Though I was out of town all week, it wasn't for anything fun so I worked on this. I hope you enjoy it. Personally, I kinda like this chapter myself. Review and tell me what you think of it.
Chapter 12: Letting Go
Four years later . . .
"Daddy!" came a young girl's voice screaming into the Dukes' living room, penetrating the peaceful silence that hung in the air. Bo smiled at Jesse, anticipating what his five-year-old daughter wanted to play this time. Her favorite game to date was (interestingly enough) sitting on Bo's back pretending he was a racecar and she was a driver.
Bo's grin widened as Lois bounded into the room, her favorite stuffed animal in hand. The worn out bear had once been Michelle's, and they had dug it out of the attic in her old house when they found out she was pregnant. Michelle called the toy Larry, but Lois renamed the stuffed animal Mr. Teddy.
"What am I gonna do in Kindergarten?" Lois asked. The next day, she was to begin school at Hazzard Elementary. Bo dreaded that day, it would be the first time he would leave Lois alone for several hours at a time. Of course Kindergarten was only half a day, but the concept was unnerving to the father. He wondered what he would do when Lois was all grown up and moved out of the house. Then again, he never moved out, so maybe Lois wouldn't either.
Daisy and Enos gave birth to their first child two years before; a boy the dubbed Charles Jesse Strate, Charles after Enos's deceased father and Jesse after Uncle Jesse. Luke had indeed gotten very serious with Jamie Newman, so no one was surprised when he married her the past Christmas season. Jamie was already three months pregnant with a child. They stayed at the farm, having the extra room that had once been Daisy's.
Lois loved hanging out with her younger cousin Charlie. She was excited when he was born. Daisy had the ideal pregnancy with no complications. So far, Jamie was having a good pregnancy, too. Bo never admitted it, but he was jealous of Enos because his wife was there to enjoy their child.
"Well," Bo said, as Jesse went outside to leave Bo alone with his daughter, "you're gonna have fun. You're gonna make lotsa new friends and play with them all day. Yer gonna impress everyone cause I already taught ya yer ABC's and since ya can already read like a big girl. An' ya might even play a mean trick on a boy that you'll grow up an' marry."
"Is that what happened to you?" Lois wondered. Bo looked at her, puzzled. "Did my mommy play a mean trick on you when you was in Kindergarten?"
Bo stared at his daughter, at a loss for words. He remembered explaining the basics of where the girl's mother was, and it seemed like she understood. It wasn't often when Lois asked questions about these random bits of trivia regarding Michelle's life, and when she did, it always caught Bo off guard.
So he nodded. "Yup, that's what she did. She rubbed glue in my hair. So lemme tell ya, sweetheart, it weren't fun. So if I ever hear of you doin' somethin' like 'at, yer gonna be in big trouble, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy," Lois answered. Bo smiled at her and rubbed a hand through her blonde hair. The past five years since Lois was born, Bo and the others had marveled at how much she looked like Michelle, except for the hair. She still had the same incredibly blonde hair that had been inheirited from Bo.
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Bo pulled his uncle's pickup to a stop in front of the school. He smiled at his daughter. "I'm goin' in with ya taday ta make sure yer alright, okay?" Lois nodded, anxiety etched over the small features of her face. "Come on, let's go now an' get this over with."
Each of them opened their respective doors and stepped out into the brisk autumn air. Bo, after pulling Lois's new Minnie Mouse backpack around her shoulders, grabbed her hand and together, they made the voyage up the steps through the school's front entrance. It took the father a minute to remember which direction the Kindergarten classroom was in, but he finally figured it out.
Bo knocked on the doorframe, catching the attention of the young-ish woman inside. Bo figured she was about the same age as himself.
"Hi!" the woman greeted cheerfully. "I'm Miss Kurtcher." She extended her hand out to Bo.
"I thought I knew everybody in Hazzard," Bo commented.
Miss Kurtcher smiled. "I just moved here last week. This is my first year in Hazzard. Before I taught first grade in Atlanta."
Bo nodded. "Well, welcome ta Hazzard County, ma'am. This here's Lois Duke; she'll be in your class. I'm her daddy, Bo Duke."
Miss Kurtcher nodded and looked down at Lois. "Well, Lois, we're going to have a lot of fun this year! Why don't you go see some of the other kids over there? I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you."
Lois nodded shyly and slowly meandered over to where some other kids were playing with wooded blocks. Bo exchanged a few more friendly words with Miss Kurtcher before deciding it was time to leave his daughter at school for the first time. He went to go find Lois, who now seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.
"Hey, Lois, give daddy a kiss," Bo said. Lois turned around, leaned upwards to plant a kiss on her fathers cheek and without a word, went back to playing with her new friends. Bo just stood there for a moment, not knowing quite what to say. Finally, he opened his mouth. "Well, bye Lois, I'll be back in a couple hours. Bye honey."
"'Kay, bye Daddy," Lois said, without turning around. Dejectedly, Bo turned around and walked out of the classroom.
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A few hours later, Hazzard Elementary's morning Kindergarten session let out. Bo was among quite a few parents who were there to pick up their children. Looking around, Bo recognized most of the couples there. He had gone to school himself with a few of them, others were a few years older, and some were younger. The one thing Bo noticed that he never had before was that he was the only single parent in attendance. Lois was the only kid in her whole class who didn't have a mommy and a daddy.
That was quite rare, though, as Bo thought about it. Usually at least a couple kids had deceased parents, or parents who didn't live together. Technically, Bo never really had a mommy or a daddy. But he considered his uncle Jesse and his late aunt Martha to be like his parents, and they had both been there to pick him up on his first day of school. This time, however, Bo was the only parent there without a signifigant other. If things had gone as Bo thought they should have, Lois would have a mother there, too.
Apparently, Bo was not the only one to notice this oddity. He was snapped out of his train of thought by the sound of two small people yelling at each other. Unable to make out what they were saying, he jerked his head in their direction, only to find his daughter was yelling something at Jason Martex. Bo suppressed a grin as he watched his daughter blast the kid's eardrums out. Normally, a parent would have gone over there and broken it up, but Bo held a long time grudge with Jason's father, Brad. Brad had been a nice kid to most people, but for some reason, the boy had loved to pick on one Bo Duke. Of course, he once received quite a beating from Luke, but Bo never forgave Brad for that.
But then Bo realized Lois and himself would be liable to get in trouble if he didn't do something. As he walked over there, he looked up to see the six-feet-eight Brad Martex looming over him. He smiled sheepishly, and Brad fed him a look that could probably kill a rattlesnake. Bo gulped and grabbed his daughter by the hook on top of her backpack. He pulled her back to the General Lee and lifted her up and set her inside. Brad was slowly walking in their direction, so Bo wasted no time in running to the driver's side, getting in, and speeding off.
"Mind tellin' me what that was all about?" Bo asked of his daughter. Receiving no answer, he looked over at her and for the first time, noticed the tears streaming down her face. He sighed. "Honey, what's wrong. You can tell Daddy."
"Jason kept makin' fun of me cause I don't got a mommy," Lois said quietly. "He did it all day, and Miss Kurtcher didn't even give him a time-out."
Bo sighed inwardly. He couldn't think of the right thing to say. These were the times when Bo missed Michelle the most. He knew the Martexes had always been mean to the Dukes, Brad had done it to him, now Brad's son was doing it to Bo's daughter. Brad had made fun of Bo for having no parents and now Jason was making fun of Lois for having no mother.
"Well, sweetheart, don't let Jason get to ya," was all Bo could say. "He's just a bully, an' that's what bullies do. They try ta make ya cry. If you don't show that it bothers ya; if ya just ignore him, he should stop. If he don't, tell me an' I'll have a word with his parents." The last part was rather forced out, considering he didn't ever want to have to speak with Brad Martex.
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The next day ended even worse. When Bo arrived to pick up his daughter, she was crying yet again, telling him all about how Jason had told her she wasn't going to grow up to be a normal girl because she didn't have a mother.
"Daddy, is that true?" Lois asked with pleading eyes that tore through Bo's heart like a knife.
All Bo could do was shake his head. "Naw, sweetheart, that ain't true at all." That's what he said, but on some deep level, he wondered if maybe the boy had been right without meaning to. He wasn't even sure what to do in this case, and that really didn't make him feel good about himself, either. All he knew is that he might have to make good on his promise to Lois about speaking with Brad Martex, something he dreaded.
Once they arrived back at the Duke Farm, Lois saw her cousin Charlie playing out under the old oak tree and ran to join him. Bo gave a small smile before heading inside. Daisy and Enos were talking in the kitchen with Jesse, all looking glum. He furrowed his brow and waved at them all before heading to his area of the house via the living room. Jamie and Luke sat on the couch, and Jamie had tears streaming down her face. Luke saw his cousin standing there confused and looked up at him, his own eyes conveying deep sadness.
Bo decided to leave them alone and went back into the kitchen. "What happened?" he asked..
Daisy looked at her younger cousin sadly. "Jamie miscarried," she told him.
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Sorry guys, that's all you get for now. Please review!
