The roar of the shot-gun startles me as I lay there in the straw, looking up at my uncle through a red haze of anger. Unable to do otherwise, I obey Jesse’s words and stand, but I can’t shake Luke’s hand…I can’t forgive him. I know in that moment what I need to do…what I have to do for myself.
I can see the sadness in Uncle Jesse’s eyes as I tell him that I have to leave, that I can’t see another way. When he puts his arm around me and tells me he loves me, and that the farm will always be my home, it nearly breaks my heart. I can only nod in acknowledgement as I climb into the General, knowing that I’ll never be back.
Tears cloud my vision as I drive away from the only home I have ever known, hurting and angry, upset…I just wish I could make Luke see.
“Why can’t he see!?” I slap the steering wheel as I head in the direction of the fairgrounds. “Diane ain’t like that. She ain’t what he says she is! He’s just jealous! I know he is!” I pull to the side of the road as my vision blurs. “He knows he couldn’t make that jump…he knows that I’m the only one who can, the only one with the guts to try! Ha, sayin’ I ain’t man enough to fight him…I showed him! Luke just thinks he’s hot stuff. Thinks he’s better’n me. I’ll show him – I’ll show all of them!”
Wiping my eyes I throw the car into drive and hit the gas, taking the well-known roads toward the fairgrounds at breakneck speed, handling the General like a pro…the pro that I want to be, that I know I am. “He ain’t half the driver I am.” Growling, unable to let go of the anger boiling inside me for Luke Duke.
“He’s gutless……..Jealous…sayin’ I ain’t got no brains. What right does he have? He thinks he’s so much better’n I am. I’ll show him!”
Turning the wheel hard, I slide as I make the turn into the Fairgrounds gunning the engine once again, then, screeching to a stop next to Diane’s camper-trailer.
My mind spins as I storm inside, barely even seeing Diane at first, so angry, and frustrated that it’s come to this. But her smile makes it all much better, I know as I look at her that Luke has to be wrong…he just has to be, how could someone so sweet and sincere be using me.
I put my arms around her as I ask her if the offer of a place to stay is still open, and can’t help but laugh at her response.
Gazing at her, I’m distracted by other thoughts, thoughts of this beautiful young woman I’ve come to love. When she smiles her face lights up, and so does my world. Her laugh is the sweetest music to my ears. Her touch makes me feel more alive than I have ever felt before, more alive even than jumping the General.
I wish Luke could see her like this…blue eyes shining, a smile lighting her face as I tell her that I’m here to stay. I can see the hope that my promise to jump brings her. How could he even think of asking me to go back on my promise to her? I can’t crush her dreams of reviving her stunt show like that. I can’t do that to this sweet, gentle, beautiful woman…I’m her only hope…I’m the only one who can make those dreams come true. No one else in the county has the guts to make that 32 car jump…I’m the only one willing to try for her…and I’d do anything to keep that hope alive in her soul.
She’s making my dreams come true too, keeping my hope alive. I have wanted to be a professional driver since the first time I ever sat behind the wheel of Jesse’s old shine runner. I knew then that I was born to drive, to send cars flying, to push my car and myself to our limits.
There is nothing quite like the feeling of going around a dirt track at a hundred and ten miles an hour. Or send a car soaring over a stream, betting that you’re a good enough driver that you and the car land in one piece. I know I’m good, the best in the county – but until I met Diane I didn’t know how to get from the dirt tracks of Hazzard to the professional tracks of NASCAR….or into the world of professional stunt driving. Thanks to her, I’m getting my chance, getting the chance to show the world just what Bo Duke is capable of. She is making my dream come true, and I love her for it.
She looks up at me and asks what’s wrong, why am I looking at her like that. My response is a warm smile, a small laugh. “Nothin’s wrong…in fact things couldn’t be better” I whisper, leaning in to catch strawberry red lips in a gentle kiss.
She wraps her arms around me and returns the kiss. As I hold her, all thought leaves my mind…for now there is only her, the girl of my dreams, the one I can’t imagine my life without.
As I leave the camper sometime later, I let out a whoop. Even though Luke and I aren’t getting along, all is right with my world…I’m in love with the most beautiful woman in the world, I’ve got the money I need to start paying Luke for his half of the General, and soon, I’ll be known all over the state as the hometown boy to make an impossible jump. All of my dreams are about to come true…I’m on top of the world.