by: Marty Chrisman
Thanks to Mrs. Luke Duke for the original idea for this story. Although she wanted the boys involved in a car accident and stranded in a blizzard, I took the liberty of having them on a plane that crashes instead.
Bo sighed as he looked at the calendar. Three more days until Christmas. He missed Hazzard and the family. He wanted to go home for the holidays but him and Luke just didn’t have the money. They had been driving on the NASCAR circuit since September and they were just starting to get some recognition but not much money. The entry fees normally took what little extra they had. Although they tired to stay close to home since that’s where a lot of tracks were, they had come to the Michigan International Speedway for a special ceremony honoring some of the legends of the NASCAR circuit.
Bo hated the weather in Michigan. It was cold and windy. For a southern boy who was used to winters where it seldom got below 30 degrees at night and hardly ever snowed more then a light dusting, this weather really got to him. He was depressed and homesick. He looked over at his cousin who was lying on the bed asleep. Annoyed at Luke for being able to sleep when he couldn’t, he picked up his pillow and threw it at him.
“Hey!” Luke said as the pillow hit him in the head “What the heck are you doing, Bo?”
“If I can’t sleep then neither can you.” Bo told him sullenly
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Luke asked, throwing his pillow back at him and hitting him squarely in the chest.
“I wanna go home for Christmas.”
“So do I.” Luke said with a sigh “But we can’t. We don’t have the money.”
“I know that….but I still wanna go home.” Bo said in a cranky voice and sounding like a whiny two year old.
Luke muttered a few choice words under his breath and rolled over trying to go back to sleep. But Bo wanted to sulk and he wanted to sulk to Luke. So he threw his pillow at him again.
“Dang it, Bo!” Luke said starting to get irritated. He picked up the pillow and threw it back at Bo. “Cut it out, will ya?” Bo glared at his cousin but backed off. He recognized the familiar warning tone in Luke’s voice. Bo flopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling, counting the cracks in the plaster. He knew by the sound of Luke’s breathing that he had fallen back to sleep. And he knew better to wake him again. Luke tended to get cranky when Bo kept him awake just because he didn’t feel like sleeping.
A knock on the door caught Bo’s attention. He hurried to answer it before the noise woke Luke up again. Charlie Harris, a friend of theirs from the circuit, was standing in the hallway. He greeted Bo with a huge grin “Hi, Bo.” He said
“Hey, Charlie….” Bo said stepping the hallway and quietly closing the door so they wouldn’t disturb Luke. “Whatcha doing here?”
“Actually, I got a surprise for you and Luke.”
“A surprise for us?”
“More like an early Christmas present.” Charlie told him “I got a friend that lives here in town that has his own private plane. And well….I know how much you and Luke miss your family and wanna be with them for Christmas….so my friend said he’d be glad to fly you two down there for the holidays and then pick you up and bring you back after New Years. Free of charge from me to you and Luke.”
“That’s great!” Bo said in a happy voice “Wait till I tell Luke!”
“He can leave tomorrow morning if that’s okay with you two.”
“You bet it is!” Bo said enthusiastically
“Great. His name is Benny Martin and he’ll pick you up here around eight o’clock.”
“Okay, thanks Charlie. You have no idea how much this means to me and Luke.”
“Oh, I think I have some idea the way you talk about your family.” Charlie told him with a laugh. “I’ll catch you later. Have a good time at home”
“We will.” Bo said. He opened the door and went back into the motel room. Unable to resist, he went over to Luke’s bed and pulled the covers off his cousin with a loud “Yeehawwwww.”
“Bo Duke! I’m gonna kill you!” Luke yelled his eyes blazing with anger at being woke up again.
“Hold on, cuz!” Bo told him holding up his hands in mock surrender. Like all of the Dukes, Luke had a volatile temper and it didn’t take much to get him riled. Plus Bo had already been irritating him all night and not letting him sleep. “I got some good news! We’re going home for the holidays!”
“Now how in the devil are we gonna do that?” Luke demanded in a sullen voice, glaring at his younger cousin.
“Charlie arranged it with a friend of his that has his own plane. He’s picking us up in the morning and flying us back to Hazzard and then he’s picking us up after New Years to bring us back. No charge.”
“Are you serious?” Luke said in a suspicious voice not in the mood for one of Bo’s jokes which weren’t always that funny to anyone but him.
“Of course I’m serious. I wouldn’t be waking ya up to tell you if I wasn’t. I don’t wanna get my head bit off for nothing.”
“Good…then maybe you’ll go to bed now and let me get some sleep!” Luke growled, grabbing the covers away from him and punching his pillow instead of Bo. He rolled back over to go to sleep swearing under his breath that if Bo woke him up one more time before morning, he really was going to kill him.