by: Essy Jane

Jesse and Jose were let go as the other two headed into a new state and took
on new names. Jesse was sad to see his friend go but knew it was for the
best. Jose kept looking at his cousin. They had almost nothing on. A long
sleeved shirt and a pair of long pants. Up there was ice and snow. It’s not
a good idea to go in the now with out proper foot wear.

“Well we have two choices. One we can go up to a cop and tell him we broke
our parole and get thrown in jail and be brought back that way. Number two
we can find our own way home,” Jesse said as he kept on walking.

“I figure I have been in prison enough. Do you have any cash?” Jose replied.

“Well in a matter of speaking.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I have a credit card in case of emergencies.”

“Well don’t you think this is an emergency? I mean we’re stuck in Montana
and now we have to get all the way back to Hazzard.”

“I guess it is a problem.” Jesse took his cousin closer into town and looked
for a store. Any store that seemed to carry winter wear; there was no way
anyone could survive this. Jesse picked a brown ugly jacket from within the
second hand store and looked at it. “That should do.”

“That is hideous.” Jose found a leather jacket that looked warm but still
was fashionable. He wasn’t about to go out in a brown jump suit like Jesse.
He wasn’t about to let Jesse do it either.

“It’s warm and with.”

“Mine has some taste. This one will look good on you as well. I won’t let
you wear that ugly piece of junk. That has to be the ugliest thing I have
ever seen.”

“Do you want boots with that?”

“I can’t believe you have a credit card and we’re going to a second hand
store.”

“I save my money unlike some people.”

“Do we have family up here?” Jesse thought for a minute. There were many
Dukes and just as many Davenports that Jesse could think of. There was one
in particular who he knew was staying up here. The man looked almost like
his Grandpa. His name was LB Davenport. Someone that was very close to Bo
Duke’s heart. Jessie loved him because LB was neat. He had this way about
him that was like no other.

“We do, let’s go!” Jesse grabbed Jose by the arm and dragged him to the
Garage up here. He looked to see tow legs popping out of the bottom of a
car. That had to be a Davenport.

“Hey those are Duke Boots,” The voice said from underneath the vehicle.

“LB, it’s me,” Jesse stated.

“That sounds like the son of Bo! Come on in boy. You caught me at a good
time. I am here to help you. Say, why ain’t you in Hazzard?”

“We were kidnapped. But we’re okay now.” LB rolled out from underneath the
car. He looked at Jesse and wondered what was going on.

“We’ve got to phone your folks. They’ll be worried sick.”

“You can’t! The boys that kidnapped us are trying to get into Canada and we
can’t let anything go wrong with that.” Jesse didn’t want them to find Jerry
and Derrick. They wanted the boys to live freely in the states. Jesse didn’t
lie that often. In fact he rarely told a lie. When he said something it was
true.

“I understand. Y’all need a place to stay for the night?”

“Yeah I do. Look I am sorry we intruded on you like this.”

“You know I never got to meet your friend here.”

“Oh where are my manners? This is my cousin Jose. He’s Luke’s son.”

“Well boy howdy! Good to meet someone of your stature. Goodness gracious,
you boys must be starved. I will make you a speciality. I know y’all will
enjoy it. I ain’t trusting you two to cook. I heard about that from Jo.”
Jesse grumbles. That girl never kept her mouth shut. She talked too much and
acted too cool for being her. Jo Anna was just…well Jo Anna. That was the
problem. Even when she wasn’t where Jose and Jesse were, someone had to
mention that name.

Back at the Duke farm…

Luke had locked himself in the additional room Bo added onto the house. He
didn’t move from that spot. Luke was sure that Jose was dead. He just cried
and cried all day long. Luke wouldn’t let anyone near him. Not even his wife
who came down with Antonio when she had heard about the shooting. Maria
tried ever single thing she could think of to get him to open the door.

“It’s no use Bo; I can’t get him to open the door,” Maria stated. She looked
at her cousin in law that seemed more like a brother than anyone else she
knew. Nancy was playing a game of Sorry with Antonio to keep him
entertained.

“Well you know what Maria? There is only one person who Luke would get near
him at times like this and that was Uncle Jesse,” Bo replied.

“Bo, Uncle Jesse is gone.”

“There’s another person I can think of Lulu.”

“You mean Lulu Hogg?”

“Yes, she has this tone of voice that caries better than anything I have
ever seen.”

“Are you sure that she can do it?”

“If not her I hope that it will be Daisy but with Coy and Vance around here
I don’t know if that’s possible.”

“I thought that they were friends.”

“They are just starting to get back together as friends and I don’t want it
to be right away. Daisy works through things over time.”

“You’re right; we can’t force Daisy to come here. But we can’t just sit by
and watched Luke breakdown. I mean he’s my husband and I don’t know what to
do.” Bo wondered about his cousin. He was a sweet man but took things to
heart. Bo decided that he was going to talk to Luke first. He didn’t care
how barracked the door was, there was always another way. He went outside
and yanked the window open and climbed in. Luke had not shaven in three
days. He looked almost like a hobo. Luke’s clothes didn’t seem to fit quite
right which seemed weird considering it had only been three days. The room
was in total destruction. You could tell that he was angry. Luke had lost
his rage though. For now he was just staring at the wall.

“You know you can’t keep scaring Maria like this,” Bo commented. Luke kept
staring at the wall. “I am sorry that your son is out here but…”

“My son is dead!” Luke exclaimed.

“Progress you spoke of when I called you about coming down here. I talked to
you about how wonderful he is and how much he’s growing.”

“You mean was. As of now my son is gone. There is no looking back Bo. I know
that they’ll kill him. It doesn’t matter what I hope or what I feel. Every
time I hope for something it never does come true.”

“This is not the Luke Duke that I remember. Weren’t you not the one that
told me to never give up hope no matter how hard it seemed?”

“That was then and this is now. You know things have changed. I had to grow
up Bo we all did. I have children. I don’t have time for these silly boy
chats.” Bo knew that Luke didn’t mean any of this stuff. He was just upset.
Jose had gotten in trouble for the second time and there was no turning
back. Now look at me Luke. Your son is alive and I know it. He’s a fighter.
I think our boys didn’t want us finding out where the chopper landed.
They’re living somewhere in the United States. Maybe eating or sleeping off
tiredness.”

“They’re dead! Those men had no use for our sons after the helicopter landed
and you know it.”

“I am not going to believe what you are thinking. It is not you talking.”

“The one place I thought he would be safe is the one place that he should
never have come to. This is my entire fault.”

“I don’t know why you blame yourself.”

“If didn’t come here then he would…”

“Be in prison. Your son has turned into a wild hooligan to a respectable
wild man. That’s just in a few years. Now if you think about it, he would be
somewhere else right now. You would see him behind bars.” Luke sobbed hard
on Bo’s shoulder. He didn’t know what else he could do for his son but there
had to be something. Anything to ease the pain from Jose’s kidnapping, Luke
wanted his son more than all the riches in the world.

In Montana…

Jesse finished eating five plates of beef on a bun. Its yummy beef smothered
in sloppy barbeque sauce. You stick it in a bun hence the name. Jesse was
getting it all over himself. “You’re what I call an oversized meat loaf,”
Jose grumbled as he wiped the corners of his mouth.

“Well I am a country boy who hasn’t eaten for a while, give me a break
Jose,” Jesse replied.

“He’s a hungry country boy more like it. Don’t badger him,” LB laughed.
Jesse looked at his watch. Jesse yawned from the excitement of the past few
days. Between flying and all the guns, they were lucky to still be standing.

Jesse and Jose were so tired in fact that they fell asleep at the table. LB
giggled to himself knowing that they may have been older boys but all the
same they were still boys. LB picked up Jose and carried him over to the
couch. He then took Jesse and stuck him on a cot. LB kissed both boys on the
head and smiled at them.

LB hopped into bed in his long johns. He smiled knowing that there were
again troublemakers in Hazzard. That place needed another Bo and Luke even
if it was their sons.

The next morning…

Jose jumped up not remembering where he was at first. He looked around the
room and wondered what was going on. Jesse was standing over the young man
watching him sleep. “What are you doing?” Jose asked.

“I was just about to wake you. I swear you have nerves of steel,” Jesse
replied.

“Why were you going to wake me? Was there some sort of need for that?”

“We’re working in LB’s shop the next two weeks in trade for a Junker we can
drive back to Hazzard.”

“Why don’t you buy it off of him with that credit card?”

“I told you that I only use that in emergencies.” Jose rolled his eyes. They
were dragged up here and now he wouldn’t even use his emergency money? Jose
thought his cousin was going insane.

“So how old is this car?”

“He’s going to give us an old neon which I don’t think is that old but I
mean the General has been so well kept up he don’t even look old.”

That day Jose and Jesse worked their tales off. With the way this garage was
set up it was supposed to be like a fifties gas station and garage. So it
was the full service deal. Jesse would wash the widows and Jose would give
air to the people’s tires if it was needed. People loved LB’s idea of the
car wash so much that he made a tonne of money. With money can be opened
chains.

When Jesse and Jose weren’t doing windows and filling tires they would help
with car parts and fixing things. The car wash was always full and business
was always booming. The boys always had to go somewhere or do something for
LB.

“What inspired you for the fifties thing?” Jesse asked.

“Actually it was Uncle Jesse, the one you were named after. He told me that
things were moving way too fast in this world and that more things should be
as they used to be,” LB replied.

“You know, I wish we had one of these in Hazzard. I hate having to do all
the oil change and everything now that we converted the General engine…well
to another engine once more. I mean there are so many other things a person
could do with their time.”

“Now Jesse, you’re sounding lazy. There is far more to this world. I mean
take you’re your Great Uncle Jesse said. The world is just moving too fast
for anyone to even look up. Now don’t you think if people weren’t so worried
about not doing things that half these inventions would be invented?” That
was a smart answer. This whole world was moving too fast to notice the
changes sometimes.

Hazzard still had its CB radios but that was because of influence of living
there. A lot of kids in school would still have overly priced cell phones
and have them on all day long. But the second they would get into their
vehicles, the teens would switch off their phones and do CB radios. It just
seemed a lot more entertaining if you will.

Jesse put down the hood of the simple tune up he had to do. Jose looked at
his cousin. He wondered how the kid could keep up so many hours of this
stuff. To Jose the most work a man should do is putting up his feet at the
end of the day. Jesse had been working hard all of his life and he wasn’t
aiming to stop now.

“LB, why do you work so hard? I mean doesn’t it get tiring?” Jose asked.

“The way I see it, I both work my tail off and just be unsuccessful doing it
or I just lie down and sleep. Either way I am doing something for myself.
But tell me Jose, what is more rewarding? I can feel more confidence if I
have a job then if I sit on my butt and drink beer all day. We all have to
grow up someday,” LB replied.

“I don’t want to grow up. It sounds terrible. I mean you have so much
responsibility and you end up killing yourself because it’s just too hard.
Not me, I am going to stay 17 years old for the rest of my life. Growing up
is like an in grown toe nail.”

“It ain’t. You can still do fun things.”

“Like what?”

“Want to drag race? You have to do it without getting caught. We’re going to
go up to the mountains. But you have to be careful.”

“I am not game but I know someone who is.” Everyone’s eyes point to Jesse.
Now this kid would rather drive then eat. Jesse is one of the hottest
drivers in all of Hazzard. But then again he has to be.

“What?” Jesse questioned as he stuffed a donut in his mouth. LB looked at
him sneakily. Jesse didn’t know what to think. I mean on one hand LB was
crazy. He was loud and liked to crash things just as much as he liked to fix
them.

“Want to do some heavy duty racing?” LB asked.

“Well depends on who’s asking me. You will try to kill me in the snow. Now I
don’t think it is fair to put me out on the snow and ice when I am used to
sun.”

“Okay, I will give you a few lessons, the snow and you.”

“Oh brother, you’re insane LB.”

“When I am done with y’all you’ll see what I mean.” The two Duke boys gulped
and smiled at each other. Being taught by LB was like asking a hunter to
stay in one place while the deer runs off. It just isn’t possible.