by: Marty Chrisman

Luke slowly opened his eyes, letting his gaze sweep around the room, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings. A fire was burning brightly in a fireplace directly across from the sofa where he was lying. From the dark shadows in the room, he judged it to be late afternoon or early evening. His leg was still hurting badly but at least he was warm and the sofa was more comfortable than the cold ground. Someone had covered him with a quilt, so between the fire and the blanket, he had finally stopped shivering. He heard a heavy rumble of thunder and the sound of a heavy rain falling on the roof of the cabin.

“Glad to see you’re finally awake.” A woman’s voice said, startling him. He turned his head as a woman came around from the back of the sofa into his line of vision.

She was very pretty with sun streaked dark blonde hair that hung past her shoulders in soft waves. She was a petite little thing, not much over five feet tall but she had an excellent figure that any women would envy. A pair of jade green eyes looked at Luke and she smiled. “Hi, I’m Shelby. Cory’s sister.” She said introducing herself.

“Luke Duke.” Luke said, remembering his manners. His voice was still hoarse but not as much as it had been earlier.

“Cory went into town to get help but with this storm it’ll probably be late tomorrow afternoon before he gets back. You can’t get up the mountain when it storms like this cause it washes out the road. Do you feel up to eating something?”

Luke shook his head. His stomach still felt queasy and his mouth was dry. “But I could use something cold to drink.”

“I made some stew if you change your mind about eating.” She told him, as she disappeared into the kitchen. She returned with a tall glass of lemonade. Sitting it on the coffee table in front of the sofa, she carefully helped Luke to lean up so she could put some pillows behind his back. Shelby saw the muscles in his jaw tighten in pain when he moved but other than that, he seemed to be doing pretty well considering what he had been through..

He accepted the glass of lemonade gratefully and took a drink. It was icy cold and soothed his parched mouth and throat. When he drank it in one long swallow, Shelby smiled and took the empty glass. She went into the kitchen and returned with another glass which Luke accepted with a grin. “Thanks.”

‘You’re lucky that Cory found you or you could have died out there.”

“I know.” Luke admitted “I’m grateful to you and your brother both for all your help.”

“Your welcome.”

“I didn’t know that anybody lived this high up on the mountain.”

“Cory and I have lived here all our lives. My father lived here, and his father before that, and his father before that.”

“Lynn…” Luke said thoughtfully. He knew he had heard that name before. “Was your granddaddy Red Lynn?”

“Yeah.” Shelby told with a puzzled frown “Why?”

“I remember my Uncle Jesse talking about him.” Luke told her “They used to run shine together in the old days.” He smiled faintly “Jesse used to say that Red was the only one who could even come close to making shine as good as his.”

“So you are a ridge runner.” Shelby said in a pleased voice

“I used to be.” Luke admitted

“Used to be?”

“Yeah, my cousin and me got caught running a load of shine a couple of months ago and my Uncle Jesse made a deal with the government, if they’d let me and Bo go, he’d stop making shine.”

“And the feds went for that?”

“Yeah, we had good lawyer and one of the feds was friend of Jesse’s. So they let him cut a deal.”

“Who owns the orange car?”

“Me and my cousin Bo each own half of it.” Luke told her with a grin “That’s The General Lee.”

“I saw it a couple of months ago when I was in Hazzard. I didn’t know who owned it though.” Shelby smiled, a twinkle in her eye “You were riding shotgun that day.”

“Yeah, Bo usually does the driving.”

“He’s pretty good. He almost had me till I lost him on the turn around by Miller’s Creek.”

Luke’s eyes brighten as a memory came to mind. Grinning broadly, he laughed softly. He winced slightly; laughing was not a good idea with broken ribs. “Wait a minute; don’t tell me you the one driving the yellow Torino.”

“Yeah, I was.” Shelby admitted

“You’re a pretty dang good driver yourself. You gave Bo a real good run that day.

Neither one of us could figure out who the heck was driving that car.” He grinned “Wait till Bo finds out it was a girl.”

Although she was enjoying their conversation, from Luke’s body language she could tell that he was tiring out and his pain level was increasing. “You better lay back down.” She told him “You don’t wanna overdo it.”

Luke didn’t object as she helped him get comfortable. (At least as comfortable as he could get in his present condition) The pain in his leg had moved up into his hip and his lower back again. He still couldn’t move his leg without a lot of pain. And the pain in his chest was no picnic either. He couldn’t take a deep breath without feeling like his chest was being ripped apart. As long as he took slow, shallow breathes it didn’t hurt as much but it still hurt.

Shelby went about her evening chores, all the while keeping a close eye on Luke. He dozed on and off most of the evening. Shelby let him sleep, in his weakened condition, he needed to rest. Just before Shelby turned in for the night, Luke woke up and decided he was hungry enough to eat some stew. Shelby went into the kitchen and heated some up for him. Sitting the bowl of stew on the coffee table, she helped Luke sit up so that he could eat. The food was delicious, realizing that he was hungrier than he thought; Luke ate it, and then asked for more. Shelby was an excellent cook, almost as good as Daisy.

“It’s getting late.” Shelby told him after he had finished eating. “I’m gonna turn in. If you need anything just holler, I’ll leave my door open.” She went into the kitchen and came back with a glass filled with a colorless liquid. Smiling she sat it on the coffee table and said “Just in case you need something for the pain.” She turned off the living room light, leaving the only light in the room the glow from the fire.

Luke couldn’t help smiling as he reached out and picked up the glass of shine. Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he needed something to take the edge of the pain. He took a long swallow. His mouth and throat immediately felt as if it were on fire. He felt the warmth spreading out through his body and felt himself relaxing. Jesse was right, the Lynn moonshine was almost as good as Duke moonshine. He drank most of the shine and then lay there watching the fire and listening on the pounding of the rain on the roof until he finally dozed off. At least for a little while, he wasn’t in so much pain.