The Wind Blows Free

Chapter Twenty-One: The Good-Bye Party, Part One

Balladeer: The time came to where Luke had only four days left in Hazzard, so Lulu allowed them to use the Boar's Nest for big good-bye party for him. Just about everybody came, even some folks that nobody in Hazzard knew.

Luke was sitting with his family, save for Daisy who was at the bar serving drinks, and also with Cooter—who might as well have been family. He knew that the party was meant to lift his spirits, but it was making him rather depressed. He wasn't going to see any of these people for God knew how long. However, he wasn't going to just up and leave, not after they went through the trouble of putting up a huge sign that said, "We'll Miss You, Luke!" across the top of the bar and even tying up balloons in some places. Besides, he couldn't act like this was upsetting him. That would upset Bo, Jesse, and whoever else cared about him.

Bo looked up towards the door, got a big grin on his face and jumped up to go see whoever it was. Luke watched him make a beeline for Mrs. Bo Duke, who had just arrived with her sisters.

"It's about time we met, wouldn't ya say?" Eve stated, shaking her new brother-in-law's hand. Her nerves were calmed down immensely know that she at least knew what the boy looked like. He seemed nice enough. And if Rachel were to have done this marriage thing regardless, at least she picked out someone that had good looks.

"Yes, ma'am," Bo replied, feeling as if he were being introduced to his mother-in-law instead of sister-in-law. "An' don't worry 'bout your sister none, I'll take good care of her."

"I'm sure you will."

"Hey, y'all can all come over to our table, there's plenty of room," Bo offered, already having Rachel by the hand and tugging her over to him.

Balladeer: Ain't he a gent?

Luke and Jesse both stood up when Bo arrived with the three ladies. Cooter didn't, of course, after all they were just cousins. Rachel had already met Jesse the other day when Bo had brought her to their house. Ali hadn't met him yet and Eve hadn't even met Luke yet.

"Weird. I finally get to met ya, an' it's at your good-bye party," Eve had to say, the irony being so obvious to her.

Luke laughed as he shook her hand. "Life's like that sometimes."

"Bo, you ain't gonna introduce me to your lovely wife an' in-laws?" Cooter asked from his seat, looking up at his relatives.

Ali held up a fist and he laughed.

The jukebox started playing an old favorite, Keith Whitley'sWhen You Say Nothing At All, and several couples started going over to the dance area. Bo looked at Rachel.

"Whatcha say, darlin'?"

"Why not?" she replied, a little shyly even though most of her shyness had wore off by now.

Eve cleared her throat and pointed at the bar. "I'm gonna go get a drink. See you folks later."

That left just Cooter, Jesse (who sat back down), Luke, and Ali. Luke and Ali felt kinda funny just standing there in silence so Luke asked,

"You wanna dance?"

Balladeer: Now if there's one thing that Ali can't do, it's slow-dance. Fast-dance, yeah. Slow-dance, no.

"Yeah, sure," she said a little hesistantly, taking him by the hand.

As they left the area, Jesse glanced at Cooter and the latter gave him a big huge grin. "Forget it," the older man asked. "I'm not askin' you to dance." Cooter laughed.

Bo and Rachel were already wrapped up in each other's arms, as if they'd been married for years instead of just a few days. Seeing them made Ali feel warm and fuzzy inside, hoping one day she'd be like that. Luke took her in his arms and held one of her hands. He was perfectly comfortable with any kind of dancing, but Ali felt kinda out-of-place as she laid her head on his shoulder. She was used to the rockin' songs and the line-dancing sort of thing.

"If I step on your toes," she whispered. "Don't get agitated or anything."

"Darlin', when it comes to women, I don't get agitated in the way you're talkin' about."

Her eyes widened at the slight sexual joke, getting this funny butterfly feeling in her stomach as she continued to stay close to him.

Eve watched both of her sisters dance with their respective beaus. She was glad they had seemingly found a couple of good ol' boys but her aching heart couldn't bear to watch them for more than just a few seconds. She sat on her stool at the bar sipping at her diet soda—she never drank anything alcoholic except at major events or at a very fancy restaurant—when the man sitting next to her (one that nobody knew) decided to turn his head and give her an up-and-down look with his eyes.

"Well, hello there, lovely lady," he said with a sleazy grin.

Eve turned her head and smiled politely at the handsome man, but she had no interest whatsoever in anything he had to offer. She was still a little wary of some guys, especially the ones bold enough to call her a flattering name before he knew her real name.

"Hi," she said bluntly.

He seemed to get a little closer to her. "Whatcha say to me buyin' you a drink?" he asked. "A real drink, not some soda."

"I don't drink," she quipped, somewhat lying to the man but she really didn't want this guy buying her anything.

"Oh, I see," he smiled, looking her over again. "Shy, huh? I'll cure you of that, I assure ya."

She gave him a little grin, slightly smart-alecked but mostly polite. "Thanks but no thanks." She turned away from him and took another drink of her soda.

Apparently the man didn't know how to take a turn-down from a woman. He got this mad look in his eyes and grabbed her arm rather roughly. Eve gave him a wide-eyed look, partly from shock and partly from fear.

"Forget the curin', missy, you need to be taught some manners," he sneered, his grasp sending an icy cold feeling all the way down Eve's spine all the way to her toes.

She thought for a brief moment that he was going to strike her, and he probably would have if someone from behind hadn't grabbed his shoulder and jerked him around to the other side opposite of where he was already facing. He was about to mouth off at whoever was interrupting his "conversation" until he realized he was face-to-face with a cop—an angry looking cop, too.

"You gotta problem with your hearin', pal?" Rosco growled at him, his eyes flashing with anger.

The strange man grinned sarcastically. "My hearing's fine, officer, but thanks for askin'."

"Oh, then I guess you heard her when she said she said she didn't want a drink," Rosco asked him, his glare still fixed on the man's eyes.

Eve was so scared she was shaking, although she was barely concentrating on anything anybody was saying. The man's grabbing her made a whole rush of memories come floating back and she felt sick to her stomach and felt the need for fresh air.

"Yes, sir, I heard her," the man replied, not feeling so high-an'-mighty at the moment.

"Good. Now why don't you just get outta here before I lock you up for assault?"he said in a low voice.If there was one thing Rosco absolutely couldn't stand, it was guys like this that didn't have any respect for women—in this case, he really couldn't stand guys like this that didn't have any respect for Eve.

The guy stuttered some sort of response, and hastily got up from his seat and half-ran out the door. Rosco just couldn't believe some guys in this world. He turned his direction towards Eve to ask if she was all right, except she wasn't even there anymore. He got a rather confused look on his face.

"Rosco?" he heard Daisy call from behind the bar. He glanced at her and she was giving him some kind of look that implied that she had seen what just happened and apparently thought it was cute. "She was lookin' a little pale, so she went out the back."

The back? How did she slip past him without him noticing? Of course he was mad at the time, so----"Thanks, Daisy," he smiled.

Daisy grinned and went back to wiping down the bar area. Her foot was still a little sore so she wasn't able to run around the tables giving everybody what they wanted.She was trying to keep allher weight off that leg, which was pretty hard, and when she felt it hurting, she would just sit down and let someone else do thedrinks for a while.

Presently, Enos showed up and sat in front of where she was standing.

"Hi, Daisy," he smiled.

"Hey, Enos. How ya been?"

"I'm fine," he told her, looking a little nervous. "You wanna dance?"

Balladeer: That boy don't waste time, does he?

Daisy got a sparkle in her eyes but it went away pretty fast. "Enos, you big meanie, you know I can't do nothin' with this bum ankle of mine."

"That's all right, I can pickya up so you won't have to use it."

The sparkle came back, and she threw her wet handtowel in a bucket labeled "Dirty Towels".