by: Marty Chrisman

Luke sat at the end of the bar, his eyes slowly drifting across the room. It was still early in the day so the Boar’s Nest wasn’t that crowded yet. Ernie Ledbetter had come in but he was keeping his distance from Luke. The last time they’d gotten into a fight, Ernie had ended up with a couple of broken ribs so he was in no hurry to tangle with Luke again. Bo was off in the corner with Mindy whispering sweet talk in her ear and Daisy was working behind the bar. Lynn was working too but so far she’d been avoiding him. Luke wasn’t sure if he should be grateful for that or not.

“Hey Daisy,” Lynn called to Daisy from across the room “I’m going out to the shed out back for a bucket.”

“Okay.” Daisy called back, going back to counting the forks.

Luke watched Lynn go out the front door. His eyes narrowed suspiciously when he saw Ernie follow after her. Sensing possible trouble, he shoved himself off the barstool and followed them outside. He didn’t see anyone out front so he walked around the side of the building. That was when he saw Lynn and Ernie. Ernie had Lynn pinned up against the wall and was trying to put his hand under her shirt. Lynn was trying to get away but he had her pinned too tightly for her to move very much. Luke immediately saw red. “Leave her alone, Ledbetter!” he said in a loud angry voice as he walked towards them.

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by: Marty Chrisman

Bo came home shortly after one and was surprised to find Luke lying face down on his bed sleeping. He hadn’t even bothered to get undressed. Then Bo noticed the empty glass overturned on the floor beside the bed and he realized that Luke wasn’t just sleeping. He was passed out. He’d been in Jesse’s shine.

Bo smiled faintly and tugged off his cousin’s boots. Luke mumbled something but didn’t wake up. Luke was the cousin with the most self control and he seldom drank more than a few beers. He’d gotten drunk a couple of times as a teenager but not that often that just wasn’t his style. Bo knew he’d regret it in the morning. A moonshine hangover was worse than a regular one. Getting an extra blanket from the closet, he covered Luke with it, then stripped down to his boxers and climbed into his own bed.

Luke’s bed was empty when Bo woke up the next morning. He quickly dressed and stepped out into the hallway. He smiled faintly when he heard the sounds of someone getting sick in the bathroom. He knocked lightly on the door and then opened it to find Luke standing at the sink, splashing water on his face.

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by: Marty Chrisman

Luke took a drink of his beer and scowled darkly. He was at the Boar’s Nest sitting in back booth with Cindy. Bo and  Mindy Anderson sat in the booth across from them. Mindy was looking at Bo with a dreamy expression on her face, eating up his sweet talk. Cindy was pressing up against him, running her hand up and down his thigh but Luke barely noticed.

He had been trying to avoid running into Lynn and now she had gone and got a job at the Boar’s Nest. Luke had been watching for the past hour as she served drinks, flirted with the customers and laughed. He knew he had no right to feel jealous of all the attention she was getting from the other good ole boys in the bar but he couldn’t seem to help it and that irritated the hell out of him.

He tensed when he saw Pete Cochran grab Lynn’s wrist as she served him a drink. Luke had to restrain himself from bounding to his feet to intervene. He couldn’t hear what was being said but he watched through narrowed eyes as Pete reached out with his other hand and grabbed her by the rear end and tried to pull her down into his lap. A thin smiled crossed his lips as he watched Lynn calmly pick up a pitcher of beer sitting on the table and pour it over Pete’s head. Pete sputtered angrily and let her go. He started to bounce to his feet but was restrained by one of his friends who wisely decided to keep Pete from getting into any more trouble.

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by: Marty Chrisman

It was almost three in the morning before the boys finally made it back home. The evening had turned out pretty much the way they had planned and they hated to see it end. But five thirty came early on the farm and they still had to get up and do their chores no matter how late it was when they got in from a date. Uncle Jesse didn’t cut them much slack even if they were both grown men. He made it clear that as long as they lived under his roof they still had to live by his rules.

Quietly and without turning on any lights, the boys made their way through the darkness to the bedroom they had shared since childhood. Stripping off their clothes, they crawled into their separate beds.

“Hey, Luke…” Bo’s voice said in the darkness “What do you suppose Lynn’s doing back in Hazzard?”

“I don’t know.” Luke said shortly. He wasn’t really in the mood to talk about Lynn. It had been enough of a shock seeing her at the Boar’s Nest. “But I bet Daisy does.”

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by: Marty Chrisman

Bo and Luke Duke. The Duke boys. Rowdy as hell, charming as the devil and favorites with all the local girls in Hazzard. Closer than brothers, the two boys were usually together, fighting, chasing women, or cruising around Hazzard in their custom build stock car The General Lee. The General Lee was well known as the boys. With its distinctive orange paint job, the large black 01 trimmed in white on each door, the rebel flag painted on the roof and the name General Lee written above each door, the car was the fastest thing on wheels in three counties and the boys were the best drivers around. Some folks even swore that The General was half human the way the boys could make that car do just about anything they wanted it to.

In his mid twenties, Luke was the oldest of the Duke Boys. He had a lean muscular build, sapphire blue eyes and was ruggedly handsome. He was the one who usually thought up ways to get them out of the trouble that his younger more impulsive cousin got them into. 5 years younger than Luke, Bo had boyish good looks, baby blue eyes, blonde hair and the same lean, muscular build as his cousin. While Luke tended to be quieter and more laid back, Bo was more outgoing and impetuous.

The two boys and Daisy lived on a farm with their Uncle Jesse. Luke had come to the farm when he was only four years old after his parents were killed in a fire in their home. Bo came a year later when he was only a baby after his parents were killed in a car accident. And Daisy had joined them 2 years later when she was 6 years old. Her parents had also been killed in a car accident. Jesse and his wife Martha were the only parents any of them could remember.

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