by: Kristy Duke

The hot humid summer sun blares down upon me as I stiffly climb out of my old model patrol car and into the humid summer day. My mind races from thought to thought as I stare up at the beige colored tall and wide hospital as I stand upon the concrete parking lot. Slowly I begin to step ahead as I think of what I am doing here, of what had brought the Duke Boys here to start out with. My heart races in anger toward Boss for ever dealing with the likes of Drake, even more so after all this time, knowing how Drake is like, what all Drake is capable of. As I slowly reach the double glass doors, my heart stops weakly as I come to realize myself, that the only one possible of killing Jesse, with reason, would be Drake. More anger swells up within me at the thought of Hogg dealing with not only a dangerous violent man, but also a murderer who don’t seem to regret all that he has done. A sour and spiteful man is what he is and Hogg working with him only shows the little conscience Hogg has for what he is doing.

Abruptly I stop at the steps of the entrance into the hospital as the sight of Jesse soars within me, how bad Bo is taking it. Chills race up and down my back as I fight back images of what Jesse had went through, what he saw that brought him to his death. More chills of fear races up and down my body as I think of if Drake is the one that killed Jesse, then we still have a murderer walking free around Hazzard, a murderer without a conscience and willing to kill anyone for anything. Anger fills me toward Hogg for continuing to work with Drake through my protests and complaints, as well as warnings. Who else will have to die at the hands of him before Hogg comes to see what he is dealing with? Hogg had brought in a murderer into his town and me being the sheriff, I have the responsibilities to arrest him. But if I attempt doing that, Hogg won’t ever talk to me, I’ll loose my job; that is if I don’t get killed trying to bring him down.

Slowly I force myself to take the steps and swing the heavy door open to walk into the halls of the dreaded hospital and the powerful smell of sick sweat, vomit, and heavily sprayed Lysol explodes around me. I quickly walk through the brightly lit halls as I think of what all Luke had told me over the phone a couple of hours ago, what had happened to Bo. Thinking of Bo, my heart swells in sadness and worry for the young Duke Boy who was the one to find his uncle dead on the floor covered in his own blood. I sigh sadly at the thought of the past year has been like for the Dukes with Bo not being himself, while they fight to help Bo as well as to keep up with the farm after Jesse’s departure. More anger fills me as Luke’s panicked voice in the phone goes through my head, anger at Drake for all the hatred and violence he has sprayed over Hazzard with, and more anger at Hogg for continuing to work with him.

Silently I press the up button to the elevator and the bright silver door’s ding open and I slowly step into the elevator with a tall gangly doctor and a small patite nurse. “Howdy sheriff,” Doctor Lenbrock smiles at him, who is a known doctor that lives near Hazzard, “What floor?”

“Three,” I answer barely audibly as he presses the white circular button that has the number three boldly etched upon it.

After what seemed like an eternity, the elevator jerks to a stop as the elevator clings onto the third floor and once again the doors ding open. Stiffly I step out of the elevator and back into another brightly lit hall that’s orders are strong and ill. Approaching the medium sized waiting room that’s floor is of a turquoise blue design as the chair cushions are of a blue material, the walls are as brightly painted white as the halls with bright lights. Slowly I walk past the empty row of bench seats to the small desk where the receptionists sits behind a type writer and a phone, though thumbs through a PEOPLE magazine. “Can you tell me Bo Duke’s room number? This is business,” I say half way telling the truth, it is business, but for me it is mostly personal. I may not have been in the best terms with the Dukes, but I still care, they all are good people with big hearts. They only do what they think is best, which is opposite of what Hogg is.

She rolls her brownish green eyes at me before she thumbs through a stack of papers before she pulls one out that has Bo’s name boldly typed on the top. “One nineteen,” she finally says before going back to her magazine.

I glare at her for a moment before I walk past her and down the hall, another white linoleum flooring that reflects the bright lights and with brightly painted white walls. Trying to block out the strong order I remove my old beat up black cowboy hat and hug it by my waist as I walk past the numbered closed door before I slowly and finally reach one nineteen. For a long moment I stand at the closed door, fighting back my own personal emotions, fighting with words to say from business, to how sorry I am. I sigh wearily, wondering if they would even accept my apologies for being woven in this mess, thanks to Hogg.

I sigh once again fighting back the tears that seem to have grown in my eyes without my notice and fighting back my anger toward Boss, toward Drake for doing this to them again. Slowly I open the door and the beeping of the machines that seem to be off by a long shot rings out at me, making my heart ache. Though as I step in to see Bo lying asleep on the bed with an air tube down his mouth and in his nose, his IVs placed carefully into his arms stops my heart even more painfully. His faces is harshly cut up and bruised, while a thick cast lies on his right arm, covering his thumb down to his elbow.

“Hi Rosco,” I hear Luke say and I jump as he stands up besides Bo’s bed, letting go of Bo’s hand. Though Luke had carefully wiped his face clean of the tears that once fell from his sky blue eyes, it is apparent that they were there before I had opened the door by the dampness look of his cheeks.

“How is he?” I ask looking over at Bo who lies asleep, barely moving, almost looking dead.

“He’s not as bad as he was when he came in here,” Luke sighs, his voice trembling, “though his asthma is worsening and his lungs are weak, and his air way is blocked due to infection. He gets better, then gets worse, then better, then worse. I don’t know, the doctors don’t make sense here to me…Jesse was always better at this. He didn’t have the tube in his mouth until last night, he stopped breathing after an hour out of the emergency room.”

“I am sorry Luke…I really am, I know it doesn’t help any, but I am sorry,” I sigh as I take in Luke’s posture, looking like a man about to cave in, to give up hope, “If there is anything I can do to help out, I will be glad to. I know we haven’t been exactly friends in the past, but . . .I never planned on anything like this happening. I would never want-”

“We know Rosco,” Luke says looking over at Bo who’s machines beep longly before going back to short beeps ever few seconds, “you wouldn’t want this or had anything to do with this. Bo just happened to be at the wrong spot at the wrong time.”

I look at him for a long moment and back at Bo before glaring back at Luke as I decide on what to say. “He say who did this?” I ask, not wanting to jump to conclusion.

“He wrote it down after he woke up after he stopped breathing,” Luke sighs as he hands me a receipt and I turn it over where Bo had written messingly, “DRAKE”. “So that may be the guy who did it.”

“Then it was more than just the wrong place at the wrong time,” I sigh wearily as Luke abruptly glares back at me from Bo, “Hogg has been working with this Drake for over a year now, their latest plan has been to kidnap the two of you so that a couple of Drake’s men can rob the bank wearing masks and a dubbed tape to sound like the two of you…where they’d drug the two of you to confessing to robbing the bank. Well this isn’t what they had planned…”

“You mean you knew about this man Drake for over a year now and didn’t do nothing?!” Luke yells out of anger and I jump at hearing his harsh anger and the anger that dances in his normally gentle eyes, “This guy may have killed our uncle…and he just may be killing my cousin as we speak! You know he ain’t outta the woods yet! And you let him walk away with this?! This is the lowest y’all have ever come!”

“I know,” I sigh fighting for words to say, “I didn’t have nothing to do with it, well OK to an extent I did. But I couldn’t stop Hogg, I have tried over and over again since he came and all I get is threatened and yelled at.”

He looks at me long for a long moment before speaking up,” I know, but I ain’t about to let him get away with this, “he points to Bo, “Bo don’t deserve this…Jesse didn’t deserve what he got either. Thanks to Hogg’s partner, we have lost our uncle, and we just may loose my cousin!”

With that a stray tear runs down his right cheek and he harshly wipes it away and my heart aches for the two cousins. “Well I am going to make it right,” I finally say, barely audibly, “look I can’t take back Jesse or make this not have happened, but for once in my life I am going to do what I think is the right thing. I’m calling the FBI, they’ll help me catch him…them. I won’t tell Hogg…and when he finds out, I’ll be without a job, but…that’s life.”

“That shoulda been done awhile ago,” Luke pauses, “I’m sorry Rosco, I know you are doing your best, this isn’t your fault. I am…I’m just angry at this man for all that he’s done to Jesse…to Bo. I mean Bo is so . . .I don’t know, he would never do a thing to hurt anyone and yet. . . Anyway, thank-you.”

“It should have been done along time ago, you’re right,” I finally admit to him and he looks down at his boots.

It goes silent for a long moment before Luke looks back up at me, ready to say something until he is interrupted by Bo grunts to say something only to get choked by the tube. I watch as Luke hurriedly walks back to Bo’s barred in bed and caringly takes Bo’s hand while running his hand through Bo’s thick blond hair. “It’s OK buddy, I’m right here,” Luke says comfortably, “I’m right here…I am not going to leave you…never. You understand me? It’s going to be OK.” It goes silent as Bo seems to fight with his casted arm to write and he shows it to Luke, whose body seems to tremble at reading what Bo had said. “I know it hurts, buddy, I know. It’ll get better, cuz, it’ll get better. OK? ” slowly Bo shakes his head before closing his eyes and Luke grasps at his hand, making Bo reopen his eyes, “It’ll be OK, you will be OK, you gotta be.”

Once again they go silent as Bo writes something down and a tear seeps through Luke’s eye and down his left cheek and Bo caringly reaches up to catch his cousin’s tear. “What you mean don’t worry about you? OF course I worry about you…you are my cousin, you are more than just a cousin to me, you’re my best friend, my brother. So of course I worry about you! IF I loose you…well…I don’t know what I’d do Bo; I can’t loose you and…”

Bo stops him by handing him back the notebook that he has been writing in and Luke slowly looks it over. “I will always worry, Bo, it’s in my nature to worry about you; just like I have been over the past year; I worry about you no matter what. I can’t loose you too,” Luke says smiling wearily at Bo before looking up at me for the first time, “Hey look, you got another visitor, Bo.”

As Bo looks up at me, my heart seems to melt within me as I see the great pain that invades his baby blue eyes as well as great fear. “I’m sorry, Bo,” I manage to say, “but look, I’ll get Drake for you…for you and Jesse, if he is the one that did it to Jesse. Hogg has gone too far this time, I don’t care how much money this could give him or how upset he will be at me for trading sides on him. But I will arrest Drake if that is the last thing I do.”

Bo looks up at me with weary and pained eyes as my anger turns to hatred toward Hogg for doing this to him, for working with the man who could do such a thing as he has done to Bo. Seeing Bo so much in pain, to see how beat up he is because of Drake, my heart aches and for the first time I know I am going to turn my back on Hogg and turn to the FBI to arrest the man Hogg is currently working with, the man who could possibly have killed Jesse and the man who has done this horrible thing to Bo Duke.

I look up as Luke reads another thing that Bo has written to him and his eyes brim up with tears. “You gotta fight it BO, you have to be OK. I know it hurts buddy, I know; but I’m right here you hear me? I’m right here!” Luke says running his hands through his hair and Bo slowly falls back asleep, “He tol’ you, to be careful…he don’t want you turning out to look like Jesse.”

My heart sinks as Luke reads off what Bo had told me and I take Bo in for the last time before I tell him good bye for now and leave the room with tears in my eyes that slowly begin to roll down my cheeks.

Rosco – three hours later-

My mind races quickly within me of all that has been going on over the past year and a half to how I could possibly change that. I sigh wearily as I continue to glare out the smeared old window that lies above the silver rusted sink. I stare across mama’s green grass yard where her assortment of flowers lies to the hilly pasture that lies on the other side of the barb wire fence that cuts off where our back yard ends. Slowly, I reach across the clean sink and I yank open the window and smile to myself at the cow scented aroma that floats in through the open window with the little breeze. In the pasture John Parlen walks near the barb wire with one of his bigger cows that follows him freely before he comes to a stop. I watch him momentarily as he smiles at mama who is now covered in dirt from digging in the soil before she had stopped to talk to the closest neighbor.

I feel myself jump in startlement as a loud pounding rings on the front door and I abruptly remind myself of the troubles that I had helped bring upon Hazzard from thinking about mama. Casually I turn away from the sink and walk out of the kitchen and into a hall as I feel my heart racing in fear of what I am about to do. Through the hall way I slowly step into the living room that lies on the other side of the farm house kitchen and I sigh with anxiety as whoever is at the door knocks once again. “I’m a comin’,” I finally call out a few feet from the closed wooden door and I sigh wondering why mama had closed the front door when it is so hot outside.

Feeling my heart race with a mixture of anxiety, nerves, and of fear I slowly reach out and place my hand upon the handle and I begin to open the door. I look up through the old screen door at a man who stands an inch or so shorter than I with neatly cut and trimmed sandy blond hair with thin and small sideburns. The man stands confidently upon the wooden deck wearing dark blue khakis, scuffed athletic shoes upon his feet, and a blue jersey that holds a Cubs patch over his left chest. “Sergeant FBI Agent Frank Mills,” the man states his voice is as confident as his posture, though not cocky, just enough to tell you he knows what he’s doing, “Sheriff Coltrane?” He shows me his walleted badge and I nod.

“Y…yeah,” I stutter as I slowly open the screen door that slowly squeaks open and he steps in and I watch as he takes in the living room almost as if he were expecting someone to jump out at him, “I’m Sheriff Rosco Coltrane.”

“You run this small town?” he asks as he steps in and takes a seat in the off white old recliner and I slowly walk over to the ugly whitish yellow couch that sits against the wall that the chair sits on the other side of a scratched end table.

Looking at him I try to decide if he had said it with distaste or as a compliment, but figure that he hadn’t placed any emotion in his statement. “I’m the sheriff of it, Commissioner J.D. Hogg runs it mainly,” I reply nervously and I wonder if he could hear my heart drumming quickly within me.

“I see,” he answers glaring around the room, his voice confident and sure, and remains flat of any of his feelings. “Now onto business, of what you called me about? Captain Durbank must think this case of yours is important, he don’t send much men down to Hazzard for anything, not alone a sergeant.”

I glare up at him trying to make out what all that he was trying to tell me. “Well good thing that Hazzard has been blessed with a great sheriff as myself then..khee,” I look at him and he grins at me, his soft creamy blue eyes lighten up, “if not, we’d be in all sorts of trouble being on our own and all.”

“Ahh a sheriff with a sense of humor,” he smiles friendly at me and his change of behavior, from rough and cold to smiling at me almost like friends, “I like that. So tell me about this problem, this case you have on your hands.”

“Well uh,” I stutter trying to think of the best way to tell him this without getting my brother in law into big trouble, “Well Commissioner J.D. Hogg, we all call him Boss here…well he has this business partner that he has been working with for the past year to year and a half now. A year and a half ago, a citizen and farmer of Hazzard, Jesse Duke was found dead in his living room from being shot to death…y’all were down here for a day for that one and didn’t get no where.”

“Yeah I remember something of that,” he says going back to looking cold, “they all had to come back to Atlanta for some bank robbery due to the lack of men in our department and due to not finding anything or anyone to connect it to.”

I look at the FBI agent or seems to sink into the recliner through his tense posture, looking as if he could spring up in any second. “Yeah well,” I pause as I fight through my nerves to go on, “well nothing much has gone on since then, but now Jesse’s nephew, the man that was killed, his nephew that he raised was shot at a few days ago, sent him down these cliffs nearly killed him…woulda if he didn’t seek into hiding, and he is still in the hospital in very serious condition, it is the same kid who had walked in to find his uncle dead.”

“So,” he pauses, “so they decided to chase after this kid after a year of not doing nothing or anything? That don’t make sense, if they wanted to take him out for finding his uncle dead, they woulda done it as soon as they could have and not after a year.”

“No, I don’t think it has anything to do with him finding his uncle dead,” I reply and I feel myself begin to relax as my years at the academy slowly come back to me, “no, I know it didn’t have anything to do with it. According to Bo’s, the nephew, cousin, they had a fight about something and Bo took off to be alone when Bo heard yelling and looked up in time to find, Drake, Boss’ partner killing this other guy over some drugs…overheard them talking about taking over Hazzard for their drug fort.”

“Drake?” Mills questions looking at me.

“Yeah Drake Shelbon,” I reply nervously, “A real scary type of guy…I keep telling Boss that he is dangerous, but he won’t listen to me, fact is he gets angry at me for even saying it.”

“Well Boss ain’t very smart then,” Mills says and I abruptly glare up at him, “anyone with brains can tell Shelbon is dangerous as anyone can get! Ol’ Shelbon has a rap sheet longer than my arm of armed robbery, possession of drugs, selling drugs…almost went down for murder a couple of times and both times his name got cleared. Prosecution could never prove it, but he did it…his men cover quiet nicely for him…dangerous as dangerous can get.”

“Boss is too smart,” I finally reply trying to sound as confident as him but come up shy, “he just lets his money do his thinkin’ at times, and it all misleads him.”

“Money can be an evil thing if you let it power you,” Mills answers thickly as he slowly stands up to glare out the screen door for a long moment before turning around to look at me, “So what kinda business was this man, Hogg running with Drake?”

I glare up at him abruptly as my heart begins to race quickly within me as I fight for what I should tell him. “They were,” I pause longly as I stiffly stand up and glare at the picture of me on the wall that shows me on my first day of duty in Hazzard, “they were trying to sell insurance on their land, money, and health…all sort of stuff, cheaper than anywhere else they could get it…most the citizens…heck everyone but Boss is poor and can’t afford insurance or any sort of leisure item.”

“Insurance?” he questions glaring at me, his creamy blue eyes become hard and cold causing me to take a step backward, “I have a feeling that this is some scam of yours to protect your buddy Hogg…he in it with Drake? You have the responsibility to protect your county sheriff, arresting anyone who is harming it, even your friends or the town commissioner!”

“Arrest Boss?!” I exclaim in Boss Hogg, “Look Hogg would never, I mean never do a thing to hurt anyone. I will give you that he is money hungry, but he would never stoop low enough to hurt or kill anyone for money. Sergeant…he is the richest man in Hazzard, probably of the surrounding counties as well, he don’t need to kill no one for it and he would never kill or harm anyone!…Look, I don’t like lying to a brother officer as y’all seem to call yourselves, but Boss is my buddy, my brother in law, and my boss. I have known him since I can remember and he has never done anything that would harm anyone not alone kill anyone…you can check up on that.”

For a long moment he glares at me with his hardened creamy blue eyes, his eyes are of a color I have never seen on a man or anyone before. I let go the breath I didn’t realize I was holding in as he slowly runs his right hand through his sandy blond hair. Looking at him I see the thick wide and deathly pale scar that is etched vertically on his lower outer right arm. As I take in the thickness, the paleness, and the length that seems to be three inches long shiver run up and down my body as I fight to figure out what it is from. Slowly he places his hands into his pockets as his posture remains confident before he says, “So, does Hogg know that Drake could possibly hurting his citizens of his county? That Drake most likely is the one that killed that man? Does he have anything at all to do with why I am down here?!”

“No sir,” I sigh wearily taking in the thin man who looks to be in his thirties, “as I said, Hogg wouldn’t do such a thing not for nothing or anything. Like I said Hogg is greedy and would do about anything for money, but he would never ever hurt anyone or kill anyone for that matter, that isn’t him. He may not seem like he cares that much about other things than money, but deep down he does care, he cares for Hazzard and he cares for the citizens of Hazzard.”

“We ain’t in boot camp, sheriff, you can call me Sergeant Mills or Frank,” he smiles thinly before it disappears, “so…if Hogg doesn’t know how Drake really is like and that he’s hurting and killing people, then why we have to meet in your home instead of at the police station? Y’all have a police station don’t you?”

“Yes sir, I mean Frank, it is in town with the court house, in the court house,” I say nervously, “Hogg would have or will have my hide when he finds out that I called you out on his number one business partner. He don’t believe all that I have been telling him about him, about Drake that is, and how I feel about him. He gets angry when I say how I feel about it or what I think I know. He won’t believe until he sees it with his own eyes.”

“Well your house it is then,” he grins at me before he moves back to the recliner, “but if I catch Hogg in this in any way, he’s going down town to Atlanta and I’ll make sure the state’ll take that badge away from you, sheriff. You got me? So if he is in it, you better come clean now.”

I look at him for a long moment as I feel my body begin to tremble as I think about their plans, about what has been going on, and what he is saying. “I understand Sergeant Mills, I understand it fully…but I will guarantee you that Boss Hogg didn’t have anything to do with Jesse Duke’s death or with Bo’s shooting…he wouldn’t have it if he knew it was him, he’d have Drake arrested or something if he knew for himself that it was him doing all this,” I pause to sit back down at the end of the couch, our knees an inch apart from each others, “Boss don’t like anyone getting injured in his county and he will not have a part in it or tolerate anyone injuring others…not alone killing them. You won’t find him in on this with Drake…I promise you that.”

“OK then,” he says thickly, “so we do this investigation behind Hogg’s back then? I mean he is the commissioner of this county and he has the right to know what is going on here.”

“Look, it hurts me to go behind his back on this, on this investigation, sir,” I respond as I continue to take him in as if he was a magnet, “but I don’t see any other way to do it, to bring Drake to an end…I can’t let him keep going on with what he is doing and I can’t arrest him by myself, because Hogg would just let him go. He may have my badge when I am done with this, but . . .but I am not having anyone else in my county hurt or killed because of his blindness. If you can think of some other way to do it, but if and when Hogg finds out, he’ll have my badge and will find some way to end this investagation…it is just who he is, once he has the evidence, once he sees the Drake that I see, the Drake we see, he’ll be all for the investigation and will help out in any way, but until then…”

“OK Sheriff,” he sighs wearily as he runs his left index finger in the crease of his scar, “looks like I have a partner…if it gets out of hand I have the go ahead to call for a couple more agents…I will be getting two men down here before sun rise tomorrow. But until we get into something deep it will just be the four of us…that is unless you have any deputies that may be able to help us?”

“Well Enos Strate,” I sigh thinking of my naive deputy, “but he may leak it to Boss…I mean I know he don’t mean to, but it just happens.”

“Well, bring him aboard,” he sighs wearily, “we may need as much help as we can and we can always think of something to cover up those leaks after they happen.”

“Right,” I nod, “Enos ain’t bad, he’s loyal and he’ll get the job done, and he listens well too.”

“Well it sounds like we got a case goin’,” he grins standing up, “I want to get a chance to talk to that nephew…and his cousin perhaps. But for now, I am going to go back to my hotel room and get this all straightened out, put notes down on paper. I’ll give you a call later tonight.”

I nod as he walks to the door and guilt begins to eat away at my chest for doing this to Boss, my own buddy, my own brother in law, but I know there is no other way. I watch as he slowly steps out of the house and slowly walks over to an old blue Chevy truck and climbs in.

Luke Duke

Abruptly I am thrown awake from a realistic and all too clear nightmare of watching Bo die in front of my eyes, his funeral, and what life would be like if he were to pass on. I sigh wearily as the air around me seems to be thick and heavy as the nightmare plays itself in my head. Slowly, I sit up from leaning against the hard wall and start to work the kinks out of my neck as I look down at Bo who sleeps still in bed, the tube in his mouth makes a loud wheezing noise. I sigh tiredly at how vulnerable he looks lying on the bed all broken and bruised and I close my eyes trying to see what all that had happened to him only to be filled with anger. Slowly I open my eyes as I recall Daisy sitting on the other side of the barred in bed before I had fallen asleep now empty.

Abruptly, I jump slightly in my hard cold metal chair as the door behind me slams shut. I quickly look back to find a man an inch or so shorter than I with thinly cut sandy blond hair with thin small sideburns wearing tight dark blue jeans, a pair of scuffed athletic shoes and a tucked in gray shirt that holds a logo of some sort upon his chest. “I didn’t mean to awaken you,” he smiles through his strong and bold posture and I look up out the window to see the bright sun shining in.

I look back at the intruder and take in his muscular upper arms that seem to bulge out of the gray short sleeves and on his right upper arm I see half of a dark tattoo. Welcoming himself into my cousin’s room he steps forward to a foot from me at the end of Bo’s bed, his hands tucked away in his tight pockets, almost looking like a kid about to get in trouble. Though, his posture don’t look like anyone who is about to get into trouble without reason, a posture that shows everyone that he is sure of what he does and who he is, but not too much. I sigh wearily as I feel the anxiety within me grow as I take the man in longly before I look at my weak and pained cousin who remains asleep. Looking back at the muscular man, his right lower outer arm catches my attention where I find an at least three inch long vertical scar etched thickly into his skin. For a moment I glare at scar that seems to be a half inch wide and ghostly pale and I become mesmerized by it for a moment as I think of how he had gotten it.

“I’m awake now,” I finally say looking up at the man’s slightly tanned face to notice his creamy blue eyes, that are hard and cold. Chills races up and down my back as he stares at me, almost as if he is looking right through me, “What you want and who you are?”

For a long moment that seems to go on forever he stares at Bo with his hardened evil looking eyes and I fight to hold my anger back from him. Suddenly as I look over at Bo I become to know who the man is and what he wants. Before he can say anything I jump out of my seat and I grab his tight light gray shirt tightly in my hands and he yelps out in surprise as I harshly thrash him into the brightly white walls. “You son of a -” I stop myself thinking of how I was raised, “Isn’t it enough you killed my uncle? Isn’t enough you about killed my cousin, my best friend?! Of course it isn’t, a man like you enjoys killing people, enjoys watching them die at your hands!” Tears begin to streak my face in my rage of anger and hatred, “You aren’t about to get to him…EVER! You want to finish him off, you’ll be having to go through me and a whole other bunch of men that would tear you apart…If I were you, I’d hand yourself to the cops when you walk out of here…if not I will!”

Abruptly I stop as a large lump forms in my throat and the man stands in my hold glaring into me with his creamy blue eyes that sends shivers up and down my back. He looks at me lethargically as tears escape from my eyes and his right hand begins to move for his back pocket and I thrash him against the wall again in fear of what he is getting and I can imagine a gun at my forehead within the next moment. Instead, he snaps open a black wallet in front of my face to show a bright gold badge with his ID on the other half. Slowly, I let go of him and I feel my body go weak and I become nauseated at what I had just done. “Sergeant FBI Agent Frank Mills,” he says in a confident voice with little emotion in it and I slowly sit back down in my seat.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” I stutter in embarrassment as I wipe at my eyes harshly, “I thought you were…were the guy that did this to him.”

“I know,” he smiles at me for a short instant, and in that short instant his eyes had softened to be almost gentle before quickly reverting back, “I could tell, but I am here about him, about what he did.”

“He killed my uncle is what he did,” I respond a little too hastily, “and thanks to the jackass, my cousin is in here almost dead, could die any second…and there ain’t a damn thing the doctors can do.”

“Well, I am here to try to capture that jackass as you put it,” he responds as he slowly walks over to the window to glare out over the dirt road and a large pasture of assortment of colored cows, “I just need to know what all had happened.”

“With who? Jesse or Bo?” I ask looking down at Bo who remains asleep through my yelling.

“Both,” he responds, “let’s start with Jesse…can you tell me what you know?”

I sigh as I glare down at the bright linoleum flooring before I look up at Bo. “I don’t know much about that…the town was had a picnic, the same one that we have each year when it happened. He was sick and didn’t want to go along, but urged us all to go without him and we hesitantly did as he tol’…that’s who Jesse was, you do as you were tol’, you listen,” I sigh longly as I stare at Bo, thinking of how he had been acting after he saw our uncle dead upon the living room floor, “Daisy, our other cousin, kept trying to get a hold of him while we was at the picnic and couldn’t get a hold of us and tol’ me or Bo to go check on him. I ordered Bo to go, I had a hot date that was leaving in the morning and I didn’t want to leave her. Anyway, Bo went to check on him and found him dead and covered in his own blood on the living room floor.”

“Yeah, got his statement,” is his reply, “is that all you can tell me?”

“No sir,” I sigh silently, “I’m sorry…I didn’t really pay that much attention to detail at the time, all I knew was that I shoulda went to check on him. Bo well, he never seen a dead body not alone…well you get the picture and at how he will be affected by what he saw. I mean, Bo woulda been the most affected by it if he wasn’t the one to find him, Bo had this special bond with Jesse…it was beyond describing.”

“You really care about that cousin of yours?” he asks as more of a statement.

“Yes sir…he’s my best friend,” I sigh looking at Bo taking in his darkly bruised face, “and his world crumbled upon him when he stepped in to find Jesse like that…he will never be the same after what he saw, and he hasn’t been…kept himself tightly closed and locked up in that deep shell of his.”

The room goes silent except for the irregular beeping of the machines, the drippings of the IVs, and of the wheezy sound coming from the tube that lies in his mouth. “What all you know ’bout what happened to your cousin?” the FBI agent drawls.

Slowly I go into my explanation of the argument we had to all he had told me when he dropped in the yard and closing with him handing him the receipt that Bo had sketched “DRAKE” upon in messy hand writing. He looks at Bo for a long moment with a warmth look to his odd looking eyes and I notice him involuntarily tracing his scar with his left index finger. “Thank-you for cooperating with us, Mr. Duke,” the sergeant says remaining looking at Bo, “we will take it from here, Sheriff Coltrane explained how y’all work,” he smiles as he seems to relax, “Drake is a very dangerous criminal and we don’t want anyone else to get hurt in any attempt at playing hero for your cousin. We will get him, don’t worry.”

“Worry is my middle name Sergeant,” I respond dryly, “especially when it comes to Bo.”

He smiles at me showing me more warmth that I didn’t think existed in him when he had walked into the room. “I have been with the FBI for seven years now, Mr. Duke, have been assigned to twenty-three other cases before this one and not one has gone unsolved.”

I look at him for a long while who bites upon his lip as he watches Bo sleep upon the hard bed. “Bo won’t be able to tell you what happened with the tube in his throat and all,” I slowly reply not knowing what else to respond with, “You may have a perfect career of stats there Sergeant, impressive if I say so myself, but not even that is good enough for my cousin. Or for me not to worry…but I will tell you this, I am not about to risk my life like I would in the past. You want to know why? He depends on me to be there for him and I know it would be kinda hard for me to be there for him if I were dead. He has been through that enough with Jesse, he don’t need me to go wind up being dead either, sergeant. Now don’t go thinkin’ that I am ’bout to give into him or my fears, I could take him down easily without going down with him, but I promised Bo I wouldn’t go after him and therefore I won’t. I would never break my promise with Bo.”

Numbly he slowly nods at me as he continues to stare at Bo and I slowly bring my attention down at Bo. “He must be something,” the agent says softly, “I mean for you to talk about him like that…for you to stick up for him like that.”

“Yeah…he sure is something. He is very special…and very amazing,” I reply, my voice thickly etched with my worry for my cousin. Abruptly my attention is broken away from the sergeant as I feel Bo’s casted arm rub against my in an attempt to search for me. Quickly I place on a smile for Bo as I take his hand and look down at him and say, “Ain’t that right, champ?” Bo stares blankly at me seeming not to notice Frank and I fight back tears as I see his tears, his pain, and his fear, “Right. Look you gotta hang in there for me OK? Can you fight this? You gotta be OK, Bo.”

Before I can finish he is writing back on paper and Frank leans over to see what he is writing. Picking it up I read his messy scribbling hand writing, “I don’t know, Lukas,” I smile slightly at seeing my full first name, “It hurts…real bad. I don’t know…I don’t want to die, Lukas,” my heart throbs at reading his cut off sentences of how he feels, even more so when he talks about his fear, “I’m scared, Lukas.”

I sigh as I fight back tears that builds up in my eyes and I feel one break loose and begins to leak down my right cheek. Bo glares at me with his deathly filled eyes and I am surprised as he yanks his hand away from me and catches my tear and he stares at it on his finger for a long while. “I know buddy, I know. But look at me Bo,” he stops looking at my tear to look at me, “you are going to be alright…I mean you hafta be, cuz…you keep fightin’ it.” His baby blue eyes plead with me for me to cure him, to make the pain to go away, or to give in and let him give in. “Never Bo, I will never give up on you no matter what you want…you know how you feel to me. You just want to keep hearin’ me say it.”

A thin smile reaches his lips behind the tube as he scribbles something down on paper though the small smile quickly disappears. Taking the notebook from him I read his handwriting again, “I try for you Lukas, for you – so you no worry for me -so Lukas has no more tears.”

I fight a smile for him as I take his hand again before I say, “That’s all you can do is try, that’s all I’m askin’ you for, to try to fight it. And I’ll always worry, you know it’s in my nature, but you getting outta here will help a lot,” I sigh silently as I take him in as he continues to stare at me before he closes his eyes for a long moment before reopening them, “You gotta be OK…you hear me Bo, you gotta be OK.”

Once again he writes and I read his writing, “OK Lukas. It hurts real bad, but I be OK.”

I fight back more teas as I notice Frank back at the window and I glance back at Bo. “I am proud of you Bo…very proud of you,” I tell him and he looks at me with his pain filled and death filled eyes, “I know it hurts, I wish…I wish it woulda been me and not you -” Quickly he cuts me off as he takes the notepad away from me while shaking his head at me until he begins to make a gurgling noise from under the tube. I sigh sadly and worriedly as I watch his monitors that go flat for a long moment and I look down at Bo who’s eyes are shut before his monitors slowly go back up short ways to a flat line then back up a little and so on. As he reopens his eyes I glare worriedly down at me that turns into anger as I think of how I could’ve lost him to it. “Don’t you ever…ever do that again to me! Do you know what you just did to me? Damn it Bo! I can’t loose you…I just can’t.”

Tears streak his deathly pale face, tears of pain and fear and my anger turns on me, causing myself to be angry at my outburst on him. Slowly I take the notebook from him to read his message, ” Sorry Lukas. I didn’t mean to.” Two white spaces of nothing separate to his other message, “No you don’t – I don’t.”

“OK Bo, it’s OK…I’m sorry Bo, I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” I find myself saying as Frank looks at us from the window, “I know you don’t want me hurt…I don’t want to see you hurt. . .I can’t loose you Bo.”

I look up at Frank to find him watching on patiently and caringly and I come to wonder what his story is. Slowly I look back down at Bo as he hands me the notebook and I read what he writes, “I try for you – it hurts real bad – I’m scared, Lukas.”

“I know, buddy, I know, but I am here for Bo, I am not going to leave your side until they capture that jackass and put him where he deserves, whenever the danger and the threat clears…then maybe I’ll think about leaving your side, but not until then,” he smiles thinly through his pain at that, “and they are going to get caught real soon, you hear me? They’ll get their punishment real soon where they won’t be able to hurt you no more. You see that man?” I ask pointing to Frank and Bo stiffly looks at where I am pointing before he looks at me and painfully nods. “He’s with the FBI, Rosco called him down here to catch Drake…he’ll take Drake and his friends down and away from you.”

“Sergeant FBI Agent Frank Mills,” Frank smiles kindly at Bo as he shows his badge to Bo and Bo’s eyes brighten up like a child’s at a candy story with excitement at seeing a real FBI badge. I watch as Frank patiently hands his wallet to Bo who stares at it with disbelief while he traces the gold badge with his casted arm’s index finger, “I’ll make Drake wish he had never entered Hazzard once I am finished with them.”

Bo looks at him with trust in his eyes before he goes back to staring at the badge and I recall his dream of being a police officer when he was a child, how fascinated he was by them. The only police force he hadn’t been fascinated in had been Hazzard’s police force, or lack of. “See Bo,” I say running my fingers through his thick blond hair, “everything will be OK, it all will be OK. It just gotta be OK.”

-Bo Duke-
Abruptly I am thrown awake from another nightmare that taunts my every sleeping moment to force the large painful tube to scrape and scratch at my throat. Icy cold sweat seems to pour down my painful face and down my bare chest that is connected to the ugly wires and the ugly TV shaped monitors, to send chills racing up and down my body. Tears swell up in my eyes as the nightmare plays itself clearly through my head as the monitors beep irregularly and sounding distant even though they rest right next to me. Fighting back the flash backs that taunt me I force myself to glare into the black square monitors to watch the thin neon green line. I feel my heart tighten in great fear with tears of pain and fear that begin to streak my face as I watch both of the lines straighten before slightly moving up to go back down to a straight line, until it goes up slightly again. I feel my left hand clenching tightly onto the cold metal bars that surround the sides of the bed as more tears streak my sweat dampened face.
I allow the tears of fear and pain streak my face, one after another as my flash backs quickly come to a stop as a more startling and fearing thought quickly flashes through my head. What if I don’t make it out of here? What if I die? Facing the fear that I had fought to keep away, tears seem to flood down from my eyes with nothing to stop them. Thought after thought races through my mind as I try to tell myself that it wouldn’t be so bad to die, to ease the pain. I mean Jesse always said, you go off to a better place, but the more I think about it the more fear races through me. Instantly fear seems to paralyze me with the thought of dying, of leaving Luke like he left me for war, but the difference is that he had returned.

Gradually I close my eyes as a sudden realization where my true fear lies of dying, not in the act of dying, but at loosing Luke or at leaving him. Luke is strong, tough, he can be fine without, probably better and happier knowing I am not around to bug him. I feel tears slowly seep through my closed eyes as I think of how Luke would act if I were to die before the image quickly turns into Luke laughing at me, at why I am afraid of dying. I fight back more tears as I wonder if you are able to feel as lonely as I did the years Luke was gone at war after you died, if after I died if there was such a thing as being lonely. Quickly I open my eyes as the old feeling of loneliness returns and I force myself to turn away from the monitors.

My heart slowly seems to loosen in great relief as I notice Luke asleep beside me, with his head back up against the hard work. As if he could read my thoughts in his sleep, he slowly begins to stir as I watch him momentarily, I am reminded of the past before he ran off to play hero in some war. Thinking of those six years that he was away at war, I am reminded of how lonely my life had been from sleeping in an empty room I had once shared with him, of how the bullies had treated me after he left, how empty and lonely I had felt.

Quickly I wipe my face clean of my tears of pain and fear with the palm of my left hand as I watch Luke slowly awake. Seeing me awake he abruptly sits up to stretch out any kinks that had entered his neck and back while he had fallen asleep. “Mornin’ cuz,” he grins thinly at me as I read the thick worry that clouds his icy blue eyes. Seeing the great worry in his eyes I decide not to correct him at how it is no longer morning. “How you feelin’ cuz?” He slowly asks and I roll my eyes in more irritation as he hands me the notebook and pen.

“Fine,” I lie down on paper as I feel the pain radiate down my body with each passing second and hand it over to him.

“Fine?” he questions puzzled as he looks at me, his blue eyes seem to thicken with more worry and he begins to run his hand through my hair as I look away from him.

Tears sting my eyes as I glare out the window at the darkening night sky at the pain that increases, more so at the thought of giving up the fight to death. Once again, the fear of death strikes me hard, at leaving Luke, not for Luke, but for me. I knew before Luke left that life without him in it would be miserable and now I know for sure, but to leave him, to not have him by my side seems worst now; even though it is a selfish though or a dumb one. “Bo look at me,” Luke finally says and once again his voice is etched with tears, something I had never heard or seen in or on him before I had waken up in the hospital. Hearing the tears of worry, of deep worry and fear, I out of instinct do as I am told and look at him to forget to wipe the tears out of my eyes. He looks at the tears that streak my face for a long while before going on, “tell me the truth, Bo, how do you feel?”

Slowly I look at the paper that sits upon my lap before I slowly and painfully begin to write my answer upon it, “I’m scared Lukas. I don’t wanna die.”

Handing it to him I watch him read it slowly before he looks up at me with tears in his bright blue eyes that had so often brought me comfort in the past. “Don’t talk like that Bo…everything will be fine, it hasta be,” Luke goes silent for a long while as he harshly wipes at his eyes. “And if you want to hear a secret…I am scared too. Look Bo, I know I haven’t been there for you like I once was before I left for war and I have treated you poorly. But I will change, I promise. You are my best friend…and you always has been. You have been there for me when no one else was, you were there for me no matter what was going on in your life or how much you were hurtin’ or feelin’ at the time. You have helped me in so many ways that I never let you know or even thanked you for. Thank-you Bo. I can’t loose you Bo, you are my best friend…that I had taken for granted. I can’t stand to loose you or to think of a life that doesn’t have you in it, you are very special to me Bo, you are a very special person. You mean the world to me, and that is why I am begging you to fight this as much as you can…that is why I am scared.”

I look at him for a long moment as more tears streak his face and this time he doesn’t bother to wipe them away. “What do you want? Want anything from the farm?” he asks with a quivering voice, “Damn it! I feel…I am so helpless here watching you …watching you like this and there ain’t a damn thing I can do! So damn helpless.”

I watch him for a long moment as he anchors himself to the chair by gripping onto the bars of my bed stopping him from doing his pacing. His words seem to echo in my head of what he said, the tears that rolls freely down his cheeks and how he is feeling. I feel something within me change, something that I can’t put a finger on, perhaps confidence or pride, I don’t know. Abruptly my his words go silent in my head and his tears dry up to display a new image within me, an image of Jesse. Not dead on the living room floor, but alive and smiling. Tears swell up in my eyes as my uncle’s face in my mind comes fixated and I see the pride in his crystal blue eyes along with love and the wisdom he brought everywhere he went. His smile radiates the love, care, respect, and great pride that he had for us, his farm, and his dear friends. Seeing his warm and happy face clearly in my head the tears go from feared and pained tears to happy tears to see the real Jesse. Uncle Jesse seems to speak silently to me with his bright smile and his radiating danceful crystal blue eyes.

Quickly I grab the pen and paper and write, “Uncle Jesse. Uncle Jesse would be proud of you, was. He talked about you all the time, how we had a “war hero” in our family now…to anyone who would listen.”

His eyes tear up with tears as he reads what I had written him as the nurse finally walks in to change my IV bags and quietly leaves as she had entered. “No…he’d be proud of us,” he says silently, “he always said how you’d always be his baby no matter what your age was since you were the youngest,” he goes silent for a long moment, “and he was right…I mean that in a good way.”

Once again silence lingers in the room as I fight against the pain and my tears turn back to fear and pain tears and no matter how hard I fight to keep the image in my head, Jesse abruptly disappears just as he had came. Slowly I write, “It hurts Lukas…everything, I’m scared.”

“I know cuz, I know,” he smiles understandably at me through his deeply worried clouded blue eyes, “I am right here for you…right here, I am not going to leave you for nothing. Daisy says I should go home and get some rest, I can’t even do that. Look Bo, Drake or whoever did this to you, they aren’t going to get away with it. Sergeant Mills and his men will handle them and put them where they deserve and Hazzard will go back to almost being like it was.” tears overflow his eyes and I wonder if it is at the thought of loosing Jesse or the pain he sees in me, “look at me Bo,” I do as I am told as I fight against more sleep, “they aren’t going to hurt you anymore, I won’t allow them to get close to you. I don’t care what I have to do to prevent it, I’ll do it. You’re gonna be OK Bo, you hafta be OK, you just need to fight against it all with all you got. You got to show how stubborn you really are…how tough you really are. Can you do that for me?”

“OK for you Lukas,” I messily scribble down before sleep kidnaps me and throws me back into another nightmare.

Frank Mills

Silently I stare out of the old broken out window of the old shack-like building that we had switched to our headquarters to. My mind wonders deeply from thought to thought, from the case I have been assigned to, to the boy in the hospital, and back to my past. The trees stands silently still out of the old building a squirrel races up the nearest tree as the voices of my men seem to echo off the harsh rotting wooden walls.

“Hey Frank,” shouts a man and I look back to find it to be the young Shawn Lewn leaning back in his metal chair before he abruptly stands up to rush at me and as he approaches at me he snaps, “this is bull! You have us all camped out in this hick town waiting for what? Looking for what? For some monster that could get us killed! Mind you, I would rather die up in Atlanta than to be found dead in this hick town!”

“Well Shawn,” I slowly say as I take in the peacefulness that surrounds us, “if this is how you feel, then I suggest you to resign and take up some desk or office job.”

His dark green eyes narrows in great anger at me as he fights for words only to come out with, “What the hell is that suppose to mean, Frank? You have lost it! You going loco on us?”

“No…the only one crazy here seems to be you, Shawn,” I answer glaring down at the wanted poster of Drake in my right hand, “and what I mean is that if you are unwilling to put your life in danger, if you are too chicken to do the job properly, and if you are too cowardly to camp out in a small town outside of Atlanta…you should go find another job that won’t acquire you to be placed in those, these predicaments. Such as a desk and office job, the worst thing there for you would be perhaps some traveling.”

“Chicken? Coward?!” he yells and I gasp in surprise as he grabs me by my Army T-shirt and thrashes me into the wall. Quickly I block his angered punch to grab it and wrap it tightly behind his back, applying pressure.
“This is my case Officer Lewn and when I am in charge of a case, no one questions my motives, my actions, and most of all no one will disrespect me! I don’t care if you don’t like camping out here in Hazzard while we plan our attack on Drake…because you better start liking what you doin’ officer, or this will be one rough field trip for you! And, you will respect me, your fellow officers, and the people of this county whether you like it or not. You have one more outburst like this I’ll send your sorry hide back to Atlanta and will make sure you are sited as far as I can!” I yell at him as I apply more pressure to his hand and he grunts in pain, “You hearin’ me Officer Lewn? You better, because I’ll be more than happy to send your sorry hide up to Atlanta so your self pity won’t slow us down! You understand me?”

“Yes,” he whispers.

“Yes what?” I snaps applying even more pressure, “I’m thinkin’ you need some classes in being polite and in disipline…it is obvious you ain’t got neither. What I hear?”

“I understand, sir,” he grunts and I slowly let go before I turn around to the table we had put up in the middle of the room.

“I hope you all learn by other’s mistakes,” I say to the other three who only seem to smile in pleasure of what they just seen. Though I know two of the four and they both are young, but respectful and loyal who put the job first and will do about anything to get it done, “because I ain’t scared to ship you back up to Atlanta for some other officers that will respect each other and me…that goes for how you treat your fellow officers here. As of now, we are a team, we may not be that big of a team, but we will work as a team. If any of you can’t work as a team, you best speak up now. We need to work as a team, plan as a team, and attack like a team to put down Drake to where he deserves. Y’all understand?”

“Does that mean we have to work with this hick police station?” Shawn speaks up with fire in his eyes, “Namely Rosco P. Coltrane and that naive deputy of his.”

He laughs at his mocking of the town’s sheriff and I glare angrily at me. “Not only are you going to be working with them, you will listen to what he tells you, do what he tells you to do, and you will respect them! This is your last warning Lewn, one more rude remark or anything you’re on your way back to Atlanta, where I’ll make sure they’ll put you behind a desk and behind a phone instead of with a badge!”

He pouts into his chair and the other three stare angrily at him for continuing with his rude behavior. “We understand sir,” Officer Kordell Rayfield says after glaring coldly at Lewn, “we, I am talking for Officers Braggs, Mondsen, and myself will do as told and will do what it takes to get the job done.”

I smile at Rayfield who I have worked with on several cases before to know how he works, to know how polite and respectful he is despite his fearful looks. “Good,” I smile before I walk back to the window as my mind goes back to wondering from thought to thought. Fear rushes through me as I think of the cases in the past that men had chased Drake, how dangerous he is. I sigh tiredly as I watch the local sheriff slowly pull up outside carrying five bags of food from the cafe. “Lunch is here.”