by: Marty Chrisman

Luke took a drink of his beer and scowled darkly. He was at the Boar’s Nest sitting in back booth with Cindy. Bo and  Mindy Anderson sat in the booth across from them. Mindy was looking at Bo with a dreamy expression on her face, eating up his sweet talk. Cindy was pressing up against him, running her hand up and down his thigh but Luke barely noticed.

He had been trying to avoid running into Lynn and now she had gone and got a job at the Boar’s Nest. Luke had been watching for the past hour as she served drinks, flirted with the customers and laughed. He knew he had no right to feel jealous of all the attention she was getting from the other good ole boys in the bar but he couldn’t seem to help it and that irritated the hell out of him.

He tensed when he saw Pete Cochran grab Lynn’s wrist as she served him a drink. Luke had to restrain himself from bounding to his feet to intervene. He couldn’t hear what was being said but he watched through narrowed eyes as Pete reached out with his other hand and grabbed her by the rear end and tried to pull her down into his lap. A thin smiled crossed his lips as he watched Lynn calmly pick up a pitcher of beer sitting on the table and pour it over Pete’s head. Pete sputtered angrily and let her go. He started to bounce to his feet but was restrained by one of his friends who wisely decided to keep Pete from getting into any more trouble.

“Luke…” Cindy said in a sharp voice, poking him in the ribs with her elbow. Luke jerked his head to look at her, startled. He suddenly realized that she had asked him something but he hadn’t been paying attention. “I said do you wanna dance?” she repeated emphasizing each word slowly. She looked at him her eyes flashing with anger. She knew he had been watching Lynn ever since they got there instead of paying much attention to her and she wasn’t happy about it.

“Yeah….okay.” Luke muttered, sliding out of the booth. Cindy walked over to the jukebox with him. Luke dug some change out of his pocket and dropped it into the machine. Cindy punched in her selections and then slid into his arms as the first song started to play. Luke pulled her close and held her tightly as they started to sway to the music. He could feel Cindy rubbing up against him suggestively as they danced. He responded by giving her a long, slow deep kiss a move that was out of character for Luke. He generally didn’t get quite that affectionate in public.

When the music ended, they walked back over to the table. Cindy excused herself telling Luke that she was going to the ladies room. Luke shrugged and slid into the booth. He picked up his beer and finished it in one long swallow, signaling Daisy to bring him another one.

Daisy poured a beer and carried it over to Luke. She had just sat it down on the table when Luke muttered “Oh crap…” Daisy turned her head and saw Cindy talking to Lynn. Instinctively Daisy sensed trouble and so did Luke. Just as Luke slid out of the booth and stood up, Cindy suddenly shoved Lynn. Caught off balance, Lynn stumbled back a couple of steps and then glared at Cindy with her eyes flashing fire. Daisy and Luke both knew the warning signs and tried to make their way across the room towards the two women before all hell broke loose. When Bo realized what was happening, he jumped to his feet too and hurried after his two cousins.

Cindy made the mistake of taking a swing at Lynn, who easily ducked out of the way, then swung back her arm and punched Cindy in the jaw. Cindy fell to the floor but quickly staggered back to her feet. Before she could go after Lynn for punching her, Luke wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and restrained her from continuing the fight. In the meantime, Bo did the same thing to Lynn, getting himself a sharp kick in the shin from her boot heel and her fingernails dug into his arms as he tried to restrain her. “Hey,” he objected loudly “I’m on your side!”

Cindy glared at Lynn and snapped “Stay away from Luke, you bitch! He’s mine!”

Lynn smiled thinly at Cindy’s words and said in cold deadly voice “Luke might have something to say about that.” She glanced at Luke briefly, her eyes plainly amused at his embarrassment at the scene Cindy was creating. “You wanna have a pet, Luke…then keep her on a leash.”

“You bitch!” Cindy yelled again, struggling to get out of Luke’s grip.

“Cool it, Cindy!” Luke warned her sharply, tightening his hold around her waist. He knew from experience that Cindy didn’t stand a chance against Lynn in a fight. And if Cindy didn’t shut her mouth, then Bo was going to have a hard time keeping Lynn away from her.

“Yeah, cool it, Cindy…” Lynn said in a mocking voice. To avoid any further arguing, Luke grabbed Cindy’s arm and led her away. He took her outside and away from Lynn. As the door closed behind them, Bo finally let go of Lynn. Glancing back at the booth where he’d been sitting before the argument started he sighed in disappointment. Bo wasn’t surprised to see that Mindy had disappeared.

Now that the excitement was over, the other customers resumed their conversations and their own carrying on. Fights happened at least once or twice at night at the Boar’s nest. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and a fight between two women was usually more entertaining than a fight between two men (unless the Duke boys were involved) As Lynn and Daisy returned to waiting on their customers, Bo went outside to find Luke.

He found him sitting on the hood of the General and obviously in a foul mood. “Where’s Cindy?” Bo asked noticing for the first time that Luke was alone.

“She went home.” Luke said sullenly

“She mad at you?” Bo asked in a surprised voice

“Yeah, she thinks I was taking Lynn’s side because I wouldn’t let Cindy go after her.”

“Lynn would have beat the hell out of her.” Bo said with a grin

“You know that and I know that.” Luke said in an annoyed voice “But trying telling Cindy that.”

“So you wanna go back inside or what?”

“No” Luke muttered “Just take me home….then you can come back if you want to.”

Bo climbed in beneath the wheel while Luke slid across the hood to climb in on the other side. He was unusually quiet all the way back to the farm. Bo dropped him off and then decided to head back to the Boar’s Nest for a couple of more hours. Luke quietly let himself into the house. It was shortly after midnight and he knew that Jesse would be sleeping. The last thing he wanted to do was wake up Jesse. Luke didn’t feel like talking to anyone right now.

He walked over to a closet in the kitchen where Daisy stored canned goods and opened the door. Reaching up on the overhead shelf, he ran his hand along the board until he found the jug he knew was hidden there. Smiling thinly, he pulled it down and carried it back to the kitchen table. Getting a glass out of the cupboard, he opened the jug and poured himself a healthy glass full of Jesse’s finest. Putting the jug back in it’s hiding place, he turned off the kitchen light and carried the glass with him as he went upstairs to his room.

Sitting down on the edge of his bed, he took a drink of the shine, feeling the liquid fire burning the inside of his mouth and throat and then exploding into his stomach. At 150 proof moonshine is a lot more potent than regular alcohol and even if you are used to it, it still packs one hell of kick and it doesn’t take much to get you drunk in a hurry. And right now that was what Luke intended to do.