The Dukes of Hazzard

Only What We Can Handle

Part 7: A Still Mind

Luke sat in the woods by Uncle Jesse's Still and poked at the ground with a stick. He wondered if this was normal, were other fourteen year olds minding their family stills after school or was he the only one. The still began to hiss and Luke moved a bucket under the spigot, then he sat back down and stared off into space as the moonshine dripped into the bucket at a steady and hypnotic rhythm.

"Hey cousin." Bo came up behind Luke. Luke jumped and reached for his bow and arrow, till he realized it was just Bo.

"Why are you sneaking about like that?" Luke said embarrassed he'd been spooked.

"Say isn't that the whole point cos." Bo came around to the still and looked in the bucket. "Looks good."

"Yeah. When's Uncle Jesse going to get here?" Luke looked up at the sky. The sun wouldn't be up much longer, and they need to get this moonshine put away safe. Bo replaced the full bucket with a new one and Luke helped him pour the shine into jars and put the jars into crates.

"Bo, Luke!" Daisy ran up threw the woods.

"What is it Daisy?" Luke didn't like the worry on her face. It told him things were wrong.

"Aunt Martha's gone to town she said that Boss Hogg's had Uncle Jesse put in jail." The little girl caught her breath.

"For what?" Bo said astonished.

"Jay walking and his bail is set at 300 dollars. Aunt Martha says we don't have the money to bail him out and if we don't get him out he can't make his deliveries and then we won't have the money to make the mortgage tomorrow and Boss Hogg will foreclose on the farm!" Daisy again filled the boys in on all they had missed while they had been out here and she had been at the house.

Luke thought for a moment "We can handle it"

"Handle what?" Daisy looked at him like he was speaking a different language.

"The delivery. I'll run back to the house and get Uncle Jesse's Truck." Luke was in devising mode and his cousins knew it well he always came up with something.

"Luke for one you've only driven a few times and never without Uncle Jesse and two Uncle Jesse had the truck in town and now Boss Hogg's had it impounded." Daisy again had more information than the boys and had to enlighten them.

"Alright Alright, then I'll get Aunt Martha's car." The wheels were still turning in Luke's brain.

"You can't Luke she took it into town to go talk with Uncle Jesse." Daisy said frankly.

"Than how are we going to deliver this shine?" Luke and the other's got very pensive.

Till an idea sparked for Bo "We could Harness Malden up to the hay cart and use that."

"Good thinking Bo." Daisy patted him on the back.

"Yeah I think that'll work. Ok you too finish filling up these jars and I'll go back and get Malden and the cart." Bo and Daisy agreed and Luke ran back to the farm.

Luke ran as fast as he could back to the farm, the sun was sinking very low in the sky now and Luke tripped when he didn't see a rock in his path. With no time to waste he didn't let himself fell the shock of the fall he just dusted himself off and kept going. When he got to the farm he was out of breath and wet with sweat. He bent over, took a deep breath, and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. In the barn he found Malden chewing hay in her stall.

"Hey there girl." Luke pet her head as he opened the stall's gate. The mule can out easily enough. Luke walked her out of the barn and tied her too a post and went back to get the cart.


"What was that" Bo jumped from his post at the still spigot when he heard an unfamiliar noise in the dark outside the lamp light Daisy had brought.

"That was just an owl you big scaredy cat. And Bo mind you don't spill any of that moonshine." Daisy poured the last full bucket into jars and packed the jars into crates.

"I'm not spilling any of it." Bo yawned loudly. "When's Luke gonna get here?"

"About now I'd say." Daisy looked threw the woods and saw the figure of their older cousin silhouetted by his own lantern.

"Is that the last of it?" Luke asked his cousins.

"Every last drop is in a jar." Daisy brushed her long hair out of her face.

"Then let's put out the fire in the still, Daisy you grab the two lanterns and Bo you come grab the other handle of this crate and help me." They had five crates of 8 mason jars and they could carry them by themselves and Malden couldn't get back threw the woods with the cart. So they made five trips to still and back.


It was getting to be nine thirty and Martha was wringing her hands with worry. It was dark and she hadn't been able to find the children since she got home, Jesse was in jail so he couldn't help her. She knew when she left they were out at the still, they must still be out there. They often followed Jesse out there and from what he'd told her they'd become quite skilled at monitoring the production of the moonshine.

But should she go out there and look? It seemed to be her only option. But what if she got all the way out there and they weren't there? Or they had come home and she wasn't there? What if they'd gotten lost or were hurt. She'd already called everyone she could think of to ask them if they'd seen her children.

Finally she made up her mind to walk out there. It was the only thing she had left to do. She grab a flash light and headed out. What she didn't know was that by the time she reached the woods. The old widower Mr. Parsons was already calling to tell her the children had just delivered his moonshine and he'd paid them double for this week and an advance on next week. To help get Jesse out of jail.


Martha sat on the ground and cried when she reached the still and it and the place was vacant. She's lost the children, she never could keep track of Luke but the other too were always so good, Daisy at the very least she thought would have come home at a decent hour. Now everything seemed to be falling apart. Tomorrow they were going to loss the farm when they couldn't make the mortgage. That's probably why the children ran away they couldn't stand the hand to mouth way they were living anymore.

Martha's thoughts came out of the dark that seemed to have taken up residence in her mind on this bleak and hopeless evening. She only knew she didn't want to go back to her problems, she instead turned her flashlight off and lay down in the dark and cried herself to sleep.


It was five in the morning and Luke slowly led Malden home. They'd been all over Hazzard and his cousins were asleep in the back of the cart. Luke kept his hand on the money in his pocket. It had taken them all night to make all the delivers on foot, but they did it and they had the money. Luke steered the mule into the barn.

"Hey you two get up." Luke called to the others. Bo and Daisy both groaned and stretched. "Come on and help me unhitch Malden." Luke said sluggishly. Bo and Daisy hailed themselves out of the cart and helped Luke. When they were done taking care of Malden they headed back to the farm house.

When they got into the house, there was no keeping Bo from his bed he was exhausted. Luke and Daisy went and knocked on Aunt Martha's door. When no answer came they opened it softly. "Aunt Martha?" Daisy whispered.

"Aunt Martha we're sorry we were out all night. But we got the money for the mortgage." Luke got no reply from the room so he turned on the light and he and Daisy were surprised at what they saw. "Luke's she's not here." Daisy stated the obvious. "Where could she be?"

"I don't know, did she stay in town or at a friends house last night?" Luke started to pace.

"Isn't her car parked out front?" Daisy could have sworn she saw it when they got to the farm but she could have been dreaming. Luke went to the front of the house and looked out the window.

"It's there." Luke turned back. "So where is she?"


In the woods the sun was just starting to come threw the trees and a strategic ray of sunlight came down right on Martha's face. She woke up wondering why her bed felt like she was sleeping on rocks. When her eyes fully focused she realized to her surprise she was sleeping on rocks.

She looked around and saw Jesse's cold moonshine still and remembered why she was out in the middle of nowhere sleeping on dirt. Martha picked herself up and brushed off and took a moment to pick the leaves and twig out of her hair.

She couldn't believe how badly she'd given up the night before, it had been like there was no fight left in her and that was sorely not the case.

Martha knew now what she had to do to save the farm and her family.


They'd spent an hour searching all the cracks and corners of the farm for Aunt Martha and after an hour she was still no where to be seen.

"Do you think we should check the woods?" Bo had gotten up and helped in the search though he hadn't been a great help, he kept stopping to sleep whenever he found a comfortable place.

"If we go into the woods we might miss her. I don't think that's the best idea, we should probably wait here for her." Luke was at a loss for what to do next. He wanted to find his Aunt but he didn't know where else to look. Little did he know he'd created the same stress in her the night before.

"Luke what about school?" Daisy knew they needed to start walking if they were going to catch the school bus.

"You can go if you want Daisy, but I think at the moment it's more important that we get this money to Aunt Martha so she can pay the mortgage." Luke sat down on the front step to waited.


"What do you mean you already paid?" Martha stood at Mr. Parson's front door.

"I tried to call you last night Martha. Your youngens came around with my delivery at about 9:30. I asked them why they were out so late without you or Jesse and they said that Boss Hogg put Jesse in jail and that they needed to get the money for the mortgage. I gave them the money for the delivery this week and next." Martha began to understand.

"Oh Thank You Mr. Parsons. Thank you so much." Martha turned and hurried off towards home. Things were looking better already.

"Good Luck Martha." Old man Parsons yelled after her.


"You need to go faster Luke." Bo told his cousin. "If Rosco catches you going under the speed limit you'll get a ticket for sure." The children had waited for Aunt Martha as long as they could now they needed to get into town to pay the mortgage, they didn't want to waste anymore time so they took Aunt Martha's car.

"I've got my foot down." The car was just slow at accelerating. Uncle Jesse was going to take it into the shop but there had been more important things that needed the money.

When they got to town Luke parked the car with some difficulty since he'd never had to park in a parking spot before. But after a few tries he got it right though not straight, he was inbetween the lines and that was all that mattered.

"Where do we take the money?" Bo looked around Hazzard square.

Luke shrugged. "Let's go see if we can find Uncle Jesse and ask him." The cousins went to the police station.


Jesse sat in his cell thinking. He thought of his family. He hadn't heard from Martha yet today and that was worrying him. Did she get the money to pay the mortgage? He didn't know.

"Psst. Uncle Jesse." Luke, Daisy, and Bo peeked down the staircase into the basement cells.

"What are you kids doing here? Why aren't you in school?" Jesse gasped the bars and watched his children sneak down the stairs.

"We got the money for the mortgage. Where do we take it?" Luke showed his uncle the money he was keeping in his pocket.

"Where did you get that?" Jesse hissed.

"We made your Deliveries!" Bo announced.

"SSSssssshhh." Luke and Daisy both hushed him.

"Where's your Aunt?" Jesse asked concerned.

"Uncle Jesse we haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon. We were working at the still all night and when we got back to the house she wasn't there." Daisy explained.

Jesse's brow creased that wasn't like Martha she had left him at 7 last night and then had to go to some friends and ask to borrow some money. Had she gotten home after that? "Alright you go over to the bank and give the mortgage money to Tom Reddish."

"Ok Uncle Jesse." They knew what they had to do and gave Uncle Jesse one last look and headed to the bank.

Once Jesse was sure the kids were out of the jail he called upstairs. "Rosco!"

"What are you yelling for Jesse?" Rosco came down the stairs playing the tough cop roll.

"Rosco I need to make a call." Jesse said desperately.

"Now Jesse you've already had your one phone call." Rosco answered matter of fact way.

"Rosco I've not got time for your take what you want from the law way of sheriffing. I'm worried about Martha." Jesse explained. "She's not come by yet today and I was expecting her."

"OOohhh, well I'm sure she's fine Jesse." Rosco did see the concern on Jesse's face. "Jesse, I'll go ahead and call out to the farm for you."

"Thank You." Jesse said with some relief, Rosco at least some of the time could be a decent and reasonable person.


"Thank You Sonny." Martha closed the car door. Mr. Straight had given her a ride when he came upon her walking into town from the farm.

Martha went first to the police station to see Jesse. When she walked in Rosco was at the front desk on the phone, he hung up as she walked passed him down to the basement. "Where do you think you're going and where have you been?"

"What are you talking about Rosco?" Martha was in no mood and had no time.

"I was just calling you on the phone; you've got Jesse worried about you." Martha was in a hurry.

"I going down to talk to Jesse now Rosco." She turned and flew down the stairs, Rosco started after her but thought better of it.

Jesse stood up in his cell "Martha!"

"Jesse! You haven't seen the children have you?" Jesse nodded. "You Have!" Martha was so relieved.

"They were just here; I sent them over to the bank to pay the mortgage." Martha finally felt the weight and grief she'd been carrying for what seemed like a week lift off her shoulders.

"Oh thank the Lord."

Jesse eyed her. "Martha, where have you been? The children said they hadn't seen you since yesterday."

"I've been looking for those children and trying to figure out how to save the farm. It seems that they've been one step ahead of me all along." She sighed as she thought on the last twenty four hours. She had thought they were going to lose everything but it all seemed to be working out now.

"I guess it's all handled then." Jesse mused; apparently the Duke family had had quite an adventure while he was stuck behind bars.

"Well I better go see that the children got to the bank alright." Martha kissed Jesse threw the bars. Only later would she think about how strange it was, how comfortable and normal kissing threw cell bars had seemed. Of course she was married to a Duke; they didn't ever go too long without being locked up in Hazzard County.


"What are you kids doing out of school anyway?" The bank man eyed the three children who were trying to give him three hundred dollars.

"I told you before we're here to pay the mortgage on the Duke farm." Luke was getting exasperated; this man didn't want to take his money.

"Aunt Martha!" Bo said as soon as she walked in the bank.

"Bo." She hugged the boy and kissed the cheek of Daisy who joined them. Luke stood at the desk still trying to give the man his money.

"Tom would you let the boy pay you." Martha directed. Finally Tom took the money and Luke could relax.

All was right again in the Duke family, except of course that Uncle Jesse was still in jail.

"Aunt Martha where have you been?" Daisy asked as they all left the bank.

Martha laughed. "Where have you three been?"

"We…" Luke started. Martha stopped him.

"Save it. Well talk about it after we get lunch I'm starved." Martha steered the kids towards the dinner.

"Wow so am I." Bo noticed.

"What about Uncle Jesse, Aunt Martha." Daisy asked looking over towards the jail.

"Don't worry honey they feed the prisoners." Martha laughed again, it felt good to laugh. "We'll work on getting him out after lunch."

"I think we can handle it." Luke said proudly after all he and his cousins had saved their farm.

"You know I believe you can." Martha smiled and the children smiled back.

To Be Continued…

If you're following this story and waiting for updates, I just wanted to let you know I do intend to finish this story so just be patient with me and I promise I'll get it done. Thank you for reading and reviewing I hope you're enjoying it.