Chapter Fourteen: Carts and Horses

"Our life depends on everything's recurring
till we answer from within.
The thousandth time may prove the charm."

Robert Frost

The starfield overhead was painted with twinkling glitter on a canvas of black indigo – peaceful, serene. The dew-crusted floor of the lean-to underneath the star canopy looked as if a laundromat had exploded and deposited remnants of pants, socks, shoes, piles of rust-stained lace, and unmentionables around the two incendiaries huddled in a nest of blankets and patchwork quilts.

With Daisy snuggled in the crook of his arm, Enos wanted to be awake for every second he could, afraid she would be ripped out of his arms any moment, back to her bed at the farm, and he'd be stretched out, cold and damp on the hood of his truck. Afraid they wouldn't get another chance.

Afraid – the way he'd been Friday night. After trying on his fancy wedding suit, he'd practiced in front of the mirror on his dresser, with the photo of Daisy ever watchful, saying, "I do."

But should he? Should he say, "I do'?

It was a question that had etched worry lines in his face and caused him to scratch at the hives that he'd contracted, not from being happy, but from being scared to death that he was leading the only thing he loved more than his own life into something she might one day regret. He knew he could 'survive' without her, but if he hurt her, ruined her life, his soul would crack, and his heart would implode like those stars that collapse. Then, he'd be no good to himself or anyone else.

So, he took the ring box from the old humidor Aunt Livvy had given him for his valuables, put his suit in the truck, and drove to the only place that would give him any peace to think about whether or not he was doing the right thing – the 'swamp.' So many doubts, so little time. He had a glimmer of hope that Daisy did love him. He'd begun to see signs of it before the robbery. She hadn't dated anyone in more than a year, not since she'd stayed with him, under his protection. She hadn't known what that night cost him, with only a thin wall of blankets between them. He'd even gone as far as to make plans…but then the robbery, the threats made against Daisy…and everything he'd planned and hoped for was overshadowed by doubt.

He didn't want to wake up one day, or for her to wake up one day, and figure out she'd married him out of pity, or charity, or guilt. That she'd been willing to marry him at all, to keep him from going to jail, was a testament to why he loved her...so much. This mind-bending trip in time had been light as a feather compared to the weight he was carrying Friday night. He couldn't have stopped the tears, shackled for so long, if he'd wanted to.

He'd fallen to sleep on the hood of his truck, searching for shooting stars.

Waking that Saturday morning, that first Saturday morning, he'd looked at the time and tried to make it back to his room at Mrs. Oxford's. But, as fate would have it, Rosco had caught up with him on his way there, blue lights flashing and siren blaring and shanghaied him for some fool breakfast bachelor party at the Sheriff's station. It went on long enough that they'd had to go straight to the Boar's Nest to get ready for the ceremony.

Would he ever get the chance to tell her why her wedding ring was still in his other pants on his bed? If Daisy forgave him for that, would she ever forgive him for being the cause of all this…all the days spent thinking she was alone, thinking she was going crazy?

He didn't remember wishing, exactly, not out loud or even in his head. That ding-dang cricket song every morning was a sure enough sign to him that he must have.

He had no idea that Daisy, who was awake and pressing herself tighter against him, was wondering the same about the wish she had made, that her Aunt Lavinia could be with her on her wedding day…

The why and how of it didn't seem to matter to Enos anymore, but he asked anyway.

"Why did you try so hard to get us married up these past months?"

"Deep down, I knew where I belonged. Just too stubborn to admit it…wanted you to be the one to bend…"

"…you wanted a caveman, and ya' got me."

"No…I wanted you to step up and just say how…"

"I love you, Daisy, will ya' marry me?"

"Yeah, somethin' like…" She was still sleepy. "…What?"

Putting his finger to her lips, he began rifling through the clothes again, reaching under the edges of the blankets.

"Enos, what––?"

"Shush."

He had never shushed her before. It was kind of exhilarating, although he better not get used to it.

Finding the thing he was looking for, he rolled back over to present her with the ring box once again.

"Enos. Spit it out for pity's sake! The suspense is killin' me."

The ring inside the little brown leather box wasn't anything you would see in the window at Cartier's or even in a display case at Hazzard Jewelers. It was a simple, fragile setting with two small pearls, one off-white and one silverish, on a thin band with twisted ribbons of gold and silver.

"Aunt Livvy gave this to me a long time ago, just before she passed. It belonged to her grandmother. When I said I couldn't take somethin' like this 'cause it should go to you, she said, 'when the time is right, son, you'll give it to her.'"

Later, feeling the euphoria of having lost themselves in each other once again, Enos was enjoying the touch of Daisy's bare skin against his, wearing his engagement ring, when he finally opened his eyes.

There was something strange about the sky.

"Daisy."

"Hmmm?" She wasn't ready to open her eyes yet.

"Daisy?"

"Umm."

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Ninety-one, a thousand. Don't care…now get back under the cover b'fore you catch your death. I wanna snuggle some more."

He leaned down and kissed her ear and whispered, "It's Sunday."

Took a few seconds for that to register, but when it did, Daisy sprang up, nearly clipping Enos's nose in the process.

"Why do you…Sunday?"

He pointed to the southern sky and said, "Look."

Still didn't register.

"You see where Orion is?"

"No. You know teasin' me's not gonna get you very far if you expect more…"

"Daisy, you know why you don't see Orion?"

"'Cause it ain't there?..." Then it hit her. "It's not there."

Enos hurriedly searched in the garment debris field and found his pocket watch, the one Uncle Jesse and Aunt Livvy had given him the last Christmas she was with them. Finding it, he flipped open the cover.

"11:59."

The second hand wasn't moving. He turned the crown enough to give the watch a full wind and waited. The second hand still didn't move. Then, in case the second hand was just stuck, they counted one Mississippi, two Mississippi, and on until reaching sixty-five Mississippi (just for insurance). The time stayed the same – 11:59.

"How long…? Daisy pulled the blanket up around her (because Enos had noticed the physical effects the chill air was having on her and was getting that look in his eye again). "Enos. Focus." She pointed to the watch.

"Yes, Ma'am," he said, with chill-pinked cheeks and a grin.

"What time do you suppose it is? I mean, on Sunday."

"From the position of Cancer and the twins, I'd say around 3:00 am."

A faint glow behind the mountain hinted that the waning crescent moon had risen and was hiding behind the thickness of pine boughs.

"And we're still here…" She had to let that sink in. Ninety days is a long time, and she'd become conditioned to that timeline and lowered her expectations to somewhere around zero. "Possum on a gum-bush, Enos, you know what this means?" She was still in too much shock to get excited. And, without a stitch on, she wasn't inclined to jump up and down.

Enos swallowed hard. "Yeah…Uncle Jesse's gonna kill me."

"Oh, Enos. He's not gonna do anything of the sort…Luke, on the other hand…"

"Oh, that makes me feel a whole lot better."

"Just kidding."

"Not funny." He was starting to look a little pekid.

"We got the license and the engagement ring, so that kind of makes us half-married, doesn't it?"

Sunday, February 3, 1985

Enos and Daisy arrived at the Duke farm by the time Enos's pocket watch, having regained its forward momentum, read 6:15 am. They couldn't very well go back into town on a Sunday dressed as they were. Enos was okay in his slacks and jacket, but with Lavinia's wedding dress, being in the condition it was, Daisy had only his plaid shirt on over her underwear. Good thing he was six foot two and partial to long shirt-tails. They were also avoiding town because there had been no restart of the same-damn day. There was much discussion about old timelines and new timelines before they vacated the lean-to love nest. They decided to operate under the assumption that they had changed the chain of events and, since their arrow of time was moving forward again, everyone would remember what happened yesterday at the Boar's Nest and at WHOGG.

Daisy had suggested they first go by the bakery, via the back alley entrance, of course. She could borrow a uniform from Sarah Jane, who was already at work making pastries for the Sunday morning crowd. For someone who was hard at work at 4 am every day, Sarah Jane Bascom was the un-busiest body in Hazzard County. She'd be glad to help them out, and the HazzardNet wouldn't start buzzing at the speed of light.

Enos said, "No." His shirt fit her like a dress, so she was covered up decent enough…and he just wanted to get it over with. "Puttin' it off ain't gonna make it any easier on me. Besides, Rosco's started to get real fond a' Miss Sarah Jane's bear claws of a mornin', and he's the last one we want to meet up with right now."

He wouldn't allow her to smooth things over at the farm before he jumped into the lion's den either. The fact that Daisy was a grown woman wouldn't cut the mustard. She was still Uncle Jesse's little girl and Bo and Luke's only girl cousin.

So, there they were, sitting in Dixie, Daisy dressed in his shirt with a blanket wrapped around her, him shirtless under his jacket, and Lavinia's wedding dress folded as neatly as possible in Dixie's back seat. As if he wasn't nervous enough, the dress was missing six of those tiny satin-covered buttons – victims of the conflagration. They had located five of them, but that sixth button must have been sucked into a gopher hole. They gave up the search around 5:30. Daisy had wrapped the five that were salvaged in a piece of torn lace. The intention being to have Lester at the dry cleaners launder the dress the best he could, repair the torn lace, and sew the buttons back on.

"Well," Enos said, "Have you figured out what we're gonna tell Uncle Jesse about the dress and…them." He pointed to the physical evidence clutched in her hand.

"He's gonna be too busy pullin' Luke offa you to worry about the dress or how these buttons got separated from it."

"Haha."

"It's a little funny."

"No…it ain't."

Inside the house, Bo had heard the jeep pull in and was alerting Luke and Uncle Jesse.

"I told you two she'd be alright as long as she was with Enos," Jesse said, pulling his left overall strap over his shoulder. "He wouldn't let nothin' happen to her."

About the time Enos and Daisy climbed out of Dixie, Daisy's blanket fell back, and she had to reposition it.

"Why's she wearin' Enos's shirt?" Bo said with a brand of naivete unique to Beauregard Duke.

Luke rolled his eyes and smiled at his uncle. "Should we get the shotgun?"

"No, we shouldn't get the shotgun. Likely he's already sufferin' enough just from the anticipation a' walkin' through that door."

"He does appear ta' be a little green around the gills," Luke quipped. "Looks like she's wearin' a ring, though. Maybe we'll have us a weddin' after all."

Daisy and Enos had no clue that Rosco, who had been searching the county high and low for them through the night, had gone by the quarry in the wee hours of the morning and seen a sight he never thought he would. Of course, he hadn't shared the details with Jesse when he'd called him to tell him Enos and Daisy were okay, but after a lot of hem-hawing and a good measure of dancing around the intimate particulars, he finally told him, "Let me put it this way, Jesse. The weddin' mighta' got postponed…but I'm pretty sure the honeymoon went on as scheduled."

Luke had just guessed correctly. And now they'd have to explain it to Bo. Not that he was thick, just unwilling to accept something he never thought possible. He'd had less trouble accepting that little alien.

"Ain't no maybe about it. Just 'cause the cart won the race, don't mean the horse won't catch up," Jesse said, and then the leprechaun in him took over. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to make him sweat like a bridegroom for a few minutes. Now, you two git on in the parlor an' act like you got some sense."