the steps in quick strides standing beside his cousin.

“Min’s right! We’ve torn up half the county looking for Bo and you’ve had him all this time! No wonder Rosco didn’t seem concerned that he was missing.”

The three Dukes plus Cooter all surrounded Boss, the four people towering over the chubby man in white, but he refused to budge planting his backside firmly against the door.

“Maybe he got tired of feeding chickens and slopping hogs!  I mean, pigs!”

“Slopping pigs!” Jesse forced his way between his niece and nephew coming face to face with Boss. “Now you listen here JD! The only pig he’s slopped around here is you! Now I want to talk to my nephew and I want to talk to him right now!” Anger coursed through the older man hard and fast, causing his face to turn a beet red.

“Take it easy, Uncle Jesse.”  Luke said softly, concerned for his uncle’s blood pressure.  “Look Boss, we don’t care how or why Bo ended up here, we just want him back!”

“Well he don’t want to come back Luke Duke! In fact-” Boss reached into his suit coat and pulled out a sheaf of papers, which he handed to Jesse.

“Those papers say that you Dukes have to keep away from Bo at least five hundred feet at all times! All times! Including now! So you just march your boots right back where you came from, hear?”

Min glanced at the papers in her uncle’s hands and then shifted her gaze back to Boss.

“A restraining order! You’re keeping him from us? But why?” She felt her emotions threaten but held them in check as she lifted her chin, refusing to let Boss see her that way. “You can’t get away with this!”

“I can and I will! I own this county, and if I say Bo Duke doesn’t want to talk to you, then that’s that!”  Boss turned and jerked open the courthouse door.  He lumbered inside, and slammed the door hard.

Luke blinked, Jesse groaned and Cooter shook his head.  “Bo doesn’t want to be a Duke anymore?  How can that be?”

Min pounded on the door with her fists, this time her feelings boiled over, a combination of anger and heartbreak; the tears ran down her face.

“Boss! Open this door! Bo! Bo come out here and talk to us please!”

Cletus turned to the group.  “I’m sorry guys, but if you don’t leave, Cousin Boss will make me arrest you.  You’d better get on out of here.”  He said, not unkindly.

Cletus’s words made little difference. Min beat her fists into the door until her hands hurt. She leaned her forehead against the door closing her eyes.

“He can’t get away with this…he can’t keep Bo from us. I refuse to believe he doesn’t want to be a Duke anymore.” Her voice was low, mellow, and thick with emotion and frustration.  Min sighed heavily, wishing this nightmare would end.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Once safely inside the courthouse, Boss exhaled loudly and paused to pull a large white hanky from his suit coat pocket with which to wipe his face.  As he tucked it away again, Bo approached him with an uncertain expression in his eyes.

“Daddy? Who were those people?  I swear I recognized them!”

“No you did not!  And even if you did, it’s probably because you saw their faces on some wanted posters in your Uncle Rosco’s office!”

Bo creased his brow.  “You mean they’re criminals?”

“Criminals!  Pah!   They’re worse than just criminals!  They’re lowdown, mean, sneaky, underhanded scoundrels!  Always poking their noses into other people’s business!  Mostly mine!  They’re powerful mean, and they’d like nothing better than to run upstanding citizens like us clean out of town! You saw the temper on that old polecat with your own eyes after all!”

“I . . . I suppose so.”  Bo replied, and then he shook his head uncertainly.  “But it sure seemed like they wanted to talk to me about something important.”

“Bull’s breath!  The only thing that’s important to The Duke gang is shine!  And they’d do anything to drum me right out of the market!”

“Shine.”  Bo repeated softly, and blinked at Boss.  “You mean . . . moonshine?”

“That’s right!”  Boss patted Bo’s shoulder, pleased.  “And you might not remember it Sonny, but you’re the best shine runner around these parts!  The Duke gang is always trying to get you over to their side!  That’s why they were calling you out there before, to try and talk you into running for them and leaving your poor old daddy in the dust!”  Boss’s lower lip stuck out and he mooned like a Basset Hound.  Bo frowned.

“Daddy, I’d never do that!”

Boss brightened.  “Course you wouldn’t!  You’re a Hogg, after all, and us Hoggs are loyal right down to the bone!”  Boss pulled out his gold pocket watch and flicked back its scrolled cover.

“Oh my, it’s getting late, and we got us an important appointment, Sonny!”

“What kind of an appointment, daddy?”

“Well . . . “  Boss put a hand on Bo’s shoulder.  “That lady doctor told your daddy and Uncle Rosco that we needed to show you familiar things to help fix that swimmy head of yours.  So I thought we’d start with the thing that you know best . . . . the family business!”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Doyle paced back and forth near Boss’s still site, artfully tucked away in some bushes near the abandoned railroad trestle.  The sun was starting to set, sending rays of bright light down through the trees and splashing shadows along the forest floor.  Doyle, a pragmatic and practical man, noticed none of nature’s beauty.  He only checked his watch and paced, paced and checked.  Finally, a wordless growl tore from his throat and he snapped his watch closed with a flick of his wrist.

“Damn it Hogg! Where are you?”

As if in reply, the sound of an engine broke the silence as Boss’s white caddy pulled up where Rosco and any shine runner would hide his car.  Rosco was at the wheel, and Doyle’s eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the boy he’d pistol-whipped earlier riding next to Boss Hogg himself.

“Hogg!”  He roared, advancing on the Caddy with quick, aggressive steps.  “What the hell is this?”

“Mind your tongue Doyle, I said I’d be here, and here I am. The time don’t make no nevermind.”  Boss lit a cigar and motioned Bo forward.  “Jim Doyle, I’d like you to meet someone.”

“That’s-”  Doyle began, and Boss interrupted him smoothly.

“That’s right!  This here’s my son, Bo Hogg.”

Bo took off his hat in a gesture of respect, the late afternoon sun making his golden hair shine like a halo.  A square white bandage covered an area of skin near his hairline, and a small flesh-colored band-aid was visible at a diagonal on his right temple.

Doyle’s eyes widened further, and after a moment he began to laugh.

“You sly old weasel!”  He chuckled, and Boss grinned expansively.

“That’s right, Doyle.  What you see here is the solution to our problem.”  He said softly, and then patted Bo’s shoulder.  “Cos never was there more a loyal son to his daddy than Bo Hogg!”

“Loyal!”  Rosco echoed with a giggle from behind Boss.

“You hush.”  Boss told him, erasing the smile from Rosco’s face.  Then he turned to Bo.  “Sonny, I want you to stay here with Uncle Rosco for a minute while Mr. Doyle and I talk private-like for a minute.”

“Okay daddy.”  Bo smiled, and Boss smiled back.

“Oh that’s my good boy.  We’ll be right back.”  Boss led Doyle away under the shadows of the rusted trestle and puffed his cigar.

“Well Doyle, does this satisfy you?  The boy doesn’t remember a thing, and he ain’t likely to for a long while.  Seems like that bang on the head you give him turned out to be a blessing in disguise for you.”

“A temporary blessing, Hogg!  That’s all it is!  What about when the boy regains his memory?”

“Listen!  The doctor who treated Bo Duke said that the longer he goes without seeing people like family and friends, the less likely it’ll be that his memory will come back!  Long as he’s with me, he ain’t never gonna remember!”

Doyle raised a skeptical eyebrow. “I don’t like this and I don’t trust it.”

“Don’t worry, Doyle!  I got me a restraining order against The Duke family, and they can’t get near the boy without getting hauled to the pokey!”

“A restraining order?” Doyle looked past Boss’ shoulder at the Bo and sighed. “You best keep an eye on him Hogg; you best keep him on a tight leash.” He raised a pointed finger and stuck it in Boss’s face, the stout man’s eyes crossing briefly as it bumped the end of his nose. “Because I’m going to be watching and the first time he slips up…”

“Right.  He slips, and you land on me.”  Boss gulped, and then glanced back at Bo.

“That’s right…I land on you and that bungling Sheriff of yours, and the last two I landed on…” He gave a grim smile. “Let’s just say they went out to Euchie Swamp and never came back.” Boss paled at this.

“And Bo Duke?  After all Doyle, he ain’t much more than a boy, really.  I mean . . . .you wouldn’t really hurt him, would you?”

His smile widened, and his beady eyes turned cold. “Plenty of room out in that swamp Hogg…plenty…”

Boss began to have the terrible feeling that he was in over his head, but managed to give Big Jim a reassuring smile.

“Well no need for that, Doyle.  You just wait and see . . . . once I finish with Bo Duke, he’s going to think he was born a Hogg!”

“For all of your sake’s, he better.” Doyle lowered his finger and straightened up seeing Bo watching the both of them.

“You better start right now Hogg; he’s looking at me like he remembers who I am.”

Boss’s eyes widened and he hurried back over to Bo, who was looking at Doyle curiously.  Although he didn’t recognize the man, there was something very familiar about his voice.

“Mr. Doyle, have we met before?”  He asked, and Boss jumped in before Doyle could reply.

“Why of course you have, Sonny!  Mr. Doyle here has been my associate for years!  He’s been around ever since you was born, practically!”

“An associate?” Bo grinned sheepishly, his cheeks turning pink. “Guess I…guess I just couldn’t remember that. I’m awful sorry Mr. Doyle; I’m having some problems with my memory.” He extended his right hand hoping Doyle would shake it and accept his apology.

Doyle grinned slyly and shook the boy’s hand, all the while shooting Boss a look that said, Blow this, and you’re all fish food.

“Now isn’t that nice? They’re being all nice and friendly like,” He took out his white handkerchief and nonchalantly dabbed as his face.

Rosco watched him and Boss widened his eyes a moment and made a slashing motion across his throat. The sheriff’s eyes grew as round as dinner plates and he mirrored Boss’s fake grin.

“Nice and friendly like.” He went over to Bo and put his arm around his shoulders. “Now you’re going to do listen to every word your Daddy says, ain’t you Bo?”

“Sure, Uncle Rosco.”  Bo smiled, turning back to Boss.  “You’re going to tell me about the family business, right?”

“Why of course I am Sonny!” Boss took his watch out and opened it checking the time. “But right now we best get home cause it’s getting close to suppertime.” He tucked it away and turned to Doyle. “We best be going now Doyle, it was nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you too!” Doyle grinned, and Boss hurried Bo away from the area as Bo looked curiously over his shoulder.

“Daddy?  Why didn’t you invite Mr. Doyle to supper?”

Boss stopped walking before he got to the Caddy and whipped around.

“Cause I don’t make a habit of inviting mangy polecats to supper Sonny.” He saw confusion on Bo’s face and gently patted his shoulder.

“Sometimes you have to be friendly to those that don’t deserve it, its called business relations.”

“But I thought you and Mr. Doyle was good friends, daddy!”  Bo exclaimed as they got into the caddy, and Rosco paused at the driver’s side door just long enough to look Bo in the eye.

“Listen to your daddy now, Bo, he knows what he’s talking about!”

Bo sighed and sat back in the caddy’s soft seat.

“Yes sir.” He said softly, and closed his eyes against a growing headache behind his eyes.

 

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Cooter pulled up to Bertha’s Cafe. Jogging around the bright yellow truck he went inside the small grey building and came out a short time later, both arms loaded with two big, overstuffed grocery bags.

“Thanks a lot for the food Sweetheart; I’ll tell the boys you said hey!” He called out over his shoulder as the door closed. He whistled a cheerful tune as he opened the passenger door to his truck and carefully set the bags inside it.

After he adjusted his cap a moment, he got behind the wheel and started the tow truck up, kicking up a cloud of dust as he headed towards the direction of the Duke farm.

“Best give them a holler; see if they’re up for company.” He picked up the mike and held it close to his mouth. “Breaker one, breaker one! Might be crazy but I ain’t dumb…Crazy Cooter calling over to the Duke Farm, any of you Dukes out there, come on…”

“You got Lost Sh-” There was a broken pause, and then Luke replied.

“Hey, Cooter.”

“Hey Lukas Dukas! I’d ask how you’re doing but that reply says it all.”

His grin faded. “I know you’re all feeling poorly, I picked up some brisket, potato salad and beans from Bertha’s. I’d sure hate to eat all this food alone.”

“That’s mighty fine of you, Cooter, but . . . .”  Luke hesitated, and Cooter could hear the emotional pain in Luke’s tone.  Luke Duke wasn’t a man to show his emotions easily, but when it came to his young cousin it was a different story, and Cooter could tell Bo’s absence was hitting Luke hard.

“Come on Luke…you three sitting around moping ain’t going to get Bo back to you. Let me come by and we’ll break bread together then talk about getting your kin back. What do you say?”

Luke paused, and when he spoke next, his voice was hopeful.  “Are you saying you have some kind of plan for getting Bo back, Cooter?”

Cooter gave a shrug. “Do I?” He said to himself first then raised the mike again.

“Can’t say I do Lukas, but I’m sure we can put our heads together and come up with one.”

“We have to do something, Cooter.”  Luke’s voice lowered noticeably.  “Uncle Jesse’s just about going out of his mind with worry.  Something’s happened to Bo, and we can’t even help him!  If we get too close, Boss’ll have us all in the pokey for violating that restraining order of his!”

“As I recall Lukas, it that piece of paper Boss gave said someone named Duke couldn’t get near Bo.” Cooter’s grin widened. “But I sure didn’t see nothing bout someone named Davenport getting near to him!”

There was another pause, and then Luke laughed out loud.

“Cooter, you’re a genius!”  He shouted.  “Come on over and you can tell Uncle Jesse and Min!  Hurry!”

Hearing the life spark back in Luke’s voice sent a rush of relief to Cooter.

“I’m down and gone Brother, I’ll be there in two shakes!” He tossed the mike into the seat and began to whistle again, this time with genuine mirth as he turned down Mill Pond Lane.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

While The Dukes’ appetites weren’t up to par, they laid out a good table to show their gratitude to Cooter.  As they sat down to eat and said grace, Cooter could almost feel the heaviness that’s Bo’s absence had left in the family.

“Lord, bless this food and this family . . . . and watch over those that we cannot.  Amen.”

“Amen.”  Luke, Min and Cooter echoed, and Jesse began to serve the brisket, beans and potato salad that Cooter had brought.

Min stared down at her plate as her uncle served her and gave a nod. “Thank you Uncle Jesse.” She picked up her fork and glanced across the table at Cooter.

“You really think you can get him?”

“Sure I can Min, shouldn’t be no trouble at all!” Cooter leaned forward, his fork in his right hand. “See despite the fact Ol’ Bo’s a tad off his rocker right now, deep down in him there’s the same good ol’ boy there’s always been! He won’t be able to stop himself from lending a neighbor a hand!”

“How do you mean, Cooter?”  Luke asked, dishing himself out some potato salad.

“Simple Luke,” Cooter shifted his attention to him and began to use the tablecloth like a paper, grabbing the salt and pepper shakers and a slice of bread.

“See this is Boss’ house here, in Hazzard Square.” He set the bread down.

“See I’ll come driving along–” The pepper shaker slid across the table and stopped close to the bread slice. “And oh darn ain’t it a shame! My fuel line’s gonna get clogged and the truck’s going to stall out.” He then raised the salt shaker and grinned.

“And here’s Bo Hogg, all decked out in his fancy white duds. I’ll go knock on the door and ask for help, get him over by the truck then bushwhack him and take off with him!”

Jesse’s expression turned cautious.  “Bushwhack him?  Cooter, you don’t aim to hurt my boy, do you?  Cos whatever’s goin’ on in his mind, I’m sure it’s not his doing.”

Cooter picked up the saltshaker that he had placed close to the pepper and gave it a pat. “Don’t you worry yourself now Uncle Jesse, I swear I won’t hurt Bo none, just get him in the truck and take off with him. I’ll drive him out of the square and you all can be waiting.”

“And after that, then what?”  Luke asked.  “If Bo really has lost his mind or his memory, how do we help him get it back?”

Min wiped her mouth with her napkin; she had been thinking about when they saw Bo with Boss. “You all remember when Bo looked at us and he touched his forehead?”

Luke nodded.  “He looked like he had a headache or something.  And I think his head was bandaged.  It was hard to tell with that hat, though.”  He looked up at Min.

“Do you think he recognized us, Min?”

“I think so Luke, I think for a brief moment something came back to him.” She raised her hand and touched her forehead in the same spot Bo had rubbed his.

“I think I saw some gauze on his head, but any memory flash he might have gotten I’m sure Boss lied to him about anything he remembered.”

Jesse frowned severely.  “When I get ahold of that overstuffed bean bag, he’s going to wish he’d never tangled with my family!”

Luke reached out and patted his uncle on the shoulder. “Easy now Uncle Jesse, what we know is that Boss is holding Bo and keeping him away from us, what we don’t know is why.”

Cooter nodded. “Luke’s right, Boss and Rosco have done some mean and under handed things but nothing this low before. There’s got to be a good reason.”

“There’s only two reasons that J.D. does things.  Either for money, or to save his own sorry hide.  Whatever he’s got Bo mixed up in, you can bet it’s because of those two reasons!”

“And that’s what worries me. If its more profitable or safer to keep Bo with him…”

Min pushed her plate away, her appetite suddenly vanishing. “What if Bo’s in danger if we take him away from Boss?”

Luke turned to Jesse.  “Uncle Jesse, you know Boss better than anyone else in Hazzard.  Is there a chance that Boss is protecting Bo from something?”

Jesse scowled.  “He don’t need Boss’ protection!  We’re his family, and if he is in trouble, we’re the ones who should be protecting him!”  He snapped.

“Amen to that Uncle Jesse.” Cooter set his napkin down on the table. “If Bo were in trouble, I think Boss would have said something about it.”

“Maybe he couldn’t.  Maybe someone was listening.”  Luke suggested, and Jesse shook his head.

“It’s either money or his hide, like I done told you all before!”  He looked over at Cooter.  “When?”

Cooter rubbed his hands together, his toothy grin returning. “Well I figure Boss and Rosco gotta leave Bo alone some time. He opens his bank at eight a.m. sharp, I figure that’s when I’ll mosey on over to Boss’ house and have my truck break down.”

Jesse nodded.  “Let’s do it, then.  Let’s get Bo back where he belongs.”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Bo ran for his life, his feet pounding over the hard packed earth.  The smell of pine was all around him, and his lungs burned as he ran faster and faster.  Suddenly, a huge barrier of fallen trees and underbrush loomed up in front of him, and he cried out for help as he tried in vain to climb the slippery wood.  From the other side, voices began to call his name.

“Bo, come home!  Come home, please!”

“I’m trying! I’m trying, help me, please!”  He called back to the voices that were so familiar, yet just out of his reach.  He continued to call to them as he scrambled up the fallen logs, but then suddenly something was dragging him back down.  He screamed aloud as strong hands yanked him backwards, and something hard and cold struck his head.  As the thing continued to strike him, Bo heard the muted crack of his own skull cracking open, and the voices on the other side of the blowdown faded along with his consciousness . . . . .

He came awake in the room his daddy had said was his, breathing hard and damp with sweat.  His head ached, and Bo put both hands to the bandage that covered the wound there.  His daddy and Uncle Rosco had said he’d run off the road and hit his head, but he had no memory of the accident.

He climbed out of bed with a sigh, his bare feet cold on the wood floor.  He padded over to the window and looked out at the coming dawn, unhappy for a reason that he couldn’t explain.

Who are those people that I keep dreaming about?  He thought to himself.

Why do I only hear their voices, but never see their faces? 

A knock on the bedroom door broke these thoughts.

“Sonny? You awake in there?” Boss called out, from behind the closed door.

“Uh . . . yeah daddy, hold on just a second!”  Bo threw a robe over the sweat pants he’d slept in and opened the door.

“Come on in.”  He offered Boss a smile that he hoped looked genuine.

“You sleep all right?” Boss looked around the room as he came in. Getting ready for the day, he only had on his white shirt and vest, his jacket and hat in his hands.

“I came to tell you that your Uncle Rosco and I have some work to do down in my bank. You think you can fend for yourself for a little while, say for an hour or two?”

“Sure, daddy.”  Bo replied, his eyes roving around the room that Boss has said was his.  The wallpaper was a riot of huge pink roses and pale green vines.  He shook his head. “Daddy, if this is my room, why does it look like you and momma had a girl instead?”

“Oh! Uhhhh….” Boss slipped his jacket on, adjusting the lapels. “That’s cause your momma thought she was having a girl but low and behold she had you instead! You just ain’t never had the heart to change it since she spent a lot of time and hard work decorating it.”

“Oh.”  Bo said uncertainly, wanting to tell his father about the dreams he’d been having, but obviously he had a busy day ahead of him, and Bo didn’t want to trouble him.

“I’ll be fine here alone, daddy.  I’ll read the paper and have a bite to eat.  Don’t you worry about me, just go on to the bank and get your business done.”

Boss nodded as he slipped the hat. “All right I’ll do that.” He took a step closer to Bo and pointed a chubby finger at him.

“Now you listen to me and you listen good you stay in this house and don’t you open for the door for no one you understand?”

Bo nodded.  “I understand, daddy.  You better go on now before you’re late.”

A grin came to Boss’s face.

“That’s my good boy!” Boss gave Bo a pat on his shoulder, then promptly turn and left the room. The sound of his heavy footfalls echoed through the house as the stout man walked down the steps. The front door opened, then closed with a bang, leaving silence in its wake.

Alone with his troubled thoughts, Bo went down into the kitchen.  The morning paper was already on the table, and Bo helped himself to a glazed donut from a box next to the paper.  He poured himself a cup of coffee, drank it down, and reached for the egg basket that always hung beside the front door-

Bo blinked as his hand closer over empty air.  “Egg basket?”  He asked himself aloud, and then shook his head.  He was pretty sure his daddy didn’t own any chickens, much less an egg basket.  Shrugging off the random memory, Bo poured himself another cup of coffee and sat down to read the paper.

He was halfway through the front page when the doorbell rang, its robust chimes echoing through the house.  Bo hesitated, and then got up to answer the door.  Remembering his daddy’s orders, he didn’t open the door right away.  Instead he called out.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Jim Doyle, son!  Your daddy’s oldest friend, remember?  I plumb forgot yesterday that I had a package for him.  Left it in my car and didn’t recollect it until after you all had left.  Be a good boy and open up, so’s I can give it to him?”

Bo hesitated.  “Daddy told me not to open the door for anyone, Mr. Doyle.”

“I realize that son and I’m glad you’re obeying your Daddy but…this is something that pertains to his business and he could lose a lot of money if I don’t give it to him.”

“Maybe you could just leave it there on the porch, Mr. Doyle.  I’m sure my daddy will pick it up there when he and Uncle Rosco get back from the bank.”

“Oh no I can’t do that! Someone’s liable to steal it and that’d hurt your Daddy’s business even more!”

Bo hesitated, and then swung the door open.  Doyle grinned at him, and Bo held his hand out.  “I can take it for you, Mr. Doyle.”

Doyle had his hands behind his back, he brought one around and grabbed Bo by the wrist then yanked the young man forward. Spinning him around, he slapped a chloroform soaked handkerchief against Bo’s face and held it there.

“Just breathe it in son, breathe it in nice and deep!” He said with a cold smile as he held Bo against his chest and watched his struggles grow weaker.

At that moment, Cooter was rounding the bend that led to Boss’s house.  He glanced down to make sure he could stall the truck out easily, but when he looked back up, he got the nasty shock of seeing a big, barrel chested man standing on Boss’s porch, holding Bo tightly against him with one arm while his other hand held something white over Bo’s face.  Bo’s legs were kicking helplessly, and Cooter swore loudly as he fumbled for the CB.

“Breaker one! Luke, Jesse, Min!  Please tell me you got your ears on, this here’s an emergency!”

“Min here Cooter, what’s going on? Is it Bo?”

“Yeah!  Min, you and Luke got to get over to Boss’s house; some big dude in a blue suit is manhandling Bo!”

“What?? What big dude? He’s got Bo? Hang on Cooter we’re almost there!”

“Hurry!”  Cooter shouted as he watched the big man drag Bo to a dark green Chevy parked at the curb.  Bo looked unconscious, and Cooter watched in dismay as the big man tied Bo’s hands and feet, and then shoved a white cloth in his mouth before bundling him into the backseat.  He drove off, heading away from town, and Cooter got back on the CB in a hurry.

“Min! He’s got Bo in his car and he’s heading away from town!  I’m on his tail!”  Cooter began to follow the Chevy at a casual distance, his heart beating hard.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Meanwhile in Min’s red Mustang, the two Duke cousins were speeding towards town, on their way to meet Cooter. They heard his latest transmission and the color drained from Min’s face as she glanced at her cousin, swallowing hard.

“Oh God Luke someone snatched Bo!” She pressed the CB mike again; it shook a little in her hand.

“Cooter? Which road did he take?”

“He’s heading down Orchid Lane and now he’s turning onto Old Farm Road!”

“Old Farm Road?”  Luke repeated, his blue eyes widening.  “There’s nothing out there but-”  His blood ran cold as he thought of the endless tangle of swampland and quicksand pools out at the old dead end road.  He clenched his jaw.

“Put it to the floor, cousin.  Whoever that guy is, he’s planning on making sure we never get Bo back!”  Min exclaimed, and thumbed the mike again.

“Shepherd, this is Darlin’, you got your ears on?”

“You got the Shepherd, Darlin’, come back?”

“We got trouble!  Cooter called us and said he saw some big fella kidnap Bo right off of Boss’s front porch!  Cooter’s on his tail and we’re close behind.”

“Where they headed, Darlin’?”

“West, on Old Farm road!”

There was a pause, and Jesse’s voice was hard-edged with barely controlled panic.

“You just keep on ‘em, Darlin’, and I’ll be there in two shakes Shepherd out.”

“Copy that, Shepherd.  Darlin’ out.”  Min put down the CB and glanced over at Luke.

“Jesse knows where Old Farm Road ends up, Luke.  Just what the heck did Boss tangle Bo up into this time?”

“I don’t think we have to time to ponder that right now, cousin.  If we waste any time, Bo’s going to be at the bottom of the swamp before we can turn around.”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Doyle grinned a hard, unforgiving grin as he headed for the swamps and the end to his troubles with Bo Duke.  Of course he hadn’t trusted Boss at his word, a frog would be better off to trust a hungry snake.  Knowing that Boss would most likely betray or lie to him about what Bo Duke remembered, Doyle had decided to take matters into his own hands.  Sure it was a dirty trick, but dirty tricks were what had kept him alive all of these years.  Alive, and one step ahead of the game.

There was a stirring from the backseat, and then several muffled protests as Bo came out of his ether-induced sleep.  He squirmed against his bonds and called Doyle’s name through the thick white cloth in his mouth.

“Quiet down, boy.  It’ll all be over soon enough. Then I can tell the Dukes that you were silenced permanently.”  Doyle spoke into the rearview mirror, where Bo’s dark blue eyes were wide above his gag.  He shook his head desperately, and Doyle laughed.

“That’s right, I’m working for them, and they want you out of the picture!” He lied, enjoying the look of panic in Bo’s eyes.

“You go on ahead and struggle all you like, the gators love it when their prey puts up a fight.  Makes the meal that much more satisfying!”

“Mnnnnph!”  Bo shouted, his bound feet pounding the back of Doyle’s seat.

“You got plenty of fire boy!  The gators are goin’ to be fighting over you!  Lucky for them there’ll be enough of you to go around.”  Doyle grinned into the rearview mirror as he saw fear jump into Bo’s eyes, and a thrill ran through him.

“Too bad I’m in such a hurry.”  He said in a low, husky voice.  “Otherwise I’d stop along the way so you and I could have a bit of fun of our own before I fed you to the critters in Little Fox Swamp.  Now quiet down before I waste you right here and the swamps be damned!”

Old Farm Road was dwindling into a narrow dirt path, and that made Doyle sigh in satisfaction.  Soon it would be all over and he could get back to using his badge in a manner unbecoming a revenuer, robbing moonshiners of their whiskey and stills, and then selling them a profit.  He had made a huge mistake trusting the likes of Boss Hogg, and he would settle his fat hash, along with his idiot sheriff, just as soon as he took care of Bo Duke.

“See that Boy? It’s almost the end of the line for you and I won’t shed a tear, just another ridge runner that finally got his comeuppance.”

Bo strained against the ropes that bound his hands, praying that somehow his daddy and Uncle Rosco would come after him.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

“Ooh! Oooh!  Boss, come quick! Big Jim Doyle’s gone and kidnapped Bo Duke!”

Rosco called from the driver’s seat of the Caddy as he sat in front of the bank, and Boss nearly fell down the steps of the building in his mad dash to the car, his chubby arms flailing wildly.

“What?  Rosco, are you sure you heard right?  I told Sonny Boy not to open the door for nobody!”

“I heard it with my own two eyes, I mean, ears, I mean . . . . I was sitting right here when I heard Cooter and Min and Jesse talking about it over the CB!  They said some big fella in a blue suit had kidnapped Bo right off’n your front porch!  There’s only one bigfella in a blue suit that I know of, Boss, and that’s Doyle!”

“What!  That no good double-crosser!  We had a deal!”  He got into the caddy and jammed his hat onto his head.  “You just can’t trust an honest crook these days!  You get on the horn and find me a Duke!  Any Duke!  I gotta tell them the truth before it’s too late!”

Rosco pulled out of the town square as he picked up the CB mike.

“Breaker one, this is Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, any of you Dukes got your ears on, come on?”

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Min’s eyes went wide as she heard the hail over the CB and picked up her mike.

“This is Min Duke, sheriff, and if this is about some trumped-up charge or stupid speed trap, we haven’t got the time!  Somebody has Bo-”

There was a spate of static on the line and then Boss broke in.

“Gimmie that thing here,”  Min heard him grumble.

“Now listen up you Dukes!  The man who has Bo is a crooked revenuer named Big Jim Doyle!  He’s gonna do away with Bo if we don’t do something right quick!”

“J.D. Hogg, what have you gotten my boy into?  You’d best start talkin’ right here and now, or Bo won’t be the only one in trouble!”  Jesse raged into his own CB mike.

“Now now Jesse, just take it easy . . . . “ Boss placated his old nemesis.  “I was only tryin’ to protect the boy!”

“Looks like you’re doing a fine job.”  Luke drawled, and Boss gave a wordless noise of protest.

“I resent that, Luke Duke!  I did everything I could for Sonny Boy!  It’s not my fault that Doyle didn’t live up to his end of the bargain!”

“What bargain?”  Min asked, and Boss swallowed hard before pouring out the whole story.  The revenuer’s meeting, Bo on the trestle, the argument, Bo running for his life, Doyle pistol-whipping him at the foot of the blowdown, and finally, Bo’s loss of memory as a result.

Gasping, Min’s mouth dropped open. “So that’s why you kept him from us with that restraining order!”

“I had no choice! Doyle threatened to put all of us six feet under if we didn’t find a way to keep Bo from talking!” Boss took his handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his sweating face. “I couldn’t let Doyle hurt him, so I figured making him think he was a Hogg would be the best thing to do!”

“The best thing for you J.D. but how do you think Bo’s feels not knowing about his family! You did it to protect your fat hide and if’n I get my hands on you….” Jesse roared and the tone of his voice made Boss wince.

“I know I done wrong Jesse but now I want to fix it!”

“Well you all better think of something and quick!” Cooter suddenly interrupted. “We’re almost to Old Farm Road and from what I can see…Bo’s awake!”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Doyle turned down a hard-packed dirt road that bore no sign, only an empty, rusted-out post where one had once been.  In the distance, the land gave way to huge swamp trees and silty quartz deposits that could suck a person down within seconds and smother them.  Doyle knew these swamps well; Bo wasn’t the first person he’d brought here when they’d become a nuisance.  As he sped down the road, kicking up dust behind him, Doyle glanced in the rearview mirror and watched his captive struggle. Beyond that, though, was a speck of yellow that began to gain on him.  Realizing he was being followed, Doyle snarled and pressed the gas pedal all the way to the floor.

“Damn it! Looks like I picked up a tail!” He squinted a moment, recognizing the tow truck that belonged to Cooter.

“That greasy monkey from the garage thinks he’s going to be some kind of hero…let’s just see how he likes a few surprises.” Doyle leaned forward and reached out, opening the glove box. He rustled around amongst the papers stuffed into it and pulled out a small black box. Keeping on hand firmly on the wheel, he set the box across his chest and opened it, pulling out a couple of sticks of dynamite.

“This should slow him down.”

From his vantage point, lying on his back in the backseat, Bo could see the dynamite sticks in Doyle’s hand.

“NMMMFF!”  He cried, kicking and struggling as he tried to maneuver his bound feet between the front seats so that he could kick at Doyle.

“Knock it off rube!” Doyle changed the dynamite sticks from one hand to another, and then reached behind him to try and punch Bo with one closed fist.

Bo managed to duck the fist, and then he heard a loud horn begin to honk in the distance.  The honking grew louder and louder, and then Doyle was swearing as the huge front fender of Cooter’s yellow truck rammed into the rear of the Chevy.

“That mangy no good son of a–” The sentence got cut off as the tow trick slammed into the bumper again, the force of it throwing both men forward. Doyle fumbled with the dynamite sticks a moment, then searched the pockets of his suit coat for a lighter and flicked it. He lit the end of the dynamite then rolled down his window, heaving it as hard as he could behind him.

Bo cried out again as he was thrown to the floor by the impact of Cooter’s truck ramming into them, and he looked up just in time to see Doyle toss a stick of dynamite out the window.

“SHOOT-FIRE!”  Cooter shouted, swerving to avoid both the dynamite stick and its resulting explosion that took out a good chunk of road where he’d been only moments before.

“Look out y’all, he’s powerful armed!”  Cooter yelled into his CB.

“I got an idea.”  Luke said to Min as they caught up with Cooter, and swerved away from the yellow truck.  He bumped through a weedy field, and then roared into a copse of swamp maples that marked the beginning of the marsh.  Min looked around nervously.  “Careful Luke, there’s quicksand around here!”

“I know what I’m doing.  Just hang tight.”  Luke replied, and maneuvered the sure-footed Mustang around the thick-trunked maples.  He shot out of them a moment later, the car little more than a red bullet as Luke shot out across Old Farm Road, and cut Doyle’s Chevy off.

Min braced herself as best she could, her teeth clicking together and he body jostling despite her seatbelt.  As she glanced down into Doyle’s car, she Bo briefly locked eyes.

“Oh my God Luke! He looks scared to death!”

“It’s all right, it’s all right, we’re gonna get him.”  Luke said, his tone quiet yet hard as steel.  Doyle slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the mustang, and the two cars now sat on the edge of the swamp, Darlin’s front and rear left tires only a few feet from the greenish water’s edge.  Doyle snarled at Min and Luke through his windshield, and then he was dragging Bo out of the car by his waist, a huge colt .45 pistol jammed under his chin.

“You take one step, you rubes, and I muss this kid’s pretty hair the hard way!”

Min swallowed hard, her finger pressed the CB mike down so Doyle’s threat was broadcast to both Jesse, Boss and Rosco.  Her breathing sped up as she shook her head slowly.

“We won’t move! Just don’t hurt him!”

Doyle approached the mustang, and then inched around it.  Just to the right of the car, a wide deposit of whitish-gray silt ran between two large maples.

The old timers called it ‘lightning sand,’ because anything or anyone who stepped into it vanished beneath the surface lightning-quick, never to be seen again.  Bo whimpered through his gag, his eyes locked on the two people in the red car.

Luke watched Doyle with his arm slung around his cousin.

“We have to do something Min; if he tosses Bo into that sand…he’ll be gone before we can get out of this car!”

Min nodded her throat dry. “But what Luke? What can we do?”

“If we so much as twitch, he’ll blow Bo’s brains out.”  Luke said with desperation.  He closed his eyes, knowing that whether he moved or not, he was about to see his little cousin die before his very eyes.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

In Boss’s Caddy, Boss was shouting into Rosco’s ear.  “Hurry up Rosco!  If we’re going to save that boy’s life, we need to get to that swamp and pronto!  Now step on it!”

“Right! Step on it!”  Rosco tromped down on the caddy’s gas pedal, and Boss yelled as he flew backwards into his seat.

Rosco’s eyes widened as the swamp approached with amazing speed, the caddy gobbling up fuel as it gobbled up yards.

“Do’HOOOH!” Rosco yelled as he slammed into the back of Cooter’s truck.  Cooter grunted as his truck careened forward, hit Min’s car a glancing blow, and knocked Doyle backwards into the whitish gray silt.

The big man screamed, dragging Bo with him as his hands scrabbled for purchase on the mossy bank near the swamp maple.  Bo was half in and half out of the stuff, and Luke dove out of Darlin’ like a linebacker.  He grabbed Bo’s bound ankles and pulled hard in the other direction as Doyle lost his grip, and fell into the lightning sand.

Luke cried out in horror as Bo’s head plunged into the sand as well, as Doyle still had a grip on him.

“Help me, Min! Cooter!”  He yelled.

“Luke!” Min scrambled out of her car and ran towards the edge of the quicksand. She crouched down and wrapped her arms around her cousin’s waist, pulling him backwards.

“Cooter! Help!” She cried out, and then gritted her teeth as she gave another yank on Luke’s waist, moving him only a few inches away from the sand.

Cooter, Jesse, Boss and Rosco all jumped from their cars and converged on the three Dukes, pulling them all away from the deadly sand.  Bo was gagging and coughing, and Luke rolled him over to wipe the drying sand from Bo’s face.

“Bo…are you all right?” He patted his back, hoping to help his cousin’s lungs get clear of the sand and gently plucked the gag from his mouth.

Min stepped over Luke and crouched down beside her brother her heart racing. She smoothed Bo’s gunk covered hair away from his face, mindful of the bandaged cuts on his head. He had his eyes closed, his breaths still sounding raspy.

“Bo? Come on talk to us, please.”

Bo’s eyes fluttered open slowly, and then they locked on his cousin’s face.  He coughed up a fair amount of sand, and groaned aloud.

“Daddy . . . ”  He moaned, and Jesse sighed.

“He still thinks he’s a Hogg.”

“Sonny Boy!” Boss raced over to Bo and smiled down at him. “Yeah I’m here Sonny, you’re all right.” He then heard a growl and looked over his shoulder seeing a pair of volcanic blue eyes staring down at him and he gave a sheepish grin.

“We need to have a talk Sonny.” His attention shifted back to Bo and he sighed. “Remember how I told you all those things about the Dukes? And how I told you that you and me was father and son?”

Bo nodded wearily as Luke untied his hands and feet and tossed the ropes into the silt, where they promptly vanished.  “I remember, daddy.”

“Good, that’s very good Sonny Boy but… there was just one itty bitty little problem with all that I told you.” He opened his mouth a moment, then closed it. He cast another glance over his shoulder seeing Jesse raise an eyebrow.

“What I mean is…” He started looking back at Bo. “Those things I done told you, they wasn’t exactly the truth. Ya see…the Dukes ain’t really all those things I said. They’re your family.”

Bo blinked.  “My . . . . family?”  He looked up at Jesse, Luke and Min.

“No . . .  you said the Dukes were criminals.”  He looked up at Boss.  “No!  My name is Hogg, Bo Hogg!  Doyle told me they were the ones paying him to get me out of the way!”

“No it’s not Sonny Boy, its Bo Duke.” Boss then glanced at Rosco.

“Right Rosco?”

Rosco nodded.  “That’s right Bo.  You’re a Duke.  Like Luke and Min there.”  He gestured to the two young people.  “And that’s your Uncle Jesse.”

Cooter also nodded as he stepped closer. “Bo, they’re your family and they practically tore Hazzard clean apart trying to find you.”

“No . . . ”  Tears suddenly came to Bo’s eyes and spilled down his cheeks.

“I’m a Hogg. I . . . I’m . . . .”  Bo’s eyes rolled back and he slipped into unconsciousness, his head falling back onto Luke’s shoulder.

“Bo!” Min touched the side of her brother’s face. “I think…I think the shock of all this made him pass out!”  She glanced at Luke who nodded.

“We best get him to Tri County.”

“Capitol City General’s better.”  Boss put in.  His eyes lifted to Jesse’s.  “And don’t worry none about the bill.”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Bo stayed in the dark for nearly twenty-six hours.  When he awoke slowly from his torpor he found that he once again had a bad headache, and that he was back in a hospital.  The Duke girl with the dark hair was sitting at his bedside, and he turned his head to look at her.

“What’re you doing here?”  He asked in a weak, hoarse voice.

Min smiled, reaching out she touched Bo’s blond hair and moved it away from his bandaged cuts. “You’re my brother…whether you remember it or not its true.”

She spoke in a gentle voice, not wanting to rile him.

Bo jerked away from her, and then groaned when that action aggravated his headache.  “You’re a liar!  Doyle told me all about you!  He said he was acting on your orders!”

“Doyle lied about that Bo. Think about it… if we wanted you dead, would we have pulled out of that quicksand?” She stared directly into his face, watching him think it over.

“I . . . I don’t know what to think.  I’m so confused.  I thought I was a Hogg, but you say I’m a Duke.  Daddy said The Dukes are our worst enemy.”  Bo rubbed his eyes.

“I feel like a marker in some big game, pushed around by people who all want me to believe their side of things!”

“I know right now things are a mess in your head, but what I’m telling you is the truth. You’re a Duke and somewhere deep down inside of you is that knowledge, it’s just been scrambled because you hit your head.” Min reached out and gently touched his hand.

“I want you to look at me, in my eyes and tell me that you think I’d hurt you.”

Bo looked into the girl’s dark eyes.  Although she was dark where he was fair, there was something of himself mirrored in her face.  He swallowed hard.

“If you really are my kin, then prove it.  Help me remember what happened.  Uncle Rosco says I was in an accident.”

Min nodded, tightening her grip on his hand. “Then come with me outside.”

Bo hesitated.  He might not remember his own past, but he did remember what happened the last time he went somewhere with a stranger.

“I- I don’t know.”

“What does your heart tell you?” She didn’t want to force him to go with her, for this to work he had to go along with her outside willingly.

Bo closed his eyes.  “That I have to know the truth.”

He swung his legs out of bed as Min handed him his old blue robe that Jesse had brought for him.  He shrugged it on, pausing to frown at a hole in the sleeve.

Caught it on the hook where I hang my towel in the bathroom, he thought randomly, and then blinked down at Min.  “This . . . this is my robe, isn’t it?”

“Yeah it is.” Min grinned at that, something had come back to her brother, though small at least it was a start.

“Where are we going?”  Bo asked as they got into the elevator and headed down to the first floor.

“Outside, figured you could use some fresh air.”

She escorted him down the white-tiled hall to the end of it, the sliding glass door parted and there, under the ambulance port sat the General. Min grinned as she let go of Bo’s arm and approached the long stock car.

“This is the General Lee Bo…you and Luke built him together.”

Bo stared hard at the car, and suddenly a memory flashed through his head.  Snatches of a country tune about how Mama Tried, a fishing pole, and a flat tire.  He frowned.

“The General.”

“Right! The General Lee. How’s this grab your memory?” Min bent down and poked her inside the driver’s side door and hit the horn, the first eleven notes of Dixie suddenly blared out from beneath the hood.

Bo’s eyes widened at the sound as a mass of roaring pain rolled through his head like thunder.  Memories began to flood his mind all at once, memories of his childhood, his family, and along with those, memories of Boss and Rosco and Big Jim Doyle.  He screamed, clapping his hands over his ears as he sank to his knees onto the pavement.

“Bo!” Min grabbed her brother around the waist, preventing him from falling all the way to the concrete and injuring himself further. She propped him up as best she could, and stared into his face.

“It’s all right…I’m sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Bo looked up at her, and another wave of memories crashed over him.  Min coming to the farmhouse for the first time, saying she was his sister.  Pinball at The Boar’s Nest, racing down Foxhill Road . . . . Bo put a hand to his head as he looked directly into her warm brown eyes.

“Min.”  He said shakily.  “Your name is Min.”

She blinked at that, her eyes widening. “You…you remember me?”

His hands coming up to touch her face, Bo nodded.

“Yes . . . yes I do!”  He got to his feet slowly.  “And Luke, and Uncle Jesse?  Are they here?”

“They’re in the waiting room.” Min’s breath caught a moment, a smile coming to her face as she saw the recognition shining in his brother’s eyes.

“God Bo…when you didn’t come home…” She bit her lip, her eyes growing shiny as tears welled up in them. “We didn’t know what had happened and then we couldn’t find you.”

Bo threw his arms around her and held her tightly. He remembered everything, from going fishing to running for his life from Jim Doyle down that path that was carpeted with pine needles.

“I saw something I shouldn’t have, Min.  It was an accident . . . I was just taking a shortcut home because The General had a flat!”

Min returned the hug, a bit overwhelmed at everything that had happened over the past couple of days. “I know, Boss told us everything.”

“I want to see Luke and Uncle Jesse.  Please.”

“All right.” She let go of her brother, pausing a moment to wipe her face. “They’re over here.” Taking a hold of Bo’s hand, she led him back into the hospital.

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

Luke paced back and forth, his arms crossed over his chest as he wore a path in the carpeting. Close by, Jesse sat on one of the maroon colored couches in the room, his fingers laced over his chest. He watched his nephew walk and sighed.

“Worrying ain’t going to help nothing Luke. Min can’t force Bo to remember, we just have to hope she can help.”

“What if he never remembers us, Uncle Jesse?  What if we have go to go the rest of his life trying to help him remember his own past?”  Luke asked, stopping his pacing long enough to confront his uncle.

“All we can do is hope for the best; the rest is in the hands of the good Lord.”

Though Jesse’s words were strong, his eyes betrayed him, the worry and pain of Bo’s memory loss and almost losing his life reflecting in their depths.

The double doors behind them rumbled open, and Luke’s heart all but stopped in his chest as he heard a familiar and much-loved voice call his name.

“Luke! Uncle Jesse!”

Jesse turned, a grin coming to his face as he saw his niece and nephew come in; he slowly rose to his feet as Bo practically tackled him, his blond head pressing to his chest. He couldn’t speak, just lowered his chin to rest on top of Bo’s head, wrapping his arms around him tightly.

“Uncle Jesse.”  Bo said softly, hugging his uncle tightly.  “I can’t believe I forgot about you!”

Luke touched his cousin on the back. “You were hurt Bo, you didn’t remember any of us.”

Bo turned to hug Luke hard.  “I was trying to remember, but Boss kept telling me that Dukes were the enemy.  Guess I just started believing it.”

“Whoa!” Luke chuckled then returned the fierce embrace. “And with you not remembering the truth, it was easy for you to believe.” His grin widened. “Just promise me one thing Cousin.”

“What’s that?”  Bo asked, pulling back to look his cousin in the eye.

“That you’ll never ever wear a white suit again!” Luke saw his cousin’s eyes grow round; the expression so familiar that it made his heart flood with relief.

Bo groaned, knowing that Luke would never let him live that down.  “Luke, that’s a promise!”

 

***************                 ******************                ****************

 

It was evening again, and a cool, gentle breeze tumbled Bo’s wavy blond hair into his eyes as he rocked back and forth on the glider that sat on the Duke’s front porch.  It had been two days since the Dukes were a family again. Bo had come home with his memories intact, but at times he was sorry that he remembered everything.

Doyle’s death particularly upset him; not because Doyle was an innocent man, but because Bo felt somehow responsible.  He sighed and pushed his hair back, grateful for the cool soothing breeze.

“Should be getting some rest Bo, the doctor said you had to take it easy for at least a week.” Jesse stood at the screen door peering at his nephew, then opened it and stepped down onto the porch. He walked around the swing and sat down beside his nephew.

“You’ve been awfully quiet since you got home, something on your mind?”

“I don’t know, Uncle Jesse . . . .I just . . . ”  He ran both hands through his hair, making the loose curls pile atop one another.  “I remember how Doyle died, and I feel like it’s my fault.”

Jesse reached down and patted Bo’s knee. “I know you do Sprout, but it wasn’t your doing. You were helpless, bound hand and foot. Doyle was the one that made the choice to kidnap you and take you to the swamp, the things that happened there were unfortunate but they weren’t your doing. You’re just as much a victim as Doyle was, ‘cept you were lucky enough to come out in one piece.”

“I just wish no one had gotten hurt is all.”  Bo said softly.  “Even though Doyle wasn’t exactly an upstanding kind of fella, I don’t think he deserved what happened to him.”

“Nobody ever does Bo; when someone dies tragically they never deserve what happens to them.” Jesse shifted over, his arm coming up and resting across his nephew’s shoulders, he then drew the younger man closer.

“Been a wild couple of days, hasn’t it?”

“Yessir.”  Bo said softly, and allowed his head to rest on Jesse’s shoulder for a moment.  He was of course too old for such gestures anymore, but for those few moments, it was a huge comfort.

“Boss told me that he did what he did to protect me.”  He laughed softly.  “I’m surprised he didn’t deliver me to Doyle wrapped up in a big red ribbon.”

“Now don’t go holding nothing against him Bo. I know there are times when J.D. Hogg is lower than a snake’s belly, but deep down he knows what’s right and wrong and once in a great while, that overpowers his greed. He could have done just that, delivered you to Doyle to save his own hide but that sense of right and wrong won out because it woulda meant having to put a youngster like you in danger.” Jesse raised his index finger.

“And that makes all the difference in the world.” A gentle smile came to his face.

“You understand what I’m trying to say to you?”

“Yessir.”  Bo smiled a little.  “Just think, this time not too long ago I was out here feeling sorry for myself.”

“Life is that way Bo; you never know what hand it’s going to deal you next.” Jesse kissed Bo’s blond hair and stood up. “I’m going to head to bed; you don’t stay out here too long, all right?” He raised his eyebrow at Bo, and then his face softened as the younger man nodded.

“I won’t, Uncle Jesse.  Night.”  Bo watched his uncle go inside, and took a deep breath of the sweet night air.  Jesse was right, nothing in life was certain . . . .

Except!  Bo thought with grin, the certainty that Luke’s gonna be awful sore when he wakes up in the morning and finds out what I’ve done to get him back for leaving that flat spare tire in The General! 

Chuckling to himself, Bo got up and went inside, glad that he remembered that Min was a heavy sleeper . . . .and where she kept her makeup case.

The front door closed on Bo’s laughter, and the front porch light winked out.

 

END.