by: Essy Jane

Jose drove swiftly across the county. He was being followed by DJ Strate, Hazzard’s favorite law man. Jose Mostly they liked good ol DJ because he was Enos’ son that and he was the only real honest lawman in Hazzard. Jose went across a big jump and DJ followed.

“Oh come on Denver-Jones, you’re never going to catch me,” Jose said over the CB. DJ began to speed up. He always loved a good chase, especially with his two best friends, Jesse and Jose.

“You were speeding, I need to give you a ticket,” DJ answered him.

“You’re speeding right now.”

“That’s because I’m chasing after you.”

“So what?”

“Will you slow down?”

“Nah, then you’ll give me a ticket for speeding.”

“That’s right, that’s my job Jose.”

“Well in order to do your job DJ, you’re goanna have to catch me first.” Jose put his foot on the gas. He swung the car side to side. Jose pulled a u-turn. DJ was still on his tail.

“You’re goanna have to do better than that to get rid of me.”

“Oh I will DJ.” Jose saw a dip in the road. Now dips usually slow people down but not in Hazzard County. Jose sped up and jumped. He let out a wild YAHOO as he landed. “Let’s see you do that.” DJ smiled from inside his patrol car. He pushed down on the gas and away he went. Jose was sure he was goanna land in a tree or something but he didn’t.

“Made it, now slow down so I can give you your ticket.” Jose’s eyes widened. He shook his head.

“I don’t think so, DJ”

“Now Jose, you know I have to get you to pull over.” DJ sped up but not enough for General Lee one. Now all those who have been to Hazzard know that the General is in top shape. Bo would tan both of them boys’ hides if he weren’t looking good.

“Are you taking driving lessons from your wife?”

“Why?”

“You’re doing better today.” Jose made another sharp turn and of course DJ followed. Jose looked at the Hazzard Pond and laughed. He sounded the Dixie Horn and jumped clear across the clear waters. DJ tried the same thing and ended up in the pond. Jose waited to make sure he got out okay before jolting home. Sure enough, DJ opened his patrol door and sat on top of his patrol car. Jose snickered and bolted in his General.

When he finally made it in the farmhouse at the Duke place, dinner was already on the table. Two out of three triplets were in their high chairs. Bo was holding the other one with his good arm. He had the phone balanced between his ear and shoulder. Cameron kept playing with the phone cord. Bo couldn’t do anything. His other arm was in a sling.

“Nancy, don’t you dare come home. This was supposed to be a fun time for you. We’re fine, Jesse will be out of the hospital in three days doctors say he’ll make a full recovery…Oh, I didn’t mention that he was in the hospital? Honey, don’t cry! Please…no, he’ll be okay. He has two broken arms is all…no, he ain’t goanna drive home…yeah; I will make sure Jose does the driving. Baby, I would be an irresponsible parent if I let Jose drive, you know I am not like that…yeah I know he is like that. Honey, you have a good time, Jo has supper ready. Yeah…I love you too babe. Okay, bye,” Bo commented.

“Man, she must have been angry when she heard about the accident,” Jose laughed.

“It’s not funny, Jose.”

“Sure it is.”

“You know, your cousin almost died.”

“I know but he’s okay now. Nancy is always worried and that’s why I think it is funny. Man, she doesn’t think her boy can take care of himself no matter how smart he is. You know, Jesse’s really good at what he does.”

“Nancy-Lou still wants to come home.”

“Well for a good reason, it’s her son. She feels helpless over there.”

“Hey, grab the phone for me.” Jose took the phone from Bo’s ear and hung it up. Bo gave the baby to Jo and she put him in the high chair. Bo sat down and looked at what Jo made for them.

“So what did she say?”

“She sat there mumbling on how he was only 20 years old and how this shouldn’t have happened to him.”

“It shouldn’t happen to anyone.”

“Nancy was worried about me. Said I am probably working too hard, she always says I am working too hard.”

“Nancy-Lou’s right though, you do always work too hard.”

“I told her that I cancelled the wedding.”

“Did you tell Nancy that we’re goanna do a double wedding?”

“Of course I did. After the lecture I got from closing down the wedding in the first place, I had to.”

“Bo, she was pretty mad wasn’t she?”

“No, she was gnashing her teeth.”

“Did she tell Paige and Laurel?”

“Yep.”

“And…?”

“When my dearest wife told Paige and Laurel, the girls started screaming in the background.” Jose smiled. Yep, that sounded like Paige and Laurel.

“I am sure they were.”

“Girly girls,” Jo mumbled.

“Oh Jo, don’t you put down my future wife,” Jose growled.

“Well I am just saying…”

“You’re jealous.”

“Jealous? Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah, I am getting married and you’re jealous.”

“Of you? You’re dreaming Jose.”

“Stop fighting you two,” Bo cut in.

“Sorry Bo,” Jose mumbled.

“Anyway, they thought it would be neat to get married together.”

“Sorry to break in the conversation but lunch is served,” Jo commented.

“Sorry Jo, let’s all sit down.” Jose nodded as Jo lifted the lid off the dish. He loved Jo’s cooking.

Over at the hospital, it was lunch time there too. Made Jesse homesick for Bo’s home cooking or at least Jo Anna’s…Jesse was so desperate for something decent, he was willing to make it himself. Now although Jesse was a better cook than Jo Anna, he didn’t like doing it all the time.

All he wanted to do was go home. He was plain old sick of the hospital. Who wouldn’t be? I mean really, the hospital isn’t a place most boys like to be in. Especially 20 year old boys with the patience of a cock roach.

Jesse wanted to ride in the General. He wanted to play chess…even though he hated it. Yep, Jesse would rather take dancing lessons with Boss Roscoe than be stuck here. There was nothing worse to him than sitting in a hospital staring at the wall. TV wasn’t half as interesting as real life. Well that is for Jesse anyway.

As he ate his meal, he heard a knock at the door. Even if the food wasn’t the best, Jesse didn’t like to be interrupted during meals. He growled softly and sat up a little bit. “You may enter,” Jesse mumbled. Standing there was his Grandpa Davenport. Jesse’s eyes widened. “Hey, I didn’t know it was you.”

“Hey how are ya?” Cooter asked.

“Well, I’m out of here in a few days. When did you get into Hazzard?”

“Oh yesterday, I was talking to Lilly-Rose and she talked about how wonderful it was to work on cars. As we kept talking, I wanted to come down more and more. I begged the wife. She didn’t want to go but you know what? I didn’t care, I was coming and that was it.”

“You begged didn’t you?”

“Like a dog over a bone.”

“Why didn’t Dad tell me you were in town?”

“Your Daddy doesn’t know I’m here. With all that’s been going on, I thought I would let him get his life together before dropping in on him. I’m staying with Lilly-Rose.”

“So the reason you knew about me being here was her right?”

“You better believe it.”

“You haven’t been in Hazzard for a while.” Cooter sighed. He looked at the two broken arms.

“Ain’t it hard to eat like that, Jesse? All your fingers, accept your thumb, are in that cast.” Jesse smiled.

“Yeah it is but I don’t want the nurses feeding me. That’s just plain weird. I told them I could do it myself.”

“You’re stubborn.”

“Hey, I have both Duke and Davenport inside me now, do you think I could be anything but stubborn?” Cooter shook his head.

“How long does it take you to eat?”

“About an hour sometimes an hour and a half, but it isn’t that bad. I have gotten down to a half an hour. My arm gets so tired of moving the way it does.” Cooter shook his head.

“You don’t mind if Grandpa feeds ya, do ya?” Jesse crocked an eyebrow. He didn’t want anyone feeding him, especially Grandpa. “Oh come on Jesse, you know as well as I do that you need to eat.”

“I do eat.” Jesse balanced the spoon between his thumb and his cast. Now you see folks, both casts went up to his elbow so he couldn’t exactly scoop it out like a normal person. Instead, Jesse had to come around and attack his dinner from the north. He brought his hand to his face and ate what was on the spoon. Jesse had the sourest look on his face.

“Pretty gross, huh?”

“Very gross is more like it. This food is horrible.”

“Well back when your Dad and Luke were younger, they drove me to the hospital. My stomach felt like it was on fire. Roscoe was sheriff at the time.”

“Dad never told me this story.”

“No? Well then I am glad I am.”

“Me too…anyway, that guy never gave up on chasing Bo and Luke and at that moment, it wasn’t any different. Your dad busted a gut trying to get us there and Luke had to get me out of the car. He just got me out when old Roscoe arrived. Bo hit the gas and circled the hospital. Luke got me signed in. Your Dad must have gone around the hospital nine times before leading Roscoe on some goose hunt. When Bo got back, I was in surgery.”

“Well at least he was there.”

“Oh he was always there. Anyway, when I got out of surgery, I had to stay a week. Now that food was gross. Your Great Uncle Jesse could have baked me my least favorite dish and I would have eaten it.” Cooter started laughing.

“What?”

“I can call him Uncle Jesse now.” Cooter looked up. “Rest in peace my friend. You were always the best one.” Jesse smiled.

“He was just as stubborn as I was. Dad used to tell me about how even after he got out of the hospital, Great Uncle Jesse would get right back to work. Even through the chemo therapy he was working hard in the fields. No matter what Dad did he couldn’t get my Uncle to sit down.”

“Your Daddy admired Uncle Jesse.”

“Still does, you know, that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t want to leave Hazzard. He looks at the fields and he sees his Uncle.”

“But…”

“But, this is an opportunity to give Cameron, Cal and Cara everything.” Cooter shook his head. “What?”

“No, this is the only place they’ll get everything. If you mean money, sure, Bo’ll get that in LA but no…those kids won’t get everything they need.” Jesse sighed. He looked at his food. “Hey, come on, time to eat.” Cooter picked up the fork and stabbed it.

“Thanks Grandpa.”

“Don’t be so stubborn.”

“Okay.”

Back over at the farm, Bo just closed the door to the kid’s room. Jose walked in the door. He walked over to the couch and sat down. His eyes closed half way. Jose kicked his boots off to the door. Jo Anna giggled. “What?” Jose asked.

“I can’t believe you managed to get both boots off, fling them to the door and get them side by side,” Jo replied.

“It’s a gift,” Jose mumbled as he yawned.

“Are you alright?”

“I didn’t realize how hard it is to do the farming without Jesse.”

“Yeah, Jess has more energy than anyone of us.” Jose yawned again.

“Why don’t you go off to bed? You have to get an early start,” Bo commented. Jose yawned again. He looked at his watch and shook his head.

“It’s only 7PM, if I go to sleep now, I’ll wake up at two,” Jose replied. Bo shook his head, smiling.

“Now how are you goanna do this on your own if you can’t even take a couple of weeks of it?”

“I’ll think of something.”

“So Jo, how was your day?”

“Them Beaudries gals were in the Boar’s Nest today,” Jo began. The Beaudries? Now we have mentioned them before but you haven’t really heard a great deal about these people. Well because there wasn’t any real need to but in this story well, you can’t hang on without them.

Now Milo Beaudry somehow managed to take a wife which wasn’t very good for Hazzard. Yep these people are B-I-G trouble. Milo had three daughters and one son. The boy hasn’t given them too much trouble, it’s the three girls. May-Anne, Peggy and Tamara…those are his gals.

Well everyone in Hazzard County knew how Milo loved Daisy. Even after she married Jaime-Lee, he went after her. Well sir, these Beaudry gals were infatuated with Jose and Jesse. Not to mention their mother ran off with a man and his Harley. These gals never did have a proper raising. Milo figured raising them like boys was the only way to go. Each gal came with beautiful hair, wonderful eyes and a left hook that could put you out for two weeks.

“Beaudries?” Jose questioned, waking up a little.

“Go back to sleep Jose,” Bo commanded.

“Yes sir.” Jose snuggled up on the couch and grabbed the blanket hanging off the back. He threw it over him and nuzzled his head on the pillow.

“Continue, Jo Anna.”

“Well them Beaudry gals walked in wearing these ugly sleeveless shirts and…” Jo started.

“Jo, I thought you weren’t in to fashion.”

“Umm…I’m not.”

“Anyway…”

“Yeah, anyway, they walked in asking Boss where their corn money was.” Bo rolled his eyes. He sat up in his chair and scratched his head. “What does he mean?”

“Moonshine, baby.”

“Moonshine? Are you kidding me?”

“Dukes may have stopped running shine but it doesn’t mean we don’t make it.”

“Medicinal purposes,” Jose mumbled. Bo chuckled softly to himself. “Bo took Jess and me up there to learn how.” Jose snorted and rolled over. Jo shook her head.

“What sleeping beauty over there said,” Bo added. Jose mooed like a cow as he shifted his body again.

“There’s more,” Jo commented.

“What?”

“Well, they asked me how Jose and Jesse were doing.”

“And…?”

“And it slipped.”

“Oh boy.”

“What slipped?” Jose muttered.

“About you two getting married to Paige and Laurel,” Jo said hesitantly. Now Jose was upright and staring at Jo Anna. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? No, I’m sorry…they’re goanna ruin my wedding! Those women never know when to leave things alone!” Jose exclaimed.

“Woe! Calm down, what are they goanna do?”

“Are you kidding me?! Have you ever heard the story about Daisy and Milo? She almost married him!”

“Well there’s no way they’re goanna pull that on ya…is there, Dad?”

“You can never tell with them women,” Bo cautioned. Jose slapped himself in the head and pulled his hand down his face. He knew as well as Bo did those girls weren’t going to make it easy on him. Hold onto your hats folks and don’t go anywhere y’hear?