"Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that's beautiful."

Milan Kundera


REFLECTIONS AND REVELATIONS

Sitting at a solitary table in the little café sited in the Institute's basement, Daisy ate silently her sandwiches, her eyes down after her starting boldness eclipsed in front of that sphinx. After she ate her sandwiches, she sipped her hot tea whereas Miss Kate was looking at her, only a cup of coffee in front of her. She wanted to give up, walking away, buying a cup of coffee and some sandwiches for her uncle and go back to him… and Enos (was he still sleeping?). Her starting boldness was changing into a strange feeling: anxiety? Fear? Fear… to know? To know… what?

"I know Enos since he came here for the first time", Miss Kate's words stopped Daisy's imaginative escape before she could put it into practice, so she remained sitting, freezing; the older woman looked up at the ceiling as she was trying to visualize the scene, keeping on talking, "He was 15 years old. Since then, he was very shy and offish, with no self-confidence but with a gold heart". The image of Enos coming to the Institute for the first time disappeared from the ceiling and Miss Kate looked at Daisy, directly in her eyes, "He came here with his mother and his uncle Opie. He's never had a good relationship with his uncle… and aunt".

Miss Kate's words were a sort of slap to Daisy, as that woman was trying to let her know she knew Enos pretty well, both 'bout his character and 'bout his family. Daisy's cheeks burnt because of rage and jealousy, but that woman surprised her, again, as she was able to read into her mind.

"Daisy, I don't want to be your enemy, I don't want you see me as an enemy, but as an ally. Enos loves you in a deep and indestructible way, and maybe you don't even understand its complexity and strength. Now that his mother died, this place is… forbidden to him, and I belong to this place, so I can't help him any more, but…", Miss Kate took a deep breath, "before to let him go, I HAVE to know you love him enough to save him and to take care of him… out there. So, do you love him?"

Daisy started, in shock: it was the first time someone asked her, so directly, if she loved Enos. The last time she talked 'bout it, it wasn't a question but a statement. "But… you don't love him";Bo's words and his surprised and worried eyes came to her mind, as everything she and her family said that day. But that day… she didn't know, yet, exactly her feelings, and her doubts and confusion brought confusion in her family too.

Now, instead, "Yeah, I love him, I have no doubt 'bout it. I needed a lot of time to understand it, but now I'm sure 'bout my feelings, and I won't leave him alone", she relaxed after her words, it was the first time she was saying it publicly (even if to a stranger).

Miss Kate smiled, "I knew it. Enos talks a lot 'bout you, I think I know everything of you, your stubbornness, your sweetness, your… flirts and crushes", she sniggered innocently as she saw Daisy's blushing, no malice in her laugh, "and, along the years and thanks to Enos' talking, I've had the feeling you really care for him, and, after your nearly wedding, I started to think that you love him. If you hadn't loved him, you wouldn't have asked him to marry you, nor you would've kept on this idea after he was cleared from any charge".

Daisy blushed, both for embarrassment and, somehow, for rage: did Miss Kate really know everything 'bout her and Enos? Did Enos really tell her everything, really everything? Why? Why did Enos, usually so discrete 'bout his inner feelings, talk to her so openly, more openly than to anyone else? She was surprised, and stunned; she decided to come to the café with Miss Kate in order to find out as more as possible 'bout that woman and, through that woman, 'bout Enos's staying at the Institute, and she was finding out that woman knew everything 'bout HER. Enos talked to Miss Kate 'bout everything of her, but he's never talked to her 'bout Miss Kate, so Daisy felt like rejected, left out from the exclusive relationship between Enos and that woman: was it really possible Enos had an exclusive relationship with someone else than HER, keeping this relationship secret to anyone?

Her shocked was clearly written over her face, since Miss Kate shook her head and she kept on talking.

"Daisy, Enos has nobody besides you and your family, he's… lonely. So, I've been a sort of safety valve for him, 'cause I've been the only one he could talk to 'bout you. Do you think he could talk 'bout you… to you… or to your family? Besides, I live in this sort of world outside the world, so I've been the best pix where Enos hid his inner thoughts and feelings, without the risk of bein' betrayed, a way to let off steam... without bein' embarrassed of it, due to my condition, to my living here, and to my knowing his mother. There's no need I explain to you Enos' personality: you know perfectly well how much reserved he could be, always hiding things under his sweetness and shyness, feeling ashamed of showing his weakness and pain".

Daisy was speechless, something pretty unbelievable for anyone knowing her. And another amount of shock hit her as Miss Kate kept on speaking.

"I think it's time you say Enos you love him… 'cause… he doesn't know it, yet, and he has the right to know it. He deserves it. He can't keep on thinking you care of him as a friend, a close friend but a friend, a friend… you somehow have pity of"

Daisy swallowed against the lump in her throat, in Miss Kate's words she could know a bitter truth: she never told Enos she loved him, he openly confessed his love to her, that day on the canoe (after her direct question), but she didn't say the words he was waiting for. A sudden awareness and a ravaging doubt grasped Daisy's heart.

"Miss Kate, did Enos tell you… everything 'bout the day we nearly got married? Everything? I mean… did he tell you 'bout his decision to postpone the wedding because of… the hives?". The doubt she had since that day: what's the sense to stop something so important because of the hives? No matter what the reason of the hives was. Besides, did hives can really be caused by something like "too much happiness"? After that day, she wanted to talk to Doc Appleby 'bout it, find a way to cure Enos' hives, bein' in a sort of psychological arousal that prevented her to forget that idea of marrying him, wanting to find a way to come to an end, as soon as possible, hating the idea of waiting even a day more; but Enos told her he was his problem, HE and Doc Appleby had to find a way to stop the hives, he asked her to be patient, so he cold her impatience and temper, and they simply stopped talking 'bout it, both hiding their doubts but keeping on dating as a sort of boyfriend and girlfriend, 'till Rose Strate's arrival.

Miss Kate smiled, a knowing smile, "Yeah. Did you finally realize it? I bet that day he ate a rhubarb cake before the wedding. He has some problems with rhubarb… hives, for example", she winked, and Daisy, definitively, knew the truth, the bitter truth: Enos stopped the wedding on purpose because he thought she didn't love him, so, her attempt to show him she loved him (an unconscious attempt, since that day she wasn't still aware of her love) was vain, 'cause he needed her plain confession, nothing else.

It was time for her plain confession.


Cooter entered the farm, looking at Bo and Luke and scratching his head, in confusion, "Did it really happen? I mean… everyone's talking 'bout it, in town".

Bo sighed glancing at Luke, "Yeah. Uncle Jesse and Daisy are at Ridge Institute, right now". The blonde cousin looked outside the window; it was 3 p.m. and nor Daisy nor uncle Jesse called the farm, probably too much busy to calm Enos down. Bo's heart stirred, in his mind the image of Enos crying on uncle Jesse's shoulder. At that time, Rose Strate was still alive. And now? How's Enos?

"It seems…", Cooter looked down, a bit embarrassed, so strange for someone who seemed unable to be embarrassed of anything, "it seems… she committed suicide, a double suicide, with a man, her… ehm… lover"

"WHAT?", Bo's and Luke's surprise spurted in unison.

"Yeah. A sheriff came to the town with the picture of that man. He wanted to know if anyone knew him… and if anyone knew 'something 'bout his relationship with Rose Strate".

"And… did he find something 'bout that man?"

Cooter looked at Luke, even more embarrassed, "Uh… yeah. Rosco knew him, he knew him pretty well as soon as he saw the picture. He was… a ATF's agent; he stayed here in Hazzard nearly 30 years ago, for several years, fighting against… moonshiners… but Rosco didn't know anything 'bout a possible relationship between that man and Rose Strate"

Luke took a deep breath, now starting to understand Cooter's wariness, "Do you know his name?"

Cooter nodded, "Andrew Salinger"

That name resounded in the silent farm, a name already resounded in that farm as a sort of nightmare, so many years before. Luke knew that name pretty well; he was the ATF's agent chasing his parents, along with Bo's and Daisy's, the night they had the accident that killed them all. It meant that everyone, in Hazzard, was now talking 'bout Rose Strate death (and her way to die) and 'bout her relationship (since then?) with an ATF's agent, the one responsible of the worst tragedy ever in Duke' family, and not only in Duke's family; it meant that the "Hazzard Gazette" would've talked 'bout it for a long time; it meant… other pain for Enos due to his sensitiveness, his pride and his attitude to feel guilty for everything, and, for sure, he'd have felt guilty and ashamed because of his mother's (extramarital, since then?) relationship with the man killing, even if accidentally, his best friends' parents.


Daisy's entered Enos' room, she put a cup of coffee and a bag with some sandwiches on the little night table, for her uncle, and, without even saying a word, she took her boots off and, despite uncle Jesse's stunned look, she slid into Enos' bed, covering her head with the blankets, so entering his world, and she wrapped her arms around his naked and still asleep body.

"I won't leave you alone, Enos. I'm goin' to show you, and to tell you, how much I love you. Your worst days are over, now, don't worry, 'cause I'm by your side"


Just a couple of things 'bout this chapter:

- the rhubarb cake and Enos' way to stop the wedding on purpose: I know, I've already used this idea in a previous fanfic, but I'm very fond of this idea, LOL

- 'Bout Bo's, Luke's and Daisy's parents: in the show it's said they died in a car wreck (I suppose in the same wreck, not in different ones), but it's not said exactly why. I think it's believable it happened in a chasing, being them moonshiners. So, I hope the "little" surprise at the end of the chapter may be... interesting and believable due to what's said in the show.