by: Marty Chrisman

A thin little smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as Kelly Dalton passed the sign that read “Welcome To Hazzard County”.  A picture of a fat man in white suit with a big cigar in his hand and a grin on his face decorated the sign. Boss Hogg, County Commissioner of Hazzard county.  It sure didn’t look like much had changed since she had been gone. At least she hoped it hadn’t but then she hadn’t been back to Hazzard in over ten years.

Nobody knew that she was coming back and that was the way that she wanted it. It felt strange being back in the only place she had ever felt at home. She hoped that she was doing the right thing. Maybe she should have just stayed in Nashville and accepted the recording contract she had been offered with RCA. She had always wanted to be a country singer but the secrets from her past would have to be dealt with before she could even think about that.

She turned off the main highway onto Cripple Creek Road. Another smile tugged at her lips as she remembered learning how to drive on these old back roads behind the wheel of Jessie Duke’s old pickup truck. A look of sadness filled her eyes, she didn’t want to think about the Duke Family, not just yet. She didn’t care what anybody else thought about her being back in Hazzard but she was worried about how the Duke Family would react to her coming back after all these years.

She reached down and turned on the radio. The sound of Martina McBride singing “Concrete Angel” echoed from the speakers. Softly Kelly sang along in a rich sultry voice that sounded like fine whiskey being poured over cracked ice at the end of a long, hard day. Ten minutes later, Kelly turned into a gravel drive that led to a small two bedroom log cabin with a wrap around porch and a large yard surrounded by a split rail fence.

Kelly had bought the property over five years ago with an inheritance that her grandparents had left her. She had seen pictures of the house but had never actually been here until today. Her furniture and personal belongings had been delivered earlier in the week. And she had made arrangements to have the utilities turned on and a phone put in, so everything should be in order. She knew that everybody in Hazzard probably knew by now that someone was finally moving into the cabin but she had taken all the precautions she could to make sure they didn’t know who.

She parked her black 1990 Mercury Sable at the end of the drive and climbed out of the car. Unlocking the truck, she took out two bags of groceries. Balancing the bags on her knee, she slammed the trunk shut, then walked up the cobblestone walkway to the front porch. Unlocking the front door, she stepped inside of her new home for the first time.

There was a large living room with hardwood floors, exposed overhead beams in the ceiling, and a huge stone fireplace built into one wall. To her right, a bar separated the living room from a large kitchen with plenty of cabinet space. Sliding glass doors opened onto a deck overlooking the back yard. To her left, an open staircase led to the upstairs loft where the master bedroom was located. A second bedroom was located downstairs just off of the living room. It was a far cry from the three room shack where Kelly had lived with her parents when she was a child.

 Her father, Ben Dalton, had been a moon shiner. That wasn’t unusual, most of the families in this part of the country had made moonshine. But, her father had also been a vicious. abusive man who had beat his wife and his daughter whenever he felt the urge. They had moved from place to place when Kelly was a baby, finally settling in Hazzard County  when she was seven years old. They had lived in a rundown three room shack with no running water and an old outhouse in the back.

Her mother, Maryanne, was an old woman far before her time, worn down by life and her husband’s abuse. She was totally submissive to her husband and usually ignored her only child. Maryanne’s parents had been fairly wealthy but had disowned her when she ran away from home to marry Ben Dalton. Kelly had never met her grandparents and her mother never mentioned them. When she turned twenty one, Kelly had been surprised to learn that they had left her a nice little inheritance when they died. It had been enough for her to buy this house and her car.

Accustomed to fending for herself, Kelly had been independent and self reliant even at age seven. She knew when to stay out of her father’s way and more than once had spent the night sleeping in the woods to avoid his rage, especially when he had been sampling his own shine. School was her only escape from her life at home. She was an indifferent student but still managed to get good grades.

It was at school where she had first met the Duke cousins. Luke, Bo And Daisy lived with their Aunt Martha and Uncle Jessie on a farm just over the ridge from Kelly’s shack. Luke, the oldest, was 2 years older than Kelly. Daisy was the same age and Bo was a two years younger. Daisy had instantly made friends with Kelly and the two girls started hanging out together. Before long, they were inseparable.

When Kelly visited the Duke farm for the first time, she instantly felt at home. Uncle Jessie and Martha were so different from her own parents. The whole Duke family was so close and so openly affectionate that Kelly loved spending time there. She started going to the Duke farm as much as she could. Before long, it was if she was part of the family too. Her own parents never seemed to care one way or the other. Her own home life was so different from theirs that she never told them how bad it was at her house. But somehow, Jessie seemed to know and went out of his way to give shelter to the little girl with such old and knowing eyes. Whenever she was unable to avoid one of her father’s beatings, Kelly would stay away from the Duke farm for a few days until the bruises had faded so they weren’t as noticeable. When Jessie or Martha would ask her about a bruise she couldn’t hide, she would lie and tell them that she had fallen or that she had ran into something. Somehow, she knew that they never really believed her.     

Kelly shook her head to wipe away the old memories from the past that she had tried so hard to forget. But she could never really forget, they lingered buried deep within her mind just waiting for some event to trigger them again. And being back in Hazzard was like a powder keg just waiting to explode.

After a light supper, Kelly decided that a good night’s sleep was in order. It had been a long day. She had left Nashville early that morning and she was exhausted from the drive. After making sure the doors were locked, she climbed the stairway to her bedroom and walked into the adjoining bath.

Stripping off her clothes, she stepped into the tub. Closing her eyes, she adjusted the spray to a comfortable temperature and let the water flow over her body, washing away her tension and soothing her ragged nerves. Coming back to Hazzard was turning out to be a more emotional trauma than she had expected and she hadn’t even began to revisit the ghosts of her past.

Stepping out of the shower, she quickly dried off and slipped on an oversized tee shirt. Looking into the mirror above the sink, she began to braid her hair, thick honey blonde hair that hung to her hips in a mass of touseled curls. The face looking back at her from the reflection in the mirror was that of a very beautiful woman. It was a face that could bring men to their knees. She had a flawless complexion with a natural golden tan and the high cheekbones of a fashion model. Her eyes were brown and fringed with lashes so thick and dark that they looked false. Her lips were lush and full, a mouth that was just made to kiss. The rest of her body wasn’t bad either, with a figure like Dolly Parton (but not quite as top heavy)

Kelly’s beauty had been both a blessing and a curse through the years. Men had been coming on to her since she was ten years old. But they soon found out that is was a mistake to underestimate her because of her gorgeous face and her slow southern drawl. Ask any man who had found himself cut to ribbons by the sharpness of her tongue when he got out of line. Kelly had learned at an early age how to handle a man.

Finishing with her hair, Kelly stepped away from the mirror and went into her bedroom. A king size waterbed with a black leather headboard stood in the middle of the room. Kelly crawled under the covers and closed her eyes. In a matter of minutes, she was sleeping soundly.

*   *   *   *

Kelly awoke with a start, her heart still pounding in her chest as the fragments of the dream lost it’s grip on her mind. It had been years since she’d had the dream. Sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she took several slow deep breathes to calm herself. She supposed that it was to be expected that the dream would return now that she was actually back in Hazzard. After all, this was where the real nightmare had happened. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. It was four thirty in the morning. Kelly knew that getting any more sleep was out of the question.

In the back of her mind, she had always known that someday she would come back to Hazzard. Someday, she would tell the Dukes the truth about what had happened that night. But planning to do it and doing it were two entirely different things. She just  hoped that she had the guts to through with it.