The Hack of Hazzard takes us to one of those old abandoned mining towns with oddly western characteristics for Georgia. Eventually the boys end up in the middle of a shoot out fit for Gunsmoke.
It was, when it came right down to it, excellent advice. The kind of sage words one might expect from Jesse, and that was undoubtedly who Luke had borrowed them from.
If you don't ask, you ain't never gonna learn nothing.
A philosophy that was easy to follow when asking whether those creeps that were holding Daisy at gunpoint would really shoot or not. What were a couple of bullets in the head, honestly? Nothing at all compared to:
Luke, have you ever thought about—
Would you mind if I—?
See, but he didn't even know how to finish those sentences, so there was no way to ask. Not like that.
Right over there, not twenty steps away, Luke's shoulders had achieved the kind of full-out glowing curves that came from hard work and sweat. The gun battle in Shoveltown, an oddly western-seeming old mining town, complete with tumbleweeds that didn't grow anywhere else in Georgia, was as pertinent to today's work as any cowboy flick they'd watched as kids. Just a movie tracking through his mind as a distraction, not from the plowing, exactly, but from the fact that Luke was doing it, using only mule power and his own strength. It was as beautiful as sight as Bo had ever seen, especially when he squinted his right eye so Maudine disappeared, and everything was Luke. When his cousin pulled up even with him, an extra tug or six finally convincing the mule not to drag him all across the back forty, Bo offered up his canteen.
"Thanks, cuz," Luke panted handing back the now essentially empty hunk of tin. A hand came up, threatening to ruffle the sweaty hair on Bo's head with all the affection of a big brother, but he caught it. Held securely to Luke's wrist, squeezing just enough to make clear that he wanted Luke still, but not so hard that he'd get fought against. Pushed their hands out to the side, and glanced around quickly, though he knew already that Daisy was in town and Jesse was busily checking his eyelids for pinpricks, way over yonder on the farmhouse porch. Turned back to Luke, dropping the canteen out of his other hand, and grabbed him around the neck.
If you don't ask, you ain't never gonna learn nothing.
Asked with his lips and tongue, just not in the traditional way. Have you ever thought about this, would you mind if I tried it?
Feel of slippery sweat, flavor of salt, smell of freshly turned ground. Everything that had ever mattered to Bo, right here.
Luke was done with the kissing; confusion had arrived, anger might follow, so Bo backed off.
"You're welcome, cuz," he answered, grinning into the face of his own doom.