by: Marty Chrisman

It was always noisy in the Boar’s nest. The jukebox blaring, people laughing and yelling, laughter and curses. Hardly a night went by that someone didn’t start a fight with someone else. And, once in awhile, things could get really rough when some irate wife (or husband) came in looking for a straying spouse. Since it was still early, there were only a few hardcore regulars sitting at some of the small tables scattered throughout the room, drinking the watered down beer that Boss served to his customers. Daisy was standing behind the bar, washing glasses, when Kelly came in. She smiled brightly as Kelly sat down on one of the barstools. She was glad to see her best friend again.

“Hi sugar!” she said brightly “Can I get you anything?”

“A coke.”

“What are you doing? Out taking in the local scenery?” Daisy asked as she pulled a 12 ounce can of coke from the cooler and popped the tab. Pouring it into a glass, she sat the can and the glass on the bar in front of Kelly.

“Something like that.” Kelly said, taking a sip of her drink

Daisy grinned mischievously as she leaned in close to Kelly and whispered “Looks like some of the local scenery is checking you out too. Good thing the boys aren’t here or some good ole boy might be picking himself up off the floor.”

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by: Marty Chrisman

            Kelly drove back to her house in a sad, deeply depressed mood. She had seen the pain in Luke’s eyes and she knew that she had hurt him, hurt him badly. That was the one thing she had never intended to do. She wondered if telling him the truth about the baby had been the right thing to do. He was right; she should have told him when she first found out instead of keeping it a secret. But at the time, she had been afraid, afraid of seeing the disappointment in Uncle Jessie’s eyes,  afraid of becoming the gossip of Hazzard because she’d got herself knocked up by one of the Duke boys, and afraid of Luke’s reaction. But most of all, she was terrified that her father would find out. She knew that he would never have allowed her and Luke to get married. He would have killed her for sleeping with Luke in the first place. Kelly found herself thinking about the first few days after she had ran away and the months that followed.

*   *   *   *

            She had run until she couldn’t run any more and the pain forced her to stop and rest. She had miscarried there in the woods. Cold, alone and afraid. The pain, both the physical pain and the emotional pain, was almost unbearable. When she was finally able to walk, she was numb and empty, aching deep inside. Her mind shut down, trying to block out the loss she felt. Not just the loss of the baby, but in her mind, it was also the loss of Luke’s love.

            She wondered through the woods until she came to one of Jessie’s still site that he no longer used. Luke had brought her here more than once and she knew she could hide there and be safe for a few days while her injuries healed. There was an old shack where she could sleep and inside, she found some clothes that one of the boys had forgotten and left there. They were too big for her but she couldn’t go walking around in her bloody clothes. There was a stream nearby so she had water to drink and there were berries to eat. Kelly stayed there for three days. Before she left, she destroyed her bloody clothes so there wouldn’t be any evidence of her having been there.

            Making her way to the highway, she had hitchhiked into Atlanta. She spent two weeks at a shelter for runaways, and then found a job working in a bar. She had always looked older than she really was, so it was no problem lying about her age. She rented a sleeping room and kept to herself, never mentioning her past and afraid to even think about the future.

            She had been in Atlanta for almost a year when she happened to stop at the local library and found back issues of the Hazzard Gazette. Hungry for news about Hazzard, she had read all the papers she could find. That was how she had discovered that her father had apparently killed her mother and then himself the night she ran away. The article mentioned her by name and simply stated that her whereabouts were unknown but that the police believed that she was probably dead too. In a later edition of the paper, she found a small item hidden away on one of middle pages stating that Lukus K. Duke had enlisted in the Marines.    

            Kelly had used a friend’s name and subscribed to the Hazzard Gazette. Through the years, she knew who got married, who had babies, who got divorced and who had died through the years that she was gone. It wasn’t the same but it gave her the connection to Hazzard that she desperately craved.

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by: Marty Chrisman

“I didn’t find out until almost a year later that he killed my mother that night and then killed himself.” Kelly told Luke in conclusion. Tears had welled up in her eyes and she sat there trembling, her hands cold as ice. Luke could feel her pain as he listened to her account of what had happened.

“Why didn’t you call or write after you found out that he was dead?’ He asked her, the hurt showing plainly in his voice “You were safe, he couldn’t hurt you anymore. We all thought you were dead too. We just figured your dad had killed you first and hid your body somewhere.”

“Maybe it would have been better if he had.” Kelly told him in a sad, forlorn voice devoid of much emotion. She hadn’t told Luke the whole story, not yet and when she did, she knew that he might never forgive her.

“What are you talking about?” Luke asked in a puzzled voice, wondering why she would make such a statement. .

Kelly looked at him with eyes so full of pain and dispair that Luke wanted to take her into his arms and comfort her just like he used to do when they were kids. In a barely audible voice, she said “He didn’t just kill himself and my mother that night, Luke.” She took a deep shuddering breath “He killed a part of me” she hesitated then continued in a trembling voice “And he killed a part of you too. He killed our baby.”

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by: Marty Chrisman

            Luke pulled up in front of the Hazzard Café just after eleven A.M. the next day. He knew that he was early but he wanted a little while alone before Kelly arrived. He had spent a restless night, filled with anxiety about this meeting. He could hardly believe that Kelly was back and that she was alive. After the bodies of her parents had been found in the old shack where they had lived, he had been so scared that Kelly was dead too. Her father had threatened to kill her before, maybe this time he had carried through on those threats and buried her body somewhere in the woods that surrounded the old shack. As the days, then the weeks, then the months passed with no word from Kelly he had convinced himself that she was dead and he would never see her again. Her arrival at the farm the night before had been like seeing a ghost.

Luke walked into the café, relieved to see that there were only a couple of other customers in the restaurant. He walked to the back of the room and slid into an empty booth, letting this thoughts drift back to the past. He was the one who had known just how violent and cruel her father really was and how badly he had beaten Kelly and her mother.

He was the one she had shared her darkest secrets with, including the secret that her father had been molesting her for years, even before they came to Hazzard. He had never gone all the way with her, but Kelly was scared that he would try eventually. Luke was also the one she had made love to for the first time when she was fifteen and he was seventeen. He had loved her, with all the passion and the commitment of a young man’s first real love.

They had hidden their relationship from everyone, sneaking away whenever they could to spend time alone. It wasn’t because they were worried about Jessie’s reaction to their relationship (Luke kind of suspected that Jessie had it figured out anyway) It was Kelly’s father that they were hiding their relationship from. He was violent and dangerous and as far as he was concerned, Kelly was his property. They had planned to get married as soon as she turned 18. Luke’s eyes darkened with pain as he remembered the last night he had seen her. The night she had disappeared.

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by: Marty Chrisman

Bo and Luke Duke were bent down under the hood of their stock car, the infamous General Lee, giving the engine some minor adjustments. The General Lee was a 1969 Dodge Charger. With its bright orange paint job, black O1 painted on the doors, the rebel flag painted on the roof, and the name “The General Lee” painted above the doors it was as well known in Hazzard County as the boys were. It was the fastest car in three counties and the boys were considered the two best drivers around. The boys had built the General from the ground up and they each owned half of the car. It might be just a car but the Dukes still considered it to be part of the family.

“Wonder who Uncle Jessie invited to supper and why he’s being so secretive about it?” Bo said, as he wiped his hands on a rag lying on the General’s fender. Bo was in his early twenties with a lean, muscular build and boyishly handsome good looks. He had baby blue eyes and light blonde hair that he wore moderately long.

Luke straightened up and slammed shut the hood on the General. Slightly shorter then his cousin, he was just handsome with the same lean, muscular build. Where Bo was blonde, Luke had thick curly brown hair and sapphire blue eyes. “Don’t know” he said “But I reckon we’ll find out soon enough. He’s sure got Daisy busy cooking up a regular feast so it must be somebody pretty special.”

“Hey, ya don’t think ole Jessie has himself a lady friend, do ya?” Bo asked with a grin.

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