by: Cori-Anne and Dee

“Gotta feed the horses before work…” Chet Duke muttered to himself tiredly as he sat up in bed, wide awake an making a list of things he needed to do the next day. “Then gotta be to the rodeo school by 6:30am to meet up with the new registries…” He jotted down the next thing on his list. ” Class ends at the school at 3:30pm, and I gotta be at the Sleepy City to fill in for Scott by quarter after 4:00pm.” Chet couldn’t help but shake his head, giving his list a glance over as he pressed the end of his pen between his teeth, another busy day to come.

Amanda sat behind her husband in they’re big bed, gently tracing her fingers over his bare back. “Can we go to bed now?” She asked softly, leaning over Chet’s shoulder towards his face. “From all that it sounds like you’ve got a busy day tomorrow.” Amanda finished, her small fingers brushing over well-aged scars. She slid her hands under his Chet’s ribs and carefully took his pen and paper from his hands, setting them aside on the night stand. “Let’s get some rest.”

He continued to mutter a moment, her smooth hands caressing over his deeply tanned body drawing him out of deep thoughts. With a sigh he helped his wife place the list an pen on the night stand beside there bed. She was very right, he needed to get as much sleep as possible, it sure was going to be a long day.

“Yeah… Im sorry. Im was just trying to make sure I don’t forget anything, never thought so many people would rely on me to get things done.” Chet rubbed her lower arms that encircled his ribs, his mind still rolling over with thoughts about the next day. “It seems like just yesterday that I was sleeping on the ground an going from place to place working for less then minimum wage….”

The young Duke man reached over an turned the lamp off on the night stand an scooted further under the covers. Moonlight shown through the open curtains on there bedroom window in the magnificent old ranch house. The looming yellow of the moonlight shimmered over Amanda an Chet’s sleek bodies.

He yawned widely. “Sleep…yeah Im ready for that.”

Amanda only nodded in reply as she covered her hand over her yawn. She crawled under the warm covers and curled up beside her husband, laying her blonde head against his chest. Her delicate fingers wandered over his chest with a feathery touch, smoothing over an old wound. “G’night cowboy.” Amanda whispered softly, slowly drifting into the pleasant darkness of sleep and rest.

“Good night baby…” Chet pecked a gentle kiss on her forehead an snuggled up beside his wife, encircling her shoulders with his arm.

He paused before closing his eyes to look down at her hand resting against his chest and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh. His half blind mismatched eyes looked at her beautiful fingers as they lay over a jagged scare on his chest, a never fading reminder of his past. The rest of his body was much alike a road map of scares, each indicating a part of his life that had come to pass and his face the cover of maturity ahead of his young age.

Chet’s mind wandered deeper into his thoughts as he gazed intently at her gentle hand on his chest. Most people would have never guessed that he was the son of a handsome, lanky, blond hair an blue eyed Duke. With these thoughts in mind his eyes slowly drifted shut, his tired mind an body giving in to the fatigue reluctantly.

The young Duke was certainly nothing like his father, neither in appearance or demeanor. Chet was dark and dangerous, while Bo Duke was bright and bubbly. Amanda’s husband had clearly lived a hard life before they met, it wasn’t hard to see for the storybook of scars that adorned his young flesh.

While it could be said that everyone on this earth’s life is difficult from time to time, others have a more difficult path. And it seemed for the first part of his life that Chet had been on that path, a path that most Dukes never saw. Of course the Duke family has never had much but each other, but they always managed to get along in life as happy as a kid in a candy shop. Family means everything to most people, particularly in Hazzard, where that’s something everyone’s got. And Dukes were and are no different, they support each other. But Chet never got to grow up with his family, and perhaps that made him much different.

It had taken Chet years to even return to Hazzard, the place of his birth an where his roots had begun. Roots that long since been covered by the will to live an survive against all odds, and finally come to rest in a happy place.

The young Dukes mind drifted into the land of dreams, a broad smile creased Chet’s lips as his mind drew fogged an the warmth of a dream over took him. Slowly the fog parted an he found himself laying beside Amanda, as he was in reality, except for he was awake. The bright moonlight blazing through the window blinked a ray of light off of a mirror on the bedroom wall. His dark eyes glanced over the mirror immediately noting its sudden shimmer on the wall and he glanced at Amanda laying beside him sound asleep for the time being.

Quickly his curiosity got the best of him an he rolled back the covers an swung his legs off the bed, standing clad in only his maroon boxer shorts. Cautiously he took a step towards the mirror, the cool wooden floors of the old ranch house chilly against his feet. A cold prickle of midnight air sent a shiver down his spine that he warded off with a forceful shudder against it. Slowly he drew closer to the mirror, the reflective glass seeming glazed an empty as he approached.

In the old bed Amanda stirred, shivering in the cool Georgia night without the warmth of her husband next to her. Her green eyes drifted open and she let out a soft moan as she came into wakefulness. Amanda gazed around the lovely bedroom, bathed in moonlight, her eyes resting on Chet’s form. “What’s wrong hun?” She asked softly, pushing herself up to her elbows, pausing to rub her hands over her face. She shivered again in the cool breeze that fluttered the curtain around the open window.

“Look at this mirror….” He replied in a hushed voice an moved closer to the gleaming glass on the wall.

The hazy fog in the glass began to clear as he came close an a unfamiliar reflection appeared within it. Chet’s eyes widened with surprise, he moved his hand waving it at the man in the reflection staring back at him. The reflection move likewise an it was clear that this was indeed his reflection looking back at him.

Chet swallowed an narrowed his eyes gazing over the unfamiliar man in the mirror. The reflection showed a tall male body, lanky, thin an strong looking. And he ran his fingers through a short mane of dirty blond hair. Chet smoothed lowered his eyes to the reflections muscular chest, clean of jagged scares that had long since been a sore reminder of…. of something.

Fear suddenly wailed up in his chest an he stepped back quickly near stumbling, he looked like his father Bo Duke. But he was younger, with a some what different body structure. Chet looked down at his hand an then at his bare chest, although the reflection in the mirror appeared different, he did not. Still bearing the scares of his….where had he gotten the scares? A flash of memory over took his mind, pictures running through his head of him an his father working under the hood of a mighty stock car while he was a teen. Blonde haired an blue eyed, the image of a likely Duke, instead of something he couldn’t remember at the moment.

“What mirror?” Amanda whispered softly, pulling the covers away to get up. Goose bumps forming on her skin under her silk nighty. Her bare feet shuffling across the floor as she moved to her husband. “What are you..”Amandapaused when she caught the image in the mirror. Chet stood before her, but the reflection was not her husband’s. As she looked up into the mirror her gaze fell on the crystal blue eyes looking back at her, like her father-in-laws.

She slowly put her arms around Chet, her fingers following a long scar on his chest. In the reflection she could see no scars, only her hands and flawless pink skin. What was this reflection they were looking at? Who was this man?A different light illuminating a different past in this mirror, gleaming in the moonlight.

He put his arm around her back in return holding her close to his side an glancing down at her with wide eyes. Chet pointed at the blonde haired figure in the mirror.

“Do you see that?” He asked her in a whisper of awe.

What kinda of reflection did Amanda see in the mirror? Was it the same stranger as he was seeing? Chet glanced down at his bare chest an her fingers on the long scare there, the figure before them was flawless.

“Yes… it’s… it’s not you….”She replied, green eyes staring out at the form in the mirror in shock and awe. “Who is he?” She questioned aloud, her inquisitive nature getting the better of her. Amanda glanced up at Chet, her eyes taking in his features, his dark hair, eerie mismatched eyes, the scruff of his goatee.

She moved her hands to his face, tracing her fingers over his masculine features. This was her husband, this was Chet Duke. Amanda wondered if this reflection was supposed to be him, be the son of Bo Duke.

“No…” He shook his head in agreement with her. “Thats not me…” Chet moved his hand to run his fingers through his black hair as he looked down into Amanda’s green eyes, the figure in the mirror mimicked his movement with the blonde hair. He could tell that she was taking in his features, all so familiar features, her gaze was comforting, seeming to find exactly the same features she always had.

“I don’t know who he is…” Chet swallowed hard an suddenly winced at the memories flooding his mind, pushing there way into his head purposefully. He gasped an held onto Amanda. “It is me! Its what I could have looked like!” Chet burst out the memories showing him the exact opposite of everything he’d ever lived. “I….I….grew up here in Hazzard with my dad….” He pointed back at the man in the mirror. “…that me never went to New York an became an outlaw.” Chet pressed his hand to his forehead, memories from two different lives began to haunt him.

“Shhh….relax…”Amanda whispered softly, gently taking Chet’s hands in hers. She turned to look at the man in the mirror again, studying the image. She glanced at her own reflection, pondering silently. “I shouldn’t be there.” She mumbled, scanning the reflection once again. Amanda slowly turned back to face her husband, looking up into his face, a face that held so much meaning and feelings of deep love. There were no such feelings when she looked into the blonde haired, blue eyed Duke’s face.

Chet hugged against him an looked down at her reading the fondness an passionate love in her eyes. The deep love was a bond between them, he loved her so dearly in return. Within the mirror the Duke face that stared back, watching them an moving with Chet seemed nothing like him.

“If it weren’t for me being so different from my father an my….family.” He paused a thought crossing his mind. “I am as much alike with him as I am different. He may not look like me, but I share many of the same interests as my father an some other Dukes. Fore example I have a quick temper, fierce an protective just like my dad is. The difference, mine grew through hate an the need to be cautious an fight back to survive. For every reason I am different I am also alike.” Chet explained, telling Amanda an also speaking as if he were speaking to his reflection in the mirror.

“Reflection…” He began speaking directly to the man in the mirror. “All of the memories you are showing me, as a simple Duke who grew up on the farm as my father an Uncle, Luke Duke did are very wonderful… your not me though.” Chet looked back at Amanda, her love a solid chain link with his. “She loves me for me… how can you be sure we would have met had I not been an outaw? Had we still met we may not have fallen in love.”

“Maybe not.” The blonde reflection spoke, the voice the same, only a softer pitch. “How you lived your life in the past reflects what your life will become in the future. For as much as we are two different people we are the same person. Everything you do is the opposite of what I do, but we’re both Chet Duke. And we’ve lived two very different lives.”

Chet eyes widened as the reflection replied to what he had said, the figure no longer mimicked Chet’s moves but rather took on its on physical strength. “My life is what I make it, an so is my future. You are nothing but thin air, a figment of my own imagination, a piece of my resent that I can’t be more. You lived a different life but living a different life.” He paused thinking of something yet again. How could Amanda see him if he was part of his imagination.

The black haired outlaw Dukes brow furrowed in anger, this image was nothing but a figment of his exhausted mind. Chet drew back his arm preparing to send a brutal punch to the mirror. The blonde haired images face drew into horror an he quickly yelled as Chet released his fist.

“Value your life an be happy with who you are an don’t dwell on what you could have been! AHHHHHhhhh!!!” The reflection yelled as Chet’s fist smashed the mirror into a million pieces. He let out a guttural yell of frustration as he fist broke the glass.

“CHET! Wake up!!” Amanda cried, shaking her husband’s shoulders as she sat next to him in their bed. “Chet….please wake up!” She whimpered, touching her fingers to his face, brushing beads of sweat from his skin. “I need you…” Amanda whispered, gently shaking Chet again.

“Emmm….mmmm….no….no….” Chet muttered in his deep slumber for a few long minutes as Amanda proceeded to try an awaken him, his head thrashed back an forth on his pillow. Suddenly he came out of dreaming an sat strait up with a gasp of fear an uncertainty. “Ahhhh! Amanda?!” He looked at his wife sitting beside him, his eyes so wide the whites could be seen in the moon light as he gripped her hands in his.

Green eyes glistened in the moonlight that poured in through their bedroom window. “Chet… it was just a dream.” She wriggled one hand from his grasp and rest it on his cheek. “It’s all over, was just a dream.”

He looked at her, his _expression of almost passing for terror. Chet quickly switched on the lamp beside the bed an looked down to be sure the scares were on his chest. To his relief he found there ridged edges as bleak anprofound looking as ever. “Gawd….that was so…weird an scarey.”

His face leaned into her palm an he kissed her hand covering hers on his face with his own. A few drops of sweat rolled down his brow an descended into his lower face under there hands. “My reflection… it was different Amanda.”

She didn’t understand, and her brow wrinkled in confusion. “What do you mean? You’re reflection is just how it should be.” Amanda turned her head to glance in the mirror above the dresser across the room. Her eyes scanned their reflections, there they were sitting in bed together, looking the same as they always looked. “I’m sorry I don’t understand.” Amanda whispered, resting her forehead against Chet’s.

“No…no… in my dream my reflection was entirely different. I had blonde hair, blue eyes an I was built like my dad. It was crazy!” He exclaimed motion to his face as he did so. “An I could remember a whole different life, like I didn’t grow up in New York, or atleast my reflection didn’t. I grew up here in Hazzard like all the other Dukes did.”

Chet laid back, still holding her hands in his. He scooted closer to her an seeking comfort in the warmth an closeness of there bodies. She was right after all, his reflection in the mirror above the dresser was exactly how it should be. Short black hair, his eerie mismatched eyes of slate grey an coffee brown hue. It was all just a dream.

“It’s over now.” Amanda whispered, laying down next to Chet. She gently wrapped her arms around him, hugging him in comfort. Amanda rest her head next to his and placed a soft kiss on his cheek, “You’re just you, my cowboy.”

A smile softened Chet’s expression an he pecked a kiss on Amanda’s cheek in return. He licked his lips an smiled widely at her, a little peck on the cheek wasn’t gonna be enough. Chet took hold of her gently an drew her to him, pulling her onto his chest. “An you are my fair queen. I love you so much, an I love being who I am. There’s know one else in the world I’d rather be like, then myself.” His smile never faded an he hugged her too him gently joining there lips in a passionate embrace.

Amanda mumbled something inaudible between their lips, snuggling up against her husband’s body.

A lone figure was reflected in the mirror above their dresser. The blonde Duke in the mirror smiled softly, a thin steam gathering on the glass around him.

The young couple in the bed reflected in the foggy mirror as the image of the blonde man disappeared into the distance, leaving them to each other in their passion. The deep devoted love forever locking them together beyond eternity.