Chapter 15: Best Laid Plans
Dawn rose over the little farmhouse in Eastern Hazzard County like it did every other morning. It wasn’t a holiday, it was no one’s birthday, it wasn’t even a ‘Sunday morning ‘go-t’-meetin’-day’, but Daisy climbed out of bed with a feeling of anticipation like a kid on Christmas morning, dressed, and went to the kitchen to start breakfast.
“Mornin’, Uncle Jesse,” she said, happily.
“Mornin’ Daisy,” he answered. “Feelin’ better?”
She’d forgot she had left supper in a foul mood. “Yes sir, nothin’ a good night sleep didn’t cure.”
Bo and Luke stumbled in, bleary eyed as usual. “Mornin’ fella’s. Ya’ know, y’all should go t’ bed earlier if you’re gonna look that worse for wear this early.”
Luke shot a sour look at Bo. “I’ll just be happy when I can have th’ guest room back. Can’t nobody get a wink o’ sleep with Bo’s snorin’ all night long.”
“Me? I’m not th’ one who had t’ get up in th’ middle of the night. Why th’ heck’d ya’ have t’ turn the gosh-darned light on for at two in th’ mornin’?”
“I though maybe you were dyin’ or somethin’, you were so loud.”
“Boys, quit your fussin’,” said Uncle Jesse. “Just sit down an’ have yer breakfast.”
“Yes sir,” griped Bo.
Luke poured himself a cup of coffee and looked out the window. “Huh, wonder where Enos left off to this mornin’. Ain’t like him t’ get up early.”
Daisy frowned. “What’d ya’ mean?”
“Well, his car ain’t here,” shrugged Luke. “I don’t reckon it drove itself off somewhere’s.”
“He didn’t say anything about going anywhere this mornin’,” she complained. That effectively knocked her plans out of the water.
“He probl’y wanted t’ get away from you for a while,” teased Bo, “You been fussin’ over him like a mother hen ever since he got hisself shot.”
Luke took a drink of his coffee to keep from laughing at the blush that stained her cheeks. He’d always wondered about his cousin on that subject. Everybody’d always known how Enos felt about Daisy – he’d worn his heart on his sleeve since they were kids, but Daisy…now she was harder to read.
As he’d told Bo before, he’d always thought like everyone else had, that she wasn’t interested in him at all. Hindsight was 20/20, though, and he’d been the one to have to tell her Enos was gone after she’d married L.D. The change in her had been immediate and lasting, like someone had stolen the sun from her sky, and for all he knew it had been raining over his cousin for the last three and a half years – until Enos had showed up one night outta the blue to come and save her. He wondered if it was as apparent to everyone else as it was to him that she was in love with the man.
“Well, now,” he said, watching for her reaction, “I don’t recall Enos ever havin’ a problem with Daisy’s attentions before.”
The easy smile and smart comment he would have expected to have heard from her five years ago was gone, replaced only by an even deeper blush and exasperated look his way as she turned her back on them, which only served to further confirm his suspicions.
“He said he had t’ go down to Atlanta sometime this week t’ do some paperwork with th’ State Patrol,” she said. “He prob’ly just got up and left early t’ get it over with.” She opened the front door and went outside to feed the animals.
Luke turned his attention back to the table to finish his breakfast when he noticed Uncle Jesse watching him. “What?”
“Stop pickin’ on yer cousin,” he said sternly, and Luke knew his uncle had picked up on her odd behavior as well.
“I…”
“Luke…”
“Yes, sir.”
Daisy was in the barn when she heard the sound of a car coming across the field. As much as she hoped it was Enos, she wasn’t surprised when she saw Cletus’s patrol car jouncing along over the uneven ground. Wondering what kind of charge Rosco had thought up for the boys this time, Daisy ran back into the house.
“Cletus is comin’,” she told them.
Bo groaned. “This better not be about that dang school crossin’ sign Rosco put out on Skunk Hollow Road th’ other day. I’m about t’ give that man a piece of my mind if he’s done sendin’ Cletus out on house calls fer tickets now.”
“Now Bo,” said Uncle Jesse, “Just calm down and lets see what he wants.”
They heard the car door open and shut, the footsteps on the porch, and finally the knock on the door. Daisy waited a few seconds and opened it.
“Hey Cletus, you sure are out bright an’ early this mornin’,” she said.
“Mornin’, Daisy,” he replied shyly, removing his hat. He turned to the others. “Hey fellas, hey Uncle Jesse.”
“I ain’t yer Uncle Jesse, Cletus. What brings ya’ here?”
“If this is about that ticket Rosco says we owe him for,” said Bo, “you can just take it right back to him. Ain’t no school on Skunk Hollow Road.”
Cletus laughed and waved his hand dismissively. “Oh no, this ain’t nothin’ like that. I just come by t’ let ya’ know that you’ve got a brake light out on th’ General. Saw it when you were pulling outta th’ Boar’s Nest yesterday. Thought I’d let ya’ know for I have t’ pull y’ over for it.”
“Well, we’re much obliged, Cletus,” said Luke. “but I don’t think Rosco’s gonna take kindly to ya’ bein’ out here warnin’ us.”
“Oh, that don’t matter none. He’s not around today on account of he had t’ drop Enos off at th’ airport in Atlanta early this mornin’.”
Confused looks surrounded the table.
“Th’ airport?” asked Uncle Jesse, baffled. “He didn’t say nothin’ about leavin’ th’ other day.”
Cletus shrugged. “I don’t know anything about it, I just heard him sayin’ to Rosco that there was somethin’ he had t’ take care of back in L.A. ‘fore it was too late.”
The slam of the door startled Cletus as Daisy ran out of the kitchen. “Jumpin’ Jeehosaphat! She done nearly gave me a heart attack.”
Luke and Uncle Jesse both got up from the table. “Hey, Cletus,” said Luke, steering him out towards the door, “Thanks for lettin’ us know about that brake light, we’ll be sure t’ take care of it.”
“Oh, no problem,” said the deputy, not taking the hint to leave. “Say, ya’ think I might be able t’ get a bushel of apples from ya’ this spring? My momma’s wantin’ t’ put up some fresh applesauce.”
“Uh, sure, Cletus…no problem. Ya’ know, I think I heard Rosco callin’ ya on your CB. You’d best be getting’ outta here.”
“Oh! Thanks Luke, I’ll see y’all later.”
Luke waved as Cletus got in his car, turned around, and pulled out towards the road.
“Luke.” Uncle Jesse called to him quietly from the doorway and pointed to the barn.
He nodded to his uncle and walked over to the barn and the door that was partially open. He found Daisy sitting against the wall. He walked over and knelt down in front of her.
“If you’re here to make fun of me, you can just go away.”
He looked at her confused. “I wouldn’t do that, Daisy, you know that.”
“I don’t need any advice, either.”
“That’s fine. How ’bout you tell me what’s goin’ on.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
She sighed and leaned her head back against the wall. “Tell me somethin’, Luke. If there was a girl you really wanted t’ be with and she led you on all the time an’ acted like it didn’t mean anything to her, would ya’ still want t’ be with her?”
“Well, I don’t know. Is she pretty?”
She gave him a disgusted look, stood up, and walked out the other side of the barn into the field. He ran after her and stopped her.
“Wait, Daisy…Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to joke. I…just… I don’t know what you want me to say. Just talk to me and stop with th’ ‘what-if’s’.”
She turned back to him and in the daylight he could see the tear tracks on her cheeks. “Enos left because of me.”
He shook his head. “I’m not followin’ you. Did somethin’ happen between you two yesterday? You were all down in the dumps, but he didn’t seem like anything was wrong.”
“No, Luke, nothin’ happened yesterday.”
Luke knew her well enough that that wasn’t the whole story. “Daisy, I’m just a guy. I’m not good with riddles. Can’t you just tell me what’s wrong?”
She looked up at him and took a deep breath. “If I tell you what I’ve done to that man, you’ll understand, but it won’t make me an angel, that’s for darn sure.”
“Daisy, we’ve all done things we regret. Just tell me, I swear I won’t talk about it t’ anyone else, not even Uncle Jesse if ya’ don’t want.”
She hesitated, trying to find the right words, but eventually just settled on the simple truth. “I love him, Luke.”
“Well, alright…I kinda figured that out on my own.”
“That’s not the bad part. The bad part is how long I’ve loved him.”
He shrugged. “A lot of people find out how much they love someone when they go away. Y’ain’t been th’ same ever since he left Hazzard.”
“It wasn’t this last time he left that I figured it out.”
“What? When he came back from LA the first time?”
She shook her head, ashamed to even say it aloud. “Remember when he left for the Academy?”
“Daisy, that…that was…nearly twenty years ago.”
“Puts things in a whole different light now, doesn’t it? I’ve spent twenty years making him believe he never meant anything to me, and now, when I’ve finally come to my senses, he’s given up on me.” Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered.
Luke just stared at her, bewildered. It was a lot to take in because if she’d felt this way since they were kids, there were a whole lot of things that took on new meaning. It also meant that… “Daisy, why’d you marry L.D. if you loved Enos?”
She looked away, shaking her head. “I don’t have a good answer for that one. I guess I thought he could do better than me, an’ his ma’ said some pretty nasty things about it, too. I thought he’d just find someone else, not move to California. Pretty awful, huh?”
He hardly knew what to say to her. Truthfully it gave him a queasy feeling to think of how Enos must have felt, and any way it was sifted it sure looked like she’d waited too long to say what needed to be said. “Look,” he answered finally, “what’s done is done. You’re not gonna be able to change th’ past, so you’d better start workin’ on th’ future.”
“What are you talkin’ about?”
“Just come on.” He took her by the arm and steered her back to the house and through the now empty kitchen, into the room he’d been sharing with Bo. “Stand there and don’t run off,” he told her as he opened the top of the dresser drawer and took out a wooden box.
She knew that box, it was where he’d put the rest of the money he’d gotten from the reward for catching Andy Higgins. As she watched, he took several $100 dollar bills from it, folded them together, and closed it back up. “Luke, what’re you doin’?”
He turned back to her. “Take this. Go to Atlanta, get on a plane to Los Angeles, and you go tell him the truth.”
“Luke, I’m not gonna take your money.”
“Daisy, it ain’t hardly mine in th’ first place. Me an’ Bo were just along for th’ ride when we got Andy. If you wanna know, it’s more Enos’s money than mine. He’s the one who did all th’ hard work findin’ th’ guy.” He pressed the money into her hands. “I ain’t takin’ no for an answer. You go and find him and tell him what you should’a told him a long time ago.”
Daisy could have stood there and argued, but more than anything she wanted to go after him. She threw her arms around her cousin’s neck. “Oh Luke…thank you.”
“You just do what you need t’ do, Daisy.” he said, hugging her back. “and be careful.”
Luke walked back behind the house where Bo and Uncle Jesse were working on untangling a roll of bailing wire.
“Hey y’all, need some help?”
“Yep. Get them snippers over there an’ cut this part here,” said Uncle Jesse, holding a rusted knot of wire. “You talk t’ Daisy?”
“Yes, sir.”
Just then Daisy’s Jeep pulled out from the front of the house and sped down the drive towards the road. The three of them turned around to watch.
“Where’s she off to?” asked Bo.
Luke’s eyes followed the dust trail behind Dixie until she was out of sight. “Lord willing, t’ do a whole lot of explainin’.”