by: Trix

Khas was grooming her horse when her mother stepped into the barn. She wasn’t sure what to say to the woman, a stranger who did not feel like family, so she waited for Shelley to speak.

“Am I interrupting?”

Khas shook her head. “No.”

Shelley came to stand outside of Pumpkin’s stall, a little nervous. “There is something I wish to ask you.”

“Yes?”

After taking a deep breath, she asked, “Would you, that is, will you join me on a little weekend trip?”

“This weekend?” Khas asked as she stopped grooming her horse. It was a shocking idea but…

“Yes. It will be just Friday and Saturday, I’ll bring you back on Sunday.”

The words were a little rushed it seemed to Khas, but considering her mother’s sudden appearance back in Hazzard it did not seem odd. “I was supposed to work at the ranch but I guess one weekend away wouldn’t hurt.”

Shelley was so shocked that her mouth dropped. Khas was barely talking to her as it was and her daughter’s quick agreement was, to say the least, unnerving. “Are you sure?”

Khas thought a moment. “Yeah. My father didn’t raise a coward, and that’s what I’d be if I ran away from you. You gave birth to me and then dropped me off like you didn’t care about me. I deserve a real explanation from you. Maybe this little trip away will help the both of us.”

Shelley nodded her head. Khas did deserve to know the truth. There was no getting around breaking the girl’s heart. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow around nine o’clock in the morning?”

“That’s fine.”

“I’ll see you then. ‘Bye.”

“’Bye.”

Khas watched her mother drive away, wondering what made her mother suddenly want to leave Hazzard with her. She was so lost in thought leaning on the fence that she didn’t hear someone walk up behind her.

“Khas.”

She spun around to see Danny behind her. “Danny! I didn’t hear you.”

He smiled. “You’re thoughts were somewhere else. What’d she want?”

“She asked if I wanted to go away for the weekend with her. I said yes.”

Danny gave her a confused looked. “Why?”

Khas sighed, walking back into the barn to Pumpkin. “Because I need her to tell me the truth about why she left me. Why she abandoned me and left me with my father, not ever calling or writing. And something tells me that Boss Hogg has something to do with it.”

“Why wouldn’t that surprise me?” Danny shook his head, grabbing a brush and helping Khas groom her horse. “Are you sure yer ready for this?”

“No, but I’d be crazy to back away from a chance to find out the truth.”

Danny studied her. “Not going on this trip wouldn’t make you a coward, Khas. If yer not ready, don’t go.”

Khas stared at him, shocked he picked up on her thoughts. “I don’t think I am ready. But I promised I’d go and I will. Just…it means I can’t work this weekend.”

He didn’t miss her change of subject. “That’s fine. I can get one of my friends to cover for you. I’ll let my dad know.”

“Thanks.”

Later that night, at dinner, Khas let the Dukes know of her plans for the weekend. They were shocked, but mostly worried. They would stand behind her no matter what her choice ended up being.

After dinner, when Bo and Khas were alone in the kitchen cleaning up, Bo asked, “Are you sure about this, darlin’?”

She nodded. “Yes Bo, I am. I know yer worried, but I’ll be fine. Take care of Drifter for me.”

Bo smiled. “Yer only goin’ to be gone for two days, Khas.”

“I know but he gets cranky if he’s not driven everyday.”

Bo almost dropped a plate he was drying. “Yer gonna let me drive’im!?”

Khas laughed. “Yes. Just on the back roads, though.”

“I’ll do my best to keep’im in line for ya.”

Khas shook her head, chuckling. “I’m sure you will. Oh, and take care of Pumpkin, too.”

“I will,” Bo laughed. “Don’t you worry about a thing. Everything will be fine when you get back.”

“I’m counting on it,” she said under her breath. “I’m counting on it.”

The next morning, Shelley arrived at nine and, after saying goodbye to the Dukes, she and Khas head on their way.

“Where are we going?”

“Well, there’s a nice hotel a few towns out. It has a swimming pool and great breakfasts and dinners. I thought it would be a nice place to stay, private and relaxing. So we can talk.”

Khas nodded. A couple of hours later they were at the hotel. It was beautiful and cozy. The room was fairly spacious, with two beds that looked like heaven to sleep in and a nice bathroom. A great view of the country side out the window.

“Would you like to grab some lunch, then maybe a take a swim in the pool afterwards?”

Khas nodded. “That sounds nice.”

When they arrived back in their room, after the swim, Shelley asked, “Would you like to have dinner in the room? That way we can talk in private?”

“Yes.”

As they ate, Khas asked, “Do you have a family?”

“What?” Shelley asked, surprised by the question.

“I was wondering if you had a family now?”

Shelley took a deep breath and put down her fork. “Yes, I do.”

Khas wasn’t prepared for the sudden wave of hurt that swept through her. She had thought that the answer wouldn’t have mattered but it did. Her mother had a family and yet she was abandoned? “Children?”

“Yes. Twins, Gordon Jr. and Rebecca.”

She had siblings! “May I see a picture?”

Shelley appeared shocked for a moment, then she reached into her purse and took out a picture of her children. They looked like her mother, Khas thought. While Khas had the Dalton traits, she did have her mother’s pale, creamy-white skin instead of the Dalton’s olive skin tone.

The twins looked little like her, but she wondered if they knew they had a big sister? “Do they know of me?”

Ashamed, Shelley lowered her head. “No, they don’t and neither does my husband. His father was once the mayor of Hazzard and he followed in his father’s footsteps. He was the mayor in an east Texas town and is now looking to be one in the town we just moved to.”

“I think you need to tell me something, Shelley,” Khas said. If she was going to the entire story, now was the time. All the bombshells at once, she figured that was the easiest way to go.

Shelley stood up and walked towards the window. She began to speak as Khas moved over to the bed. “I was dating Gordon when Gus and I had an affair. It was unexpected but not something I regret. When I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t know what to do. The Dalton’s moved after the death of Bry’s other child, shortly after me and Gus had an affair. I moved to Texas to stay with my grandmother, and I told Gordon I was leaving because she was ill.”

“What did your parents say?”

“That I should stay with my grandmother until I had my baby and then give you up for adoption, never telling your father,” Shelley said. “I did stay with my grandmother until I had you but I couldn’t give you to strangers so I found out where Gus and Bry were living and drove up to New England and gave you to him and Bry. With them, I knew you’d be safe and be loved.”

Khas swallowed, hard. “Why haven’t you told your husband?”

“Because, it would ruin his chance of becoming mayor and it would hurt him too much to tell him now. All these lies for so long…”

“So I was a dark secret to be hidden away?”

Shelley braced herself for the anger in Khas. “You were never a regret, Khas.”

“Then what was I?”

“A…you were a treasure I couldn’t have. And didn’t deserve.”

Khas felt the tears coming but she held them back. What could she say? Her mother had just told her the ugly truth and yet there seemed to be something missing from the story, something big. She was about to ask what she thought it was but she held back. Could she really handle the whole truth in one night? The pain in her gut was large enough at the moment to choke her.

“Khas…”

“Shelley, let’s just eat dinner and get some rest. It’s been a long day. We can talk tomorrow.”

Shelley nodded. She had expected anger and harsh words. Instead, Khas had remained calm, choosing not to lash out at her. They enjoyed their dinner in silence and sleep came soon after, relieving both of them of the hurt for few short hours.

When she woke up, Khas took a shower and dressed. As she looked in the mirror she almost didn’t recognize herself. She was Khas but something had changed and she couldn’t figure out what it was that made her look different. As she waited for Shelley to finish with her shower, Khas wished she was home with the Dukes. Her home. How she wished she had Uncle Jesse with her now, he’d know what to do, what to say. She’s wondered what the were doing right now?

Balladeer: What indeed. I believe I would like to know that, too.

Back in Hazzard, Bo, Luke and Daisy were trying to figure out why Boss Hogg was so interested in Shelley. They followed Rosco after he left the Boar’s Nest. To their surprise, they ended going down the road to the Dalton house. They watched from the bushes as Roscoe got out of his car.

“What is he doin’?” Daisy whispered.

“I don’t know,” Luke said. “No doubt it’s something Boss came up with.”

“It looks like he’s searching fer somethin’,” Bo said.

They appoarched the house slowly and as quietly as possible, so they wouldn’t startle Rosco. They couldn’t understand what he was looking for so they went back to the General Lee.

“Let’s go back to the farm. Maybe Jesse’ll know what Rosco and Boss are looking for,” Luke said.

“Good idea,” his cousins agreed.

Back at the hotel, after they had eaten lunch, Khas and her mother were walking around the property. “So, are you going to tell your husband I exist?”

Shelley took a deep breath. “Honestly? I don’t know if I should. Not after all these years.”

“So, you’re willing to keep your husband in the dark and your twins go on living not knowing they have an older sister?” Khas kept her voice in check, not letting her anger seep through.

“Yes. Are you saying that you’d like to be a part of their lives?”

Khas thought a moment. She had her family, her friends. She belonged somewhere. But she now had a brother and a sister. Her father would roll over in his grave if didn’t acknowledge it! “Yes, I would. I know I can’t see them often because we live in different states, but I would like to know them.”

Shelley could have cried. As angry as Khas was at her, she was willing and wanting to know her siblings. “I promise to tell my family about you if you are serious about what you just said.”

“I swear to you, Shelley, that I want to know my siblings.”

“Then…I’ll speak to my husband and children when I get back home.”

Khas nodded. She realized that it wouldn’t be easy for her mother to tell her family the truth, and for that Khas’ anger lessoned and became more of a numb feeling. Maybe, just maybe, if she could not feel love for her mother, she could feel understanding. And maybe after a few years, she could forgive her and they could be friends on some level.

Shelley knew that if she didn’t tell Khas the whole truth it would haunt her until the day she died and any friendly feelings Khas had towards her would be false. And, she realized, that if Khas lost the Dalton house and land, her daughter would have a huge hole inside of her soul for the rest of her life. “Khas, there’s something you should know.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Khas said as she stopped walking.

Shelley turned to her and the words came rushing out. “Boss found out I was pregnant with you and promised me that if me and my family left town that he wouldn’t tell a soul about me and Gus…and you. So, I left town, to my grandmothers- as I said before. When I came back to see you, Boss found me and…”

“And what?”

“He said that if I didn’t help him do something he would tell the entire town of Hazzard, as well as my husband, about me and Gus and the child we had together.”

“And what was that something?”

“He…he kept a legal paper from getting to your father’s lawyer in New England. It was a will that Bry had saying that if anything happened to him and Gus that the house and land went directly to you. Mr. Uton, the lawyer in Hazzard, never saw that part of the will because Boss had someone intercept that addition to it before Mr. Uton could receive it.”

“Who could have done that?” Khas asked. “If it was witnessed by my father than it was legal. Did the person who intercepted it hide it?”

Shelley shook her head. “I think so because all Boss knows is that it’s hidden in the house.”

Khas wondered who could have done such a thing. But that wasn’t important right now. “What else?”

Shelley went on. “As I said, the will stated that you have the house and land, even before you turned 21. But Boss has a law that states if a piece of land is abandoned for eighteen years that property belongs to him. But if there’s a living relative, no one can claim it unless or until that person is 21. You are 19, Khas.”

It suddenly dawned on Khas what her mother was telling her. “Are you saying that I own the Dalton land outright but because Grandpa’s will was never found it will belong to Boss because it has been abandoned for 18 years?”

“Yes.”

“You lured me out here so that Boss Hogg could find the will and take away my family’s land from underneath my feet!?”

“I…I..”

“How could you!?” Thoughts ran rampant in Khas’s mind. She couldn’t lose that house and land. It was her past, her future, her entire soul was attached to that house since her father and grandfather past away. “Take me back to Hazzard, right now!”

Shelley had to run to keep up with Khas. They packed their bags and checked out. When Shelley started the car she turned to Khas and said, “I am truly sorry. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Khas gave her an angry stare and said, “Just put your foot to the floor and don’t stop until we reach the Dalton house.”

Shelley didn’t hesitate and did as Khas told her to do. She knew she had just lost her daughter for the second time.

“Just so you know, you will never be forgiven for this. Ever,” Khas told her as her heart raced with fear. She couldn’t lose that land. It would kill her. They had to get there and fast. “Stop!”

Shelley slammed on the brakes and pulled off the road, thank the lord no one was on it with them. “What?”

“Get out and switch sides. I can get there faster. I know the back roads better than you.”

As soon as she was back on the, Khas began to map the fastest way to the house. She’d get the Dukes on CB as soon as she was sure they’d be able to reach the house as soon as she did. An urgency on like any other gripped her insides as she drove.

“Darn it!” she hit the wheel. “I wish I had Drifter!”

Balladeer: Anyone but me feel the same way as Khas? Drifter sure would come in handy right now. Yes, he would.