by: Numb3rsfan
Bo dove under the water and quickly found the car but Luke wasn’t in it.
Shaking his head, Bo went back to the surface to get more air.
As his head broke the surface, Bo gasped, “Luke!” Before he went back down again.
Bo saw something moving and swam over to it.
The thing was Luke, struggling to get free of an old net that was wrapped around his feet.
Bo grabbed on to Luke and stopped his struggling as he got out his pocket knife and hacked away at the net until it released Luke.
Grabbing on tight to Luke, Bo pushed him to the surface and was about to go after him when the net got tangled around his feet!
He kicked his feet, trying to get the net off, but it wouldn’t budge.
Bo’s lungs screamed for oxygen, so Bo grabbed his knife and started to hack at the net, hoping that it would release him.
The net held fast as Bo’s hacks got weaker and weaker until they stopped all together.
Bo’s limp arm floated in the water as his limp body sank to the bottom of the pond.
———————————-
Luke’s head broke the surface of the water and he greedily gulped in the oxygen.
After waiting several seconds without Bo’s head breaking the surface of the water, Luke became worried.
“Bo?..Bo?” Luke asked, splashing around.
Ten seconds past, then fifteen, and then two minutes with no Bo.
By this time, Luke was on the shore, being supported by Cooter.
“I’m..sorry Luke.” Cooter muttered, knowing it was to late for Bo Duke.
The tears started to fall down Luke’s face when he knew that his cousin was dead, Bo was never coming back.
Luke tried to dive back in to find Bo, but Cooter pulled him back, knowing that Luke was to weak.
“Come on, we gotta get the Sheriff out here to drag the pond.” Cooter said, leading Luke back to the car.
Luke followed wordlessly and got into the car.
He just stared at the lake, at the water that intombed his cousin.
How calm and peaceful it looked, as if no one had just died because of it! No….not because of it….because of Luke and Cooter!
Bo was dead because of them.
Cooter’s car passed the General as it sat there infront of the lake, engine still running in Bo’s haste to get to his cousin.
Luke’s eyes went over the orange car sadly as he thought about his cousin.
Bo had made the ultimate sacrifice for his cousin.
Luke had always had nightmares about this sort of thing happening, except with the roles reversed, with Luke laying down his life for Bo’s, which Luke decided that he would do in a heartbeat!
“Wonder what Uncle Jesse an Daisy are gonna say.” Cooter said as he drove down the road, hating what he was going to ask Rosco to do.
‘Uncle Jesse and Daisy!’ Luke thought.
‘Uncle Jesse’s gonna skin me alive, then Daisy’s gonna burn the rest.’
Cooter pulled up to the Duke farm and dropped Luke off, before he went to the police station.
——————————–
Luke entered the farm house slowly.
He saw Jesse and Daisy in the living room talking.
Both looked up as Luke entered the room, looking like he’d lost his best friend.
“Luke what’s wrong? Where’s Bo?” Daisy asked.
“Bo…is…um..” Luke said, his voice breaking slightly.
Jesse and Daisy just stared at Luke, waiting for him to continue.
“Uncle Jesse…Daisy…Bo’s dead.” Luke sobbed, falling onto the couch sobbing.
Uncle Jesse just stood there, open mouthed, totally shocked.
Daisy ran from the room in tears over her younger cousin.
“How’d it happen, Luke?” Jesse asked softly as he sat down beside Luke.
“It was my fault! I shouldn’t have made em’ go.” Luke replied, burying his head in Uncle Jesse shoulder.
Slowly and haltingly, Luke told Uncle Jesse what had happened in the race.
He left nothing out, even the part of Bo being knocked out!
By the time he was finished, Luke was crying harder and he was trembling!
“Come on, let’s get out to that lake. I wanna be there when they find em’.” Jesse said.
It took ten minutes to get everyone rounded up, and by that time Rosco and Enos were already and the lake, dragging it.
———————————-
Jesse’s old, white pickup pulled to a stop beside the General Lee.
The oldest Duke got out and stood beside Rosco as they watched Enos go back in to the water.
Within minutes, Enos’ head broke the water and in his arms was the dead form of Bo Duke.
Bo’s lips were white, his skin pale, his wet hair dripping, his body lifeless as Enos laid him down on the ground.
Jesse looked at the net that was still intangled around Bo’s feet.
Luke, who also had gotten out of the truck, stood by Jesse’s side.
“Bo saved ma life…took ma place.” Luke whispered as fresh tears streaked down his cheeks.
Kneeling down, Luke laid his hands on Bo’s shoulder.
“Bo..I’m so so sorry for what I did, what I made ya do, but I guess ya knew what you were doin’. Ya look so peaceful now, as if ya were asleep. Looks like all ya have ta do is open yer eyes, flash that crooked grin. Please Bo, please…jus’ open yer eyes…please cuz’.” Luke said before his voice broke and he rested his head on Bo’s damp chest.
Jesse couldn’t stand to see Luke crying, so he got the younger man back on to his feet and led him over to the General.
“I know how ya feel Luke. I feel the same way, but Bo wouldn’t want us to be so sad ’bout his passin’. He’s up there, right now lookin’ down on us, and you.” Jesse said comfortingly.
Luke didn’t respond as he ran his hand over the dent in the General’s door.
When Bo had been unconcious, Luke remembered feeling a sense of dread, of impending doom as if he had almost known that this was going to happen.
“Come on, you best take the General back home.” Jesse suggested.
Luke shook his head and replied, “I left Bo once an it cost em’ his life. I ain’t leavin him again, and there ain’t no way I can drive the General again, not without Bo!” Luke said as he walked back over to his cousin and watched as the county coroner placed Bo’s body in a body bag and zipped it up.
Rosco and Enos also watched, their black hats in their hands.
“I’m sorry Luke. All those times I chased you an Bo…it was nothin’ personal..” Rosco said to Luke.
Luke didn’t answer, he just stared at the body bag that held his cousin, thinking of how he had failed to protect the one friend in this world that he would die for.