HI! Well I'm doing Honors classes this year with marching band, so a mutil-chaptered story will take a long time to do so I figured I could do a one-shot for you to read while I'm fighting through 9th grade. Remember the Dukes have a two person hand saw and not a chainsaw and they also didn't own General Lee as teenagers.
Please read and review as always XD
Power of Prayer
14 year old Beauregard Duke pulled the old rusty metal plow across the dusty field while sudden bursts of wind as hot as Daisy's hair dryer blew around him, sweeping dirt into his face and against his sweaty skin.
"Uncle Jesse," He started, "It's so dry out here nothin's gonna grow anyhow. All I'm doin is gettin all sweaty." Bo complained as he leaned to rest against the plow.
"Rains a commin Bo. Just be patient with mother nature and she'll be patient with you as well." Jesse said with a smile as he pulled an ear of corn from a white bucket beside him, swinging gently back and forth on the swing.
"Can't I just wait until it rains to plow the field then?" Bo asked wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.
Jesse picked at the corn for a minute, debating on what to do while Bo stared at him with pleading eyes as sweat ran down his forehead and back.
"You can help Luke fix the tractor for now, but that field will be plowed as soon as it rains." He said finally.
"Thank you Uncle Jesse." Bo grinned, ditching the plow and racing over to his 16 year old cousin Luke who was bent over peering into the side of the tractor, working on its greasy interior under the shade of the tree beside him.
"Hey Luke!" Bo said happily as he pulled his short sleeved button down shirt over his shoulders, walking up and leaning against the tractors old black tire.
Luke stood up straight, smiling at his cousin as he wiped wrench off with a dirty red grease rag, "I see you got done plowing the field."
"Well." Bo said relaxing as the shade cooled the wind that blew into his open shirt, acting as a natural air conditioning unit, "Not exactly. Uncle Jesse agreed to let me wait until it rained to plow the field."
"You know you're going to get muddy if you wait until it rains." Luke replied, bending back down to tighten up a nut on the tractor.
"I'd rather work in mud than in dust." Bo retorted as a leaf fell from the tree and blew into his hair; raising his hand to swipe it away.
"You ever actually had to plow after it rains?" Luke looked up at Bo while propping his arms up on the tire.
"Well… no. The fields usually too wet for me to plow, so you usually end up doing it." Bo looked at his cousin with a somewhat confused expression.
"Exactly." Luke nodded, shaking his head as he turned back to work on the tractor.
"Uncle Jesse!" Luke hollered, his Uncle looking up from the corn in his hand, "I don't know what's wrong with it, we'll have to call Cooter."
"Ok Luke, we'll give him a ring after supper." Jesse replied dropping the corn in his hand into the other bucket beside him.
Luke stood up straight and pushed his arm through his button up shirt and bent the other around to pull the right sleeve over his shoulder.
Bo pushed off the tire and walked with his cousin up to the porch; sitting down beside Daisy on the porch step as she went through her bucket of green beans.
"Fall is right around the corner boys which means firewood." Jesse said peeling a bright green leaf off the corn, revealing some of its yellow radiant color, "I want you to get you something to drink, and then go out and find a tree to cut down. I sharpened the saw so you boys ain't got to worry about that."
"I'll get some tea, you want some Uncle Jesse?" Daisy asked standing up.
"Yes please." Jesse said, followed by a chorus of 'Thank You's' from Bo and Luke.
Daisy smiled at her sweaty cousins and opened the screen door into the kitchen to get some glasses and the tea jug.
Luke leaned against the porch, "Did you have a certain size in mind? Maudine isn't too happy about having to work as it is."
"Ha." Bo laughed sarcastically, "What work? I'm the one that ended up plowing the field today."
"Now Bo, Maudine pulls just as much weight around here as you do." Jesse countered.
Daisy opened up the screen door using her leg, as where her hands had four glasses of tea in them, "Here ya'll go." She said smiling as she handed each of her kin a glass of cold tea with a slice of lemon on the side; keeping the remaining glass for herself.
"Thank ya Daisy." Bo and Luke said at the same time.
The two cousins exchanged a glance at one another, Luke grinning and shaking his head as he squeezed the lemon juice into his tea; Daisy giggling as she took a sip of her tea. Bo shook his head with a 'well-what-can-you-do' look on his face then took a drink of his own refreshment.
"Once you finish your tea there, you can grab the saw and head on out." Jesse said with a nod.
"Yes sir." Bo and Luke replied.
Luke supported the saw on his shoulder, while Bo walked beside him.
"Aww C'mon Luke why can't we drive the truck over instead of walking?" Bo complained.
"You sure are whiny today Bo." Luke said with a grin.
"Oh shush." Bo grinned back.
"It's not that far of a walk, besides with the energy you have you shouldn't complain."
"Yeah yeah…." Bo snorted playfully.
They were getting closer to the tree line, and would soon find a tree just the right size to make a healthy sum of firewood out of.
"How about this one?" Bo asked rubbing his hand down a trees hard bark.
Luke turned away from the scrawny tree he was looking at, "That looks perfect." He smiled at his younger cousin.
Bo grinned, happy that he had found the tree they were looking for.
"You ready?" Luke asked holding his end of the saw up and held it against the tree while Bo grabbed his end.
"Yeah." Bo replied putting one of his feet up against the tree, just like Luke, to help him pull the blade back and forth across the trees rough surface.
Sawdust had showered the ground and they had been sawing for what had felt like forever to Bo.
Luke motioned Bo to stand back, Bo doing as he was told moved several feet back away from his cousin, and started to push against the tree.
The tree started to fall and Bo could feel his heart began to race with excitement. Uncle Jesse would be proud of him for finding this.
Luke took a step back as the tree began to fall, realizing a moment too late what was about to happen.
Supported by a nearby tree, and the one they had just cut down, was a dead limb.
Luke could feel his stomach drop, and his body was freezing despite the 98 degree weather.
"Bo!" he yelled forcing his body to move, racing towards his cousin.
Bo heard Luke yell and run towards him, causing him to think he'd done something wrong. He heard branches snapping and quickly realized though that wasn't the problem.
Bo looked up, his body becoming dead weight when he saw a dead limb crashing down towards him.
An unbearable pain in his head, and everything went black.
Luke stumbled from the force of the tree they cut down as it slammed against the ground making a shaking vibration.
"Bo!" he said again, his voice cracking.
Bo lay unconscious, the left side of his head bleeding, "Wake up Bo!" Luke shook his cousin.
Luke felt his throat constrict, making a small choked sob noise as he scooped Bo into his arms and over his shoulder.
He ran as fast as he could towards their humble house, "Uncle Jesse!" he yelled.
Jesse heard his nephew, and could immediately zone into the distress in his voice.
He and Daisy exchanged a look, Daisy's eyes wide with fear, and both took off running towards the direction of Luke's voice.
They ran through the barn, and on the other side they could see Luke, Bo held tightly against his shoulder.
"Bo!" Daisy screamed breaking out in a dead run towards her cousins.
Luke fell to his knees and laid Bo on the ground.
Jesse was speechless, but ran as fast as he could, "What happened?" he asked Luke with a bit more of a mad tone then he meant to.
"I should've been paying more attention Uncle Jesse I'm so sorry." Luke was pleading, and there was nothing he could do to take back what had happened.
"It weren't your fault Luke." Jesse said gently leaning Bo's head from side to side, "His neck isn't broken, but we do need to get him to Doc Appleby."
Luke nodded, picking his cousin up and carrying him to the truck.
Jesse let down the tail gate, and Luke climbed in the back, resting Bo's head in his lap, "He needs to stay stretched out this way, make sure he doesn't bounce around too much, I'll go as easy as I can." He said opening the door and getting in the truck, Daisy already in the passenger's seat.
Jesse pulled out of the driveway as quickly and gently as possible.
Daisy tried stifling her tears but found herself tears running down her face as she silently sobbed, give or take a couple of choked cries.
Jesse looked from the dirt road to Daisy, moving his old calloused hand from the steering wheel and wrapping it around her , "There there Daisy," Jesse soothed, "Its ok."
"No it ain't Uncle Jesse!" she said, her crying becoming worse, "He's hurt real bad!"
"Its ok….." Jesse said, again, although he wasn't sure who he was comforting more that time, himself or Daisy.
Luke felt the wind ruffle his hair as they drove down the familiar dirt road that lead towards town, except this time they were taking a left instead of going straight. This time, they were headed to Doc Appleby's.
What happened after that was a blur for Luke.
They got to Doc Appleby's, who told them they needed to get Bo a Cat Scan.
They ended up in Atlanta, and waited for what seemed like hours before they got the results back.
And what the doctor told them, was by no means any good news, and it was all what felt to Luke, his fault.
"Basically his brain is hemorrhaging and swelling. If we can't get it to stop swelling then well…. you know." The doctor had said to Jesse.
"Know what?" Daisy practically yelled.
The doctor kept his gaze on Jesse, not wanting to look the young girl in the eyes.
Jesse nodded his head, letting the doctor understand what he meant.
Luke felt like he was going to pass out, Jesse helping him into a chair when he started to sway.
Jesse sat Daisy beside Luke, and knelt before both of them, holding their hands in his, "Now both of you listen to me." He started.
Daisy looked at her uncle, Luke couldn't even move his gaze from the floor, he felt dead inside.
"The only person who can help Bo now is the good lord. So let's pray." Jesse said squeezing his charges hands.
30 minutes.
They had prayed for 30 minutes straight.
No breath, not one, was spared on anything but prayer.
Jesse had said every prayer he knew to say to help Bo, and then repeated. He had felt Luke's hand shaking, and gripped it tighter.
Jesse felt the change, he knew it in his heart.
Luke looked up as his Uncles strong hand abandoned his, and saw only his back as he approached the front desk.
He couldn't hear the hole conversation, but about 5 minutes later the same doctor appeared in the doorway.
Luke stood up on legs made of jello and worked his way over to the door, "Check your scans again." Jesse had said.
"I'm fail to see what purpose that would serve, , Bo is not doing much better." The doctor replied sadly.
"I said check them again." Jesse said sternly.
The doctor looked deep into Jesse's eyes, and looked over to Luke who had managed to make it to his Uncle, "Why?"
"Because God told me. Through the power of prayer." Jesse replied.
A minute passed…
"Alright." The doctor said, "Come with me then. We'll find out together how strong your power of prayer is."
Jesse nodded and followed the doctor, Daisy running over to follow them through the double doors.
They entered a dark room, and Luke eyed a picture over a light,
"Beauregard Duke." Was in white letters under the picture.
Luke felt his legs give when he saw the picture; he locked them in place, now was not the time to give up.
The doctor eventually got the second results back.
"It's a miracle!" he'd exclaimed, his expression nothing short of astonished, "It's as if nothing ever happened."
"No." Jesse corrected with a smile, "It's the power of prayer.
Luke looked at the scan and cried. Cried tears of relief, his uncle was right nothing could ever beat the power of prayer.
I hope you all liked it, please leave me a review!
I've heard so many stories about people about to die and their families pray so hard that god heals the person. This happened to one of my closest friends one time who had a very violent reacted to a food. They prayed, and she was healed.