by: Margaret

Federal Agent Fox Mulder was not only asleep, but in a deep sleep, when he felt
someone nudge his shoulder. Though the shove was hard enough to get his attention, it still wasn’t sufficient to wake him totally up. Without opening his eyes, he scowled and
groaned at the impolite motion. He groped for the hand that tried to jiggle him around,
and when he found it, he threw it into the air while he turned on his side and pulled the
sheets over his head.
Luke Duke took a step back and raised an eyebrow. He looked to his younger cousin
Bo, who was standing near the end of the bed and trying hard to muffle his laughter.
“You didn’t tell me he slept like the dead,” the older one commented.
Bo shrugged, still giggling. “You never asked.”
Luke stared at their houseguest and shook his head. This guy was almost as hard a
sleeper as Bo. And that was saying something. He saw Fox’s covered form curl into a
ball, obviously really, really comfortable. He hated to wake the guy, but then again, if he
didn’t, Uncle Jesse would. And he could be a bit harder on unrepentant late sleepers. So
he reached over and gave the man another hard jiggle.
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?” the agent childishly moaned from under his bedsheets.
His face was buried in his pillow, and the single word was barely intelligible.
Bo grinned, dark blue eyes suddenly dancing devilishly. He mischievously grabbed the
bottom of the sheet, and with a quick snap of his wrist ripped the cotton cloth clean off
the mattress. Fox’s head popped out into the open, straight brown hair mussed terribly,
and he quickly covered his eyes, cringing.
“What are you two doing?” he whined.
“Come on, Fox. It’s time to get up,” Luke instructed with almost paternal authority.
Mulder turned on his stomach and looked out the window. “The sun’s not even up
yet!”
“It will be soon,” Bo taunted. “Uncle Jesse wants to take you shopping at Mr.
Rhuebottom’s store today, and we need to be there when he opens the door.”
Mulder slowly sat up. He rubbed his heavy eyelids and cocked his head. “Why?” he
asked squinting at the still-grinning blond.
“Why what?” Bo replied.
“Why do we have to be there when he opens the doors? I mean, the guy’s open until
five, right?”
Luke scratched his chin and thoughtfully nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“Then, what’s the rush?” Mulder pressed.
Bo and Luke stared at him, then at each other, then back at him and shrugged.
“Because,” they said in unison.
“You masochistic sadists!” Fox playfully groaned. He lunged for the sheet bunched in
Bo’s hand, ripped it free, and threw it over his head as he crashed headlong back into his
pillow. The Duke boys’ reactions were equally as quick and violent. Luke grabbed his
shoulders while Bo grabbed his legs, and together, the two farmers hauled the man out of
bed while Fox screamed like a woman. All three, howver, were laughing hysterically, the
sound of the simple joy and fun of not having anything major to worry about in the world
filling the room and floating out the open window across the farmyard. A horse flicked
an ear in the pasture, and a rooster crowed.
Yep, life was good. Life was mighty good.

**

Mulder leaned back in the kitchen chair as he watched Dana Scully and Daisy Duke
prepare breakfast. This was a new experience for him. Most of the time, he skipped
breakfast, taking only a steaming hot Styrofoam cup of 7-11 coffee for morning
nourishment. As he studied the kitchen scenery more, he could see that it was Daisy who was doing the cooking. His partner Dana, also here as a guest, ended up offering moral support while she wandered around the kitchen trying to figure out what to do.
Sometimes she looked over Daisy’s shoulder, and sometimes she cleaned splotches of food stains off the tiled counter. All in all, it was clear to see that the red-headed tomboy was ill at ease with her own inactivity.
Fox couldn’t help but smile. That was his partner for ya. Dana was a great lawman and
scientist, but when it came to the domestic arts, she lacked a lot of know-how. Daisy,
however, was right at home. She dexterously maneuvered her way between coffee, eggs, and laundry, proving that she was well-used to catering to large numbers of people in the house.
Outside, Jesse and the two boys were doing the daily chores together. Fox looked out
the curtain-framed window at the Duke men. It was almost a scene from a Norman
Rockwell painting. The old farmer was out amongst the chickens with an apron full of
grain. He walked around, tossing handfuls to the ground while fowl in assorted colors of
red, brown, and white raced out of their wooden cubby-holes to gather at his feet,
clucking eagerly and pushing each other around for their fair share of the feed. The two
Duke boys chopped wood side by side, both young men shirtless as they braved the heat
of the Georgia sun. Mulder watched their silver-colored axes pound into the wood,
making a thumping noise like a bat hitting a baseball. They worked in perfect rhythm,
with the ease of having worked comfortably side-by-side for many years.
Fox slouched low in his chair and closed his eyes as the smell of morning breakfast
and the sound of cracking lumber brought a strange sense of serenity. The environment
had a rustically tranquil feel to the air, and that was exactly the reason why Fox had
returned to his friend, Bo. He needed a place where he could get away from it all and
heal. The past couple of months had been some of the hardest that he had to endure. He
had lost everything… including the X-files. His life.
As he sat at the table with his eyes closed and his arms crossed, he thought about how
everything had fallen apart. It happened so fast and without warning. Six months ago, he
and Bo had been heroes. They had successfully fended off the impossible-sounding but
true takeover of Hazzard from aliens and secret societies; they’d rescued the town’s
citizens from biological experimentation, and they’d thrown Alex Krycek into jail along
with an army of illegal infantryman. One would have thought that the both of them would
receive a hero’s reward for what they did. Mulder sighed and shook his head. No, he
didn’t receive any commendation for his heroics. The only thing he got was a load of
trouble, intense persecution, and distortion of the truth to the public at large.
Though dramatic, the deliverance of Hazzard County never made the national
headlines. President Simpleton and his bureaucrats saw to it that the story never grew
legs in the national news media. Only the people in and around Hazzard knew of the
attempted takeover. Their support, however, was not enough to keep Mulder’s career
alive. Six months after the Plague, all hard evidence of the invasion had mysteriously
“disappeared” from the FBI’s evidence room. Mulder and his boss, Skinner, had brought
the case to Congress, where it died quietly in a maze of useless committees. The glitter
and glory of the Hazzard rescue vanished from the office hallways, and both he and
Scully were demoted for trying to track the enemy from Texas to Antarctica, all at the
expense of the FBI. Mulder argued that his exorbitant tab was justifiable. I mean, really,
he’d just been trying to save the world! The aliens had made yet another new plague, one
that was transferred by bees and the pollen in corn. It was a first phase in their plans for
invasion. Extraterrestrial world domination was at hand, but not only did no one listen to
him, they went one step further and destroyed him.
They burned his office to the ground, and with it, the X-files. Mulder could still
remember the charred remains of his department. His desk and chair half-eaten by the
flames of the fire, large, black-crusted holes riddling them like a sieve. He could still
smell the acrid smoke that stained his file cabinet, and inside, the sight of his files
blackened and rendered unreadable haunted him every second of the day. His superiors
showed him no mercy in the face of his loss. They discontinued his work into the
unexplained. The directors placed him and his partner in the anti-terrorist department,
which meant that he and Scully now spent their time checking up on people who bought
large quantities of fertilizer. Mulder had tried to make light of the situation, telling his
partner that they were now official members of the doo-doo squad. The term had brought
a smirk to Scully’s face, and hid from the world the pain that Mulder felt inside.
He was tired and beaten. His life-long war with THEM carried a very heavy cost, and
in the end, it was all for nothing. His professional reputation and his relationship with his
parents had long since become casualties to his life-long obsession. He’d lost almost all
his friends. He had very little in life, only the fruits of his labors… and Dana Scully.
THEY tried to take both away from him. And though THEY failed to remove Dana from
the playing board, THEY succeeded in destroying everything Fox had worked so hard to
build. THEY stripped him of his profession and removed him from the battlefield of
world domination. The result was an almost unbearable emptiness that drove him out of
Washington and onto the Duke farm.
He needed to heal. He wanted to go someplace where he could feel safe, where he
didn’t have to worry about hidden agendas or betrayal. He wanted to be with people who
wouldn’t judge or condemn him. He needed to be with friends… with family… and there
was only one place in the world where that existed. Hazzard. He remembered the day
he’d called Bo unexpectedly to ask if he could spend some time at his place. He’d felt
uncomfortable making the call. He agonized for hours over the telephone, and when he
finally did pick the receiver up and dialed Bo’s number, he didn’t explain his situation in
detail. He tried to hide the depth of his loss by keeping his voice chipper. But the
perceptive young farmer had quickly sensed the hidden trouble in his tone, and went
silent as Fox explained what was going on. It was hard for the lawman. He was not one
who let his emotions show easily, and he was not one to ask for help. But when he was
done, Bo had simply replied “come”, and both he and Dana had been on a plane the next
day.
He was snapped out of his memories as the front door swung open, and as Fox turned
around, he saw the three Duke men enter the house. Luke smiled when he was greeted
with the strong smell of a cheese omelet. “Smells good!” he said as he put his shirt back
on.
“Hear, hear!” Jesse followed. He took his apron off and shook it to get rid of the corn
husks.
Bo was the last inside. He spotted his friend in the corner, trying to hide his
melancholy mood with a forced smile. Though Fox didn’t say a word, Bo knew what he
was thinking. He could see it. “Hey there, yankee!” the young blond joked, hoping it
would cheer his friend up.
It worked. Mulder’s smile turned genuine. “Hey, boy!” he said with an exaggerated
southern slur.
“Breakfast is ready, y’all!” Daisy hollered over the men’s noise as Scully carefully
balanced platters of food in her hands and headed for the table.
“Okay!” Jesse yelled too, his authoritive voice and sharp clap working like an instant
charm to shut everyone up and get their attention. “Here’s the itinerary for today. After
breakfast, we’ll all head for Rhuebottom’s store so that Ms. Scully can get herself some
real clothes. We also need to pick up some supplies for tonight’s dinner, and we’ll take
care of that too while we’re downtown. And you kids remind me not to forget to invite
Cooter over for dinner tonight!”
Scully carefully laid the food on the wooden table and glanced down at her
long-sleeved black dress suit and high heels. “What’s wrong with the clothes I have on
right now?”
Jesse grinned. “Don’t get me wrong, Dana. What you’re wearin’ is pretty attire and very
becoming on you, but I don’t think you can go fishing in it.”
Scully’s eyebrows raised. “Fishing? We’re eating again?” She wasn’t used to so much
food. Most of the time, her diet consisted of salads, cappuccinos and small, bite-sized
bagels.
Luke chuckled at her surprised expression as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
“Darlin’, we’re always eating here! Don’t worry, you’ll get enough exercise to justify it.
Have you or Fox ever gone fishing before?”
Dana smirked. “Yeah… at the local grocery store.”
“There aren’t any really good fishing holes in Washington,” Mulder added.
Bo walked up behind his friend and playfully patted his shoulder. “Well, me and Luke
will teach ya everything you need to know!”
Now self-conscious, Dana nervously fidgeted with her suit. “And how, exactly, should
one dress for fishing?” she asked.
A big smile spread across Mulder’s face. “Well, if you want my opinion,” he said,
jumping in on the fun, “you can, uh, wear something like what Daisy has on.”
Dana glanced at Daisy’s high-cut jean shorts and v-necked T-shirt and then turned
back at Mulder, scowling. The Duke men bit their lower lips and turned their heads
away, trying to muffle their laughter at the joke. And with that gesture, breakfast
continued. Fox’s mood quickly lightened. It was hard to be sullen in a group like this, a
family of farmers who took one day at a time and enjoyed it all. The lawman brushed his
cares aside as he enjoyed what seemed like a trouble-free day with friends.
It was a shame that the tranquility couldn’t last.
Trouble always had a way of finding Fox Mulder and the Dukes. They just seemed to
be natural targets for it. Fox didn’t stop to think about this odd coincidence when he came
to Hazzard. In fact, he didn’t think at all. Battle-weary, he broke one of the main rules of
combat, and he let his guard down while he enjoyed the company of his friends. He was
oblivious to the fact that he and Scully were followed into Hazzard. He had no idea that
he and the Dukes were at that very moment being watched by men in black uniforms
with rifle scopes, and he had no clue just how costly his mistake was going to be for them
all.

************************************************************

“Hey, catch!”
Bo looked up from his sleeping bag and spotted where Luke was standing in the
doorway. Luke tossed, and the younger cousin snatched the metal lump from the air. As
the keys rattled in his hand, he smiled. He placed them gently on the nightstand next to
his bed. “I take it I’m driving?” he asked.
Luke chuckled. “Don’t you always?” The older cousin meandered across the room as
his young almost-brother finished rolling his sleeping sack up, pondering exactly how to
bring this up. “You know,” he started as he watched Bo tie his brown mattress into place,
“I was just thinkin’. If Fox Mulder don’t quit sulking soon, the frown that he’s walking
around with might get frozen on his face.”
Bo smiled. He rolled the neatly-folded mattress under his bed and pulled himself up
off his knees. “I think we’re too late. It’s in the guy’s nature to sulk. Shoot, if Fox DIDN’T
sulk, I’d be worried!”
“Yeah but lately it seems like he’s sulking with fervor,” Luke said in a more serious
tone. Bo nodded at the statement, losing his ready smile, and slowly sat down on the bed.
“The guy lost his job,” the young farmer said bluntly. “He’s not taking it well.”
Luke shook his head. “He takes his job that seriously?”
“He takes his job *personally*,” Bo corrected, looking up at him. “You can’t blame the
guy, Lukas. The bad guys wrecked his life.”
Luke frowned curiously. He walked over to the bed and sat beside his cousin. “What’s
the story on that?”
Bo shrugged and sighed, meeting his older cousin’s eyes with dark blue ones filled
with worry and a bit of rather surprising gentleness. “When he was a little boy, bad guys
stormed his house one night and took his little sister away. Fox watched THEM take her
out of the room, and because he was a kid, he couldn’t do nothing to stop THEM. She’s
been missing ever since.”
“I see,” Luke said thoughtfully, turning his gaze to the open window and staring out.
He let his gaze unfocus, imagining what that would have been like. What if it had been
him watching Daisy or Bo being taken away? He didn’t even want to think about that.
“But, THEY didn’t stop there,” Bo continued. “THEY’ve tried several times to kill
Dana, and THEY assassinated his father.”
Luke jerked at that statement, head snapping back around. “What?”
Bo nodded. “Yeah, THEY assassinated his father. Alex Krycek shot Mulder’s dad
down.”
Luke stared at his cousin in disbelief. When he realized that the young blond wasn’t
joking, he shook his head. “My God,” he whispered.
Bo dropped his eyes to the floor and nodded in agreement at his cousin’s horrified
disbelief. “Fox Mulder is dealing with some pretty bad people. I ain’t ever seen people
this bad before.”
“Well, they’re out there,” Luke said in a half whisper. A flash of bad memories from
Vietnam ran through his head, and the vision of soldiers running amuck in a rice patty
brought back old goose bumps. “They’re out there.”
“I wish I could help him,” Bo whispered.
Luke glanced at his younger cousin, seeing his open, wide eyes asking wordlessly for
advice. He put his hand on Bo’s shoulder and took a few seconds to think. “Fox is a quiet
man,” he finally said after a long period of silent thought. “There are some people, Bo,
that need to figure things out on their own. Our FBI friend is one of those people.”
Bo sighed in exasperation. “Well, then what do we do?”
Luke rubbed his shoulder in reassurance and smiled, feeling himself soften completely
like they did only around his cousin. “We pray,” he said. “And we be there for him. Tell
ya what. Why don’t you go get the General, and I’ll get our guests, and then we’ll all go
down to Rhuebottom’s and have ourselves some mindless fun.”
The statement was meant to cheer him up, and it worked. Bo smiled and quickly
answered, “Okay.” Then he jumped to his feet and with the anticipation of a boy on his
way to Disneyland jogged out the door.

**

Bo walked onto the porch and stopped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of
crisp, morning country air. What a perfect day. With the sun out and the temperature
somewhat mild, though he knew Fox thought it was hot, he knew that his friends and
family were going to have a great time in town. He leaned against the wall of his house
and tried to think up an itinerary for the day… And then a sound caught his attention.
Sniffle, sniffle. Bo’s head shot up. For a second he thought the sound came from his
imagination or that it was just the wind, but when he heard a muffled cough, he knew he
was not alone. The tenor tone of an unhappy child’s voice drew his eye outward and to
the side, and there, crouched behind a bush, he spotted her. The young farmer’s lean
frame shot straight up like an arrow, and he stared at the girl in frozen shock for a good
thirty seconds.
It was the girl from his dream. There, sitting Indian-style on the grass, a little
Goldilocks, probably only seven or eight, sat near the bushes watching him. She looked
just like what his mind’s eye had seen her to be in the early-morning nightmare ~ curly
golden hair, a dirty shirt… sad green eyes. Though she sat near the trunk of a bush, it was
clear to see that she wasn’t hiding… just watching. And though her relaxed pose didn’t
signal that she was in trouble, Bo knew, as if by instinct, that she was. He snapped out of
his stupor and quickly jogged out onto the front lawn.
“Little girl!” he called.
The child jumped to her feet at the young farmer’s swift approach. Her face turned
pale, and she backed up, ready to bolt away. Bo stopped in his tracks, realizing that he
had unintentionally scared her.
“I’m sorry, honey,” he said. He raised his hands in the air trying to show that he meant
no harm. “I didn’t mean to scare ya.”
She didn’t take off, but she was on the verge of running. She breathed fast and heavy,
and her eyes were wide. “You… you can see me?” she asked. The depth of her surprise
rattled in her high-pitched voice. “You can actually see me?”
Bo gave her a confused smile. He took a step back and spoke softly, trying to show
that he meant no harm. “Of course I can see ya! It ain’t like you’re invisible.”
He was joking, but what he said obviously scared her to the bone. She took a step
back, and Bo knew he was losing her.
“Are you lost or something, honey?” he tried.
That was one question too many. She turned and whipped around the corner, heading
straight for the woods. Bo took off after her.
“Hey kid! Wait!” He grabbed the corner of the house, swung around it to the other
side… and skidded to a stop. The land in front of him was empty. The little girl was gone.
Impossible! There was no way she could have made it to the trees! She couldn’t be that
fast! He jogged over to the idle tractor and searched both it and the other farm
equipment, thinking she might be hiding there. She wasn’t. He looked to the ground,
searching for footprints, hoping he could track her with the woods skills he’d learned
from his Uncle Jesse when he had been just a child himself. There was nothing. The
blades of grass shot straight up, untouched by the weight of running feet, and the only
prints he saw were his own boot marks. It was like she hadn’t even been there at all.
“Bo!”
The young farmer recognized the voice of his older cousin calling him from the front
door. “Coming!”
He took a last, quick look around and hesitantly went back to the porch. There was no
way he was going to find her now. Maybe he’d see her in town later on. He came around
the corner and saw Luke and Fox walking out, buttoning their shirts in a last minute
hurry. Luke spotted his younger cousin and called out to him. “Hey Bo! Bring the car
around front, would ya?”
Bo nodded. He jogged to the barn and opened the doors. There, in the middle next to
some bales of hay, stood the General Lee. They had rebuilt the big bright orange racer
after the “incident” six months ago, missing the Charger just too much not to. It had
rained the night before, and the boys had placed him in the barn to protect the seats from
getting wet. The young farmer ran his fingers along the slick metal of the car and with
slippery ease hopped through the window and into the driver’s seat. The second he sat
down, he realized his mistake. He’d left the keys on his bedstand. He gripped the roof and
was about ready to pull himself out when the car suddenly rumbled under him.
The loud, strong engine of the racer roared as a large volume of gasoline flowed into
the engine. Bo froze. What the..? He stared at the ignition and saw that it was empty. In
disbelief, he ran his fingers over the empty keyhole. How in the world could the car…
Suddenly the racer shifted gears. The steering wheel turned itself to the left, and the gas
pedal pushed down to the floor. The Charger roared out of the barn. Bo gasped in
wild-eyed shock as the speed threw him backward into the seat. Instinctively, he grabbed
the steering wheel, and with two feet kicked against the brakes.
It didn’t work. The pedal was frozen. The vehicle stormed out of the barn, nearly
running over the family mule. Bo wrapped his arm around the wheel, stood halfway off
his seat, and fought to gain control of the car. The General resisted, and in what seemed
like an angry fit, the steering wheel spun, nearly snapping Bo’s wrist off his arm. The
young blond cried out in pain and fell back into his seat.
The orange vehicle whipped around the side of the house and accelerated. Bo grabbed
the roof of the General. That was it! He was going to chance breaking every bone in his
body and just jump out the window. Suddenly, up ahead, he saw a ditch that he and Luke
were digging to put in the new sprinkler system. He knew what was coming next. In
panic, he grabbed the seatbelt but didn’t get a chance to fasten it. The racer hit the ditch.
The nose of the car went down, then up, and then the General was airborne.
Bo grabbed the wheel for dear life. He heard Jesse, Dana and Daisy scream below
him. He looked out the window and saw all of them hit the ground as the possessed car
soared over their heads. The vehicle didn’t stay in the air long. It landed hard and turned a
sharp right heading for the front of the house. It mowed through the clothesline, throwing
garments everywhere. It then barreled through the wooden fence splintering the lumber.
Bo was thrown to the passenger’s side of the car. His faced smashed into the vinyl seat,
and then he fell to the floorboard. When he scrambled back into the driver’s chair, he
looked up and saw the shocked faces of Luke and Mulder staring in bewilderment at him.
The General’s wheel spun again, and the car headed straight for the two men.
“NOOOO!” Bo grabbed the dashboard and rammed both legs into the brakes again.
Luke and Mulder took off running. The car only went faster, chasing both men down.
Fox, unused to the rough terrain, stumbled over his own feet. He knocked into Luke, and
both men fell to the ground. The car was upon them. “OH, GOD! GENERAL, STOP!”
The car listened. The pedal gave way, and Bo’s boots smashed into the floor. The
racer came to a skidding stop, and the young farmer’s head almost went through the
window. He pulled himself upright and shook the whiplash daze off, then grabbed the
wheel and threw the gears into Park.
“LUKE! FOX!” He crawled out of the window and bolted around to the front of the
car. Luke and Mulder were sprawled out on the ground… three inches away from the
General’s nose.
“BO DUKE!” Luke angrily picked himself up off the floor. His face flushed red with
both fear and fury. “What do ya think you’re doing?!”
Mulder stayed near the ground, his knees still too wobbly to stand. “Bo!” the federal
agent yelled. “I can take a joke just as well as the next guy, but THIS ISN’T FUNNY!”
Bo took a step back and rapidly shook his head. “I… I didn’t do it!” he stammered.
“BEAUREGARD DUKE! YOU ARE IN A WORLD OF TROUBLE!”
The youngest Duke cringed at the angry voice as Jesse, Daisy, and Dana came
storming from around the corner of the farm, all three fuming mad. Jesse had his sleeves
rolled up to his elbow. The old man ripped his bright red hat off, threw it aside, and
charged at his nephew like an angry bull. “I swear, boy! I have a good mind to put you
over my knee and give ya a good whippin’!”
Bo cowered next to the General. “Uncle Jesse! I didn’t do it!” he emphatically insisted.
“I wasn’t driving! I swear! It was the General! The car drove itself!”
Daisy put her hands on her hips and glared at her cousin. “That is the lamest excuse I
have ever heard!”
Bo pointed into the car. “If you don’t believe me, take a look for yourself! There ain’t
any keys in there!”
Scully charged past the Duke clan. She stuck her head into the glassless window… and
had to take a deep, long breath. The ignition was empty. There wasn’t a key in sight. She
slowly backed up and stared at Bo with wide, dark eyes. “What happened to the keys?”
she asked.
Luke rushed up next to Dana and peered into the vehicle. When he saw the keyhole
empty, he jumped back as if bitten by a snake. He shot a glance at Bo, noting that his
younger cousin was trembling like a leaf and was as pale as a blank sheet of paper. His
young cousin was scared to death. “Bo?” Luke asked, this time quietly, gently. “Did you
leave the keys in our room?”
Bo shook his head. He was so rattled he couldn’t think straight. “I… I don’t know. I
think so.”
Without saying a word, Luke turned around and headed straight for the house, and the
bewildered mob followed at his heels. They all raced into the kitchen and down the
hallway, and when Luke flung his bedroom door open, everyone gasped in unison. The
keys to the General Lee lay out in the open on the nightstand next to Bo’s bed. They’d
never made it to the car.

**

Mulder sat in the corner of the porch and quietly watched his friends try to come up
with an explanation of what had happened. Luke and Scully circled the stationary car like
two opposite ends of a compass. Luke had his arms crossed while he wandered, and Dana
tapped her lips with a finger lightly in thought. Both logical thinkers quietly wrestled
with the mechanical puzzle, straining to find a reasonable explanation to why the General
Lee had taken off like it had.
Jesse and Daisy took a more practical approach. Daisy braved entering the car. She
slid into the driver’s seat and with a quick pull of a small black lever, popped the hood.
Jesse leaned over the still-warm engine, and with experienced hands studied the wires
and the individual pieces. Bo watched all of them from a distance away, still wide-eyed.
Though he didn’t say it, Mulder could see that the poor kid was spooked out of his mind.
“Well,” Jesse said gruffly as he pulled his head out of the engine. “I don’t see nothin’
wrong in there. Everything is where it’s supposed to be.”
“Uncle Jesse! I swear! I didn’t do the driving! The car just went berzerk!” Bo insisted.
Luke walked over to his younger cousin and gently put an arm around his shoulders.
“It’s okay, Bo. We believe you.”
Dana stopped circling and leaned into the engine. “Could it be some sort of a glitch?
Is there any computerized equipment in this thing that maybe blew a fuse and made it
drive off?”
Luke shook his head. “No, Dana. I mean, it is sort of a new car, cause our last General
Lee got blown into smithereens and we had to restore this one. But it’s still a ’69 Charger,
and there ain’t nothin’ high-tech in it.”
Daisy stuck her head out the window. “Could someone have put something in the
engine?” she asked to no one in particular. “Like a remote control or something?”
Luke stared at the ground and methodically stroked his chin. “It has happened before,”
he turned to Bo. “Remember when those cowboys stuck a remote in the General and tried
to rob that train?”
Bo nodded as a chill went down his spine. “Yeah, and I remember that they tried to
run us over with our own car!”
“And remote controls don’t need to be very big nowadays,” Scully added.
“Well, then that tears it!” Jesse said. He slammed the hood of the orange racer shut.
“We’re going to have to haul this car into town, bring it into Cooter’s garage, and go over
it with a fine-tooth comb! In the meantime, it’s grounded, and we still got shopping to
do.”
Bo quickly stood up, nervously fidgeting. “Can we take Dixie?” he asked.
Daisy saw how badly her cousin was shaken and quickly scampered out of the car.
She jogged over to Bo’s side and gave him a tight hug. “Of course we can,” she said
reassuringly.
And with that, the family dispersed and resolved to continue on with the day. Mulder,
however, stayed behind. He mulled around the still and quiet vehicle for a few more
minutes while everyone else stepped into the house to grab some last minute personals
for their trip into town. Though the lawman didn’t contribute any input into the pool of
conspiracy theories, his mind nonetheless raced in silence. He stared at the orange car
from a distance. He didn’t swallow Luke and Dana’s remote control theory. His nose was
telling him that something different was afoot, and though he couldn’t quite put his finger
on it, he knew that what had just happened was paranormal. And he knew without a
doubt that before the day was through, it was going to happen again.