Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And thanks so much for your reviews. I'm delighted to be able to say that it's because I'm getting so many, it's hard to reply to them all. But they are read and very much appreciated. Thank you for 'feeding' my hobby!
Luke Duke woke up to a gentle breeze blowing on his face. Although his room was pitch black, from the sound of things outside, he knew exactly where that breeze had come from: the thin space where the window didn't quite meet the wall.
Taking a deep breath, he found himself suddenly in a coughing fit……..an incredibly painful coughing fit. From the way he had been feeling the last couple of days, he had feared that he might have picked up a touch of Jesse's bronchitis, but this was far more pain that even a severe chest congestion could dish out.
"Luke?" He heard Jesse say, as the door to the boys' room creaked open and his uncle entered, carrying an oil lamp. "You alright?"
"Ohhhh, my side's killin' me." The normally reserved Luke confessed, attempting to sit up in bed. He wasn't too far from the pillow when he decided that wasn't a very good idea.
"Well jist try to relax. Ya cracked yer rib, remember?"
As Jesse sat on the side of his nephew's bed, Luke suddenly recalled both his tumble from the barn roof and hearing about the injuries he'd sustained, according to Doc Appleby. Adjusting his bandaged ankle, Luke looked toward the window and could see that it was dark outside. Despite the condition, he could make out a distinct pattern of snow that had piled on the windowsill.
"Guess I's wrong about the snow, huh?" He asked.
"That you were." Jesse replied with a slight smile.
Looking over toward Bo's empty bed, Luke turned back to Jesse. "So is Bo attempting a real snowman this time or does he just have opposing armies of snowball men?" He asked, managing a slight chuckle.
"Well…….he's out there." Jesse replied as simply as possible.
"So what time is it anyway?" Luke asked.
"Um, don't worry about that Luke, you took a bad fall today and you need your rest. Don't matter what time it is."
"Well actually Jesse, I'm not tired anymore. If you ain't got no objections, I'd like to get up." Luke replied, trying to get out of bed.
"Now Luke you jist hang on. I ain't sure it's a good idea for you to be movin' around so much with that rib." Jesse replied, gently pushing him back down.
Just then, there was a soft knock on the bedroom door. Luke looked toward the door as it opened and watched as a second oil lamp appeared illuminating the face of Homer Appleby.
"I thought I heard voices." The doctor smiled. "How are you feeling Luke?"
"Sore……….and cold." Luke admitted as another gust of wind set the house to creaking and groaning as well as a fresh blast of cold air on his face.
"It is pretty cold in here Jesse." Doc Appleby pointed out. "Might not be a bad idea to get him close to the fire."
As Luke looked at Jesse he thought he detected a slight look of annoyance on his face. Even so, he went to the left side of Luke's bed while Homer Appleby went to the right, where they prepared to assist him up. On the count of three, they raised him and worked until they got him in a standing position, Luke biting his lip to keep from crying out the whole time.
It took a few minutes of work on the part of all three men, but when it was done, Luke was sitting on the sofa wrapped in a blanket. While he was beginning to warm up, a subtle feeling of nausea had settled into his stomach ever since he sat up. Swallowing and taking some short breaths, he tried to find something else to concentrate on.
"So how long's the power been out?" He asked.
"For awhile now. Probably gonna be without it a couple, three days the way that storm's ragin' out there." Jesse replied.
Luke then turned to the doctor. "Sorry you got stuck here on my account, Doc."
"Actually, I didn't Luke." Doc Appleby replied. "I's on my way out to the Gibson property when my car got stuck in the snow. Wadn't no where else around here to go, 'cept up to Travis Martin's old place. And with the way them tree's was crackin' and fallin' left and right up there, I figured it'd be better for me to come back here to the farm where it was safe.
Unconsciously gasping, Jesse stumbled toward his easy chair, where he sat with a look of bewilderment.
"Uncle Jesse!" Luke exclaimed, concerned at Jesse's actions. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"
Homer Appleby immediately realized his mistake in the idle chatter. Laying a sympathetic hand on Jesse's shoulder, he offered his apology. "Jesse I'm sorry. I guess I really shoulda told you how them trees was doin' up there in the woods, but I figured you's worried enough about them just bein' out there without havin' to worry about that too."
Listening to the conversation, realizing the house was too quite, remembering Jesse's avoidance at telling him the time, and also realizing that it was too dark outside to mess with snowmen of any size, it didn't take Luke too long to figure out what was going on, especially when he remembered who would be spending the weekend at the Martin cabin. "What time did they leave?" He asked insistently, swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat.
"Eight o'clock." Jesse replied, heaving a deep sigh.
That didn't mean much to Luke yet, as he had no idea what time it was now. But he was to receive that answer soon enough, when the small, battery operated mantle clock sounded out with twelve rhythmic chimes.
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As the four of them traipsed back through the woods, Bo's feelings of fear slowly disappeared, even against the howling wind and popping trees.
It was strange to feel numb to the whole situation. Bo wasn't sure if his annoyance at the fact that Tommy kept pushing his knit cap over his eyes had taken priority over the fear, or if it was because there was so much to fear that his mind had simply went into a protect mode.
Tommy might have weighed little more than sixty pounds, but just knowing that the extra sixty pounds would have to be endured for better or for worse for the length of the trip was enough to exhaust anyone.
And they were lost. There were so many downed trees that a clear path to the cabin from the other road where they'd left Dixie no longer existed. At least they realized that as long as they were going downhill, they would make it to the road. And making it to the road was their only option.
Only seconds after they had exited the cabin, one of the frozen pine trees was sent crashing into the rickety structure. The possibility of returning there, no matter what danger the woods held, was no longer there.
"Bo, there's Dixie!" Daisy yelled out in delight.
"Bo peered through the snowstorm and saw the headlights of Dixie beckoning to them. She was a little further down the hill and way off to the right, but at least she was a signal of exactly where they were. Apparently, Daisy had never bothered to flip the headlights off before running after Bo, an act of carelessness that turned out to be a lifesaver.
At least it was a lifesaver in some sense. While a snowdrift almost met the lights and make the jeep itself undrivable, at least opening the door would allow Bo a place to set Tommy down, and claim a much needed break.
"Hang on kiddo, we're almost there!" Bo yelled out to Tommy after his feet hit the road. Flicking off his flashlight, he opted instead to let Dixie guide his way from then on, using his newly free hand to take Tommy's hands off his head, wrap them around his neck, and push the annoying knit cap back on his head.
When they neared the jeep, Daisy ran ahead to open the door for Bo, knowing that's what he would want. By the time she had knocked the snow away and got it open, Bo had arrived and turned his back to the seat, lowering Tommy inside.
With Tommy settled, Bo began stretching his arms to bring some relief to his aching shoulders, the only things he could really feel. Everything else seemed numb from the cold.
It was then that Emily offered a nervous laugh of relief. "Oh thank God! I didn't think we were gonna make it out of that one!"
"Well it's not much further now." Daisy replied, jutting her head in the direction of the farm. "'Bout a half mile at best. Of course, walkin' in these conditions might take an hour or so."
"Then we ought to take the time to drink this." Emily replied, pulling a thermos out from her coat. Opening the top, she took a slow drink from the container before handing it to Tommy. While it wasn't piping hot, it at least returned some warmth to their bodies."
By the time the thermos had made the rounds between the four, they realized that it would be wise to continue on. "Ready Tommy?" Bo asked as Daisy and Emily walked ahead.
"Yeah. Come on Comet. Comet!" Tommy blurted out, frantically looking around his seat. "Oh Bo, I can't find Comet anywhere!"
Bo was close enough to the young man that he knew that Comet was the name of his teddy bear. "I'm sorry, Tommy. I'm sure he's in here somewhere, we'll just have to wait 'till the storms over to find him.
"There he goes!" Tommy wailed, looking ahead and pointing.
Bo turned in the direction of Daisy's headlights and saw the gray, worn teddy that Tommy had clung to back up at the cabin turning somersaults across the top of the snow.
"Oh Bo, please get him! If you don't I'm never gonna see him again!" Tommy begged.
"What's going on?" Emily called out through the howling wind.
Bo was glad his scarf hid his smirk of annoyance. Comet could do somersaults all the way to west Alabama for all he cared. But knowing how Tommy looked up to him and realizing how miserable life could get in the company of an eight year old who was mourning a lost teddy bear, Bo made the reluctant decision to go after it.
"Ya'll go on ahead, me and Tommy 'ill catch up in a few minutes." Bo replied, waving the ladies on. Now that they knew exactly where they were and were out of danger of the trees, Bo felt relatively safe in sending them on alone.
After they had nodded their agreement, Bo turned to Tommy. "Tommy, you stay right here and I'll be back in a minute with Comet."
"Thanks Bo." Tommy said sincerely, patting Bo on the back. Offering the youngster a wink, Bo turned and spotted Comet laying to the side of the road just past Thomas' old mailbox.
As Bo passed by that old mailbox, the beat up thing brought back some memories. It was just a few short years ago when he was a senior in high school that he and Luke had run across a group of kids who had taken delight in bashing mailboxes, Jesse's included. Bringing those kids to justice through a good old fashion fist fight was probably the first act of policing Bo and Luke had ever attended to, and when it was over, the mailboxes of Hazzard were safe one again. All of them at this point had been replaced, that is, except Thomas's, as he no longer lived there. The jagged, twisted box which had been blown over in the storm served as the only reminder of a period in Bo's life years past.
Turning his attention from the box, Bo reached down and picked up the lost teddy bear when one of the dreadful pops sounded nearby.
"Bo, look out!" Tommy yelled out from Dixie.
Jerking his head behind him, Bo saw the unmistakable shadow of a tree looming toward him. Throwing himself flat on the ground, well as flat as he could be considering he landed on the mailbox, he threw his arms over the back of his head and fearfully dreaded the worst.
Ya know, seein' this situation can make ya hate teddy bears, can't it?