CHAPTER FIVE
SPRING, 1974
BOOM!
Thunder echoed for miles throughout Hazzard County when a sudden storm hit seemingly out of nowhere. Luke had been outside tinkering with his car when the first few splatters of rain had hit his head. He had an important decision to make and working on his car had been making it easier to think about, but all the thunder showers they had been getting lately were really putting a damper on his thinking.
In the meantime, Becky and Bo had been out riding the four wheeler that Nathan had let them borrow for the day. He'd gotten it for an early eighteenth birthday present and loved riding it, but also found that his little sister had grown quite fond of it as well. He taught her how to drive it and any time she had a chance, she and Bo, or she and Daisy sometimes, would take it out for a spin.
Nathan had been out on the Dukes' front poorch talking to Daisy when it started up. He had had her giggling over something right before the thunder rolled and the rain started splattering, which caused her to laughingly squeal and take off into the house.
So when the storm hit, everyone ran into the Duke house from their various directions. Jessie was of course not surprised in the least; the Grant children had been spending lots of time in his house since he could remember, and he wouldn't have ever had it any other way.
"Whoo! Boy it's comin' a gulley-washer out there, Uncle Jessie," Luke remarked, shaking his hair out a little bit.
"You don't say..." Jessie went to look out the window and shook his head, "this year's already turnin' out bad, what with all this rain, how're we gonna have a decent garden?"
"Maybe the rain'll slack up some before summer time gets here," Bo put in helpfully.
"Maybe so... but usually when it's this rainy already in the spring, summer's not gonna be much better," Jessie replied, then looked to each of the Grant children, "well, looks like y'all are stuck here for a little while, eh?"
"Nearest place we could run to, Uncle Jessie," Becky replied truthfully.
He chuckled, "You're right, you're right."
So everyone ended up going up to the boys' room to hang out; Luke, Bo, and Nathan looked at the latest car magazine, while Daisy and Becky worked on Becky's latest model car she'd brought over earlier to put together with Bo.
"Dang, these are harder than the ones Luke used to put together!" Daisy remarked about the car.
"What's that?" Luke looked up at the mention of his name.
Daisy held up some parts to the car, "These ol' cars they're makin' now, I swear the ones you used to make weren't so hard to put together!"
Luke chuckled, "You'd know, Dais; you never left my cars alone!"
"Hey, I just wanted to play with 'em, too!" Daisy pouted playfully as they reminisced to themselves.
"When was this?" Bo asked, clearly not remembering.
"Oh, this was before you came to the farm, Bo," Luke replied, getting a wistful look in his eye as he remembered, "Daisy couldn't ever keep outta nothin', especially my stuff. She insisted that she was big enough to play with my big boy cars..."
Seven year old Daisy had peeked around the corner to make sure Luke was nowhere around; then, her eyes lit up as she dashed into his room and stood in front of Luke's model cars. She liked how they shown in the light and loved to imagine just how fast they could go.
But then Luke, rolling his eyes with his arms crossed, marched over to Daisy and stared down at her with narrowed eyes, "Daisy, what're you doin' in here?"
Daisy would've normally cowered under that stare, but she just stood up on her tip-toes and stared right back into his eyes as she replied, "I'm lookin', 's'that a crime or somethin'?"
"Daisy, I told you not to bother my cars!"
"I ain't bothered your cars, I only wanted to look!"
"Yeah right, I believe that about as much as I believe Uncle Jessie's stories about playin' chicken with a mountain lion!"
Pretty soon, the squabbling had reached the ears of old Aunt Eliza, who came through and places a hand on each of the childrens' shoulders.
"Kids, what's goin' on here?" she asked calmly.
"Daisy's botherin' my cars again!" Luke replied.
"I wasn't! I only wanted to look!" Daisy argued.
"Alright, alright, come with me, Daisy, help me fix dinner," Eliza said gently, but with a pinch of firmness.
"But I don't wanna, Aunt 'Liza!"
"Daisy Mae..."
Daisy sighed in defeat, "Yes ma'am..."
Eliza knew that Luke was still hurting from losing his mother at such a young age, and also knew that having little Daisy tagging along everywhere he went and tending to get into his stuff didn't help the situation much. She would do her best to keep Daisy occupied, but found out fast that no matter what she was doing, she wanted to do whatever Luke was doing.
But this time, she had an idea; of course she would have to talk to Jessie and see what they could do...
The next day, Jessie brought home a box wrapped in brown paper and smiled when he saw Daisy's pretty, curious blue eyes looking up at him, "Daisy, got a surprise for ya, honey."
"For me?" Daisy's eyes absolutely shown at getting a surprise of her very own.
Luke and Eliza then came into the room, Luke curious and Eliza smiling to her husband as Daisy opened the package. Her smile brightened and her eyes danced as she saw what was inside; her very own model car to put together!
"Oh, thank you, Uncle Jessie!" she exlaimed, jumping up and down excitedly and into his arms, giving him a hug and kiss.
"You're welcome, honey, but you might wanna thank your Aunt Eliza, too, it was her idea," Jessie replied with a smile.
She hugged and kissed her aunt in thanks as well, then showed it to Luke, "See, Luke? I got me one of my very own!"
Luke went into a pouty-like phase, "Yeah, I see," he replied huffily.
But then he stomped off and wasn't seen for most of the rest of the evening. Jessie and Eliza knew he was wondering why he hadn't gotten a new model car instead of his little girl cousin. But they knew that she sincerely liked his, and felt that she deserved to have at least one of her own.
Luke was still pouting later when he heard a knock on his door, "Yes," he said in a low voice.
Daisy came into the room, her hair neatly brushed by Eliza and dressed in her nightgown, "Luke?"
"What d'ya want?"
Daisy hesitated a moment before asking, but she knew she wanted to, "Would you like to help me put it together?" she asked, holding out the box.
Luke looked back at her to see if she was joking, but saw that her face was serious, "Did Uncle Jessie or Aunt Eliza put you up to it?"
She shook her head, "No, I wanted to do it!"
Luke blinked in amazement, but then smiled, "Alright... let's start on it first thing tomorrow morning."
"Goody!" she threw her little arms around her cousin's neck and kissed his cheek, "'Night, Luke, I love you!"
Luke, in typical little boy fashion, wiped the kiss off with the back of his hand, "Yeah, sure, 'night, love you, too."
And with that, Daisy ran off to her room.
"Awww," Bo and Becky chorused at the same time, then burst into giggles.
"Say Dais, you never told me why you asked me to help you with that," Luke said with a questioning look.
"Well, because I had no clue how, for one thing..." Daisy blushed as she admitted that, "and I felt bad; I didn't want to do the same thing you had done to me, to you."
Luke smiled, "There's never been a mean bone in your body, Daisy Duke."
She just smiled in return, playing with the hem of her shirt.
A couple of days later, Bo had gone into town with Uncle Jessie and Daisy; Luke had decided to stay home and work on his car some more, until Cooter stopped by and talked for a few minutes before going on his way. Then a little while later, Becky walked over.
"Heya, Luke," she said, coming up and leaning against the opposite side of the car that he was working on.
"Hey, Beck," he replied, looking up briefly. "What'cha into?"
"Oh, not much; Bo gone?"
"Yeah, went into town with Uncle Jessie and Daisy."
She watched him for a minute, admiring the view of his muscles she was able to get with his shirt off. A small smile spread over her face at the secret she kept in the back of her mind that no one else knew about, not even Bo.
She'd discovered over the past few months that she though Luke was physically attractive and couldn't get that off of her mind, which bothered her some because she wasn't really all that interested in boys until... well, until Luke had started becoming more gorgeous than she'd ever remembered him being.
He sensed her watching him and looked up; she tried to erase the look she had had on her face when he caught her eye and smiled, "Bored, eh?"
"Yeah, some," she replied, then kicked the dirt, "whacha workin' on?"
"Just tunin' it up some, I've pretty much got anything that I need done to it done; wanna help?" he asked, knowing that she would.
"That was a stupid question!"
Luke couldn't help but laugh as she trotted over to his side of the car, waiting for instructions. She was almost like Bo, only in a female's body, and when Bo, Nathan, or Cooter wasn't around, he found it was interesting to talk to her, especially about cars - that's when she reminded him so much of Bo. She couldn't tell you what the latest gossip in her high school was for anything, but could tell you just about anything about an engine. He shook his head with a crooked grin as she got one of his tools for him. Man had Bo ruined a pretty girl for life!
Becky's heart soared as she helped Luke with the car; it was times like these when they were just talking and cutting up that made the butterflies in her stomach begin fluttering about. Sometimes, she couldn't understand why he would never get annoyed with her the way her own brother sometimes did, or like Luke used to do when he and Daisy were little. But she tried not to think about it too much, just settle back and enjoy the feeling while she had it.
"Oh hey, Beck, can you go over there 'n get me my cantine? I think we both need some water," he asked.
"Sure!" she replied, making her way into the barn behind them. She was just about to reach down to get it when a very foreign sound stopped her dead in her tracks.
She slowly raised her lower body back into place and looked tentatively around, and her suspicions were correct when she saw a long, dark object curled up only a few feet away from her.
Luke was beginning to wonder what was taking her so long and called out, "Hey, it's right there in plain view, I know you can't miss it!"
But when she didn't reply, he knew something was wrong. He looked back into the barn to find her standing stone still, her gaze on something on the ground a way aways from her. He looked and his mouth dropped open, his eyes wide as he realized it was a rattlesnake, coiled up and ready to strike.
"Oh god..." he muttered, trying to figure out what to do, only for a moment being mentally paralyzed before he came to his senses and ran inside to grab Jessie's shotgun hanging on the gunrack in his room. 'Becky, just stay calm and stay still,' he was saying to himself as he hurriedly loaded the gun and ran back outside to the barn. "Becky... don't move," he said lowly, aiming the gun, not wanting her to panick and he accidentally hit her.
He heard her moan lightly in response as he made sure his aim was correct, then shot. It just barely hit the snake, who now seemed madder than before. He knew for Becky's sake that he had to shoot it in the head. Easier said than done...
"Alright... let's try this again," he whispered to himself, lining up his shot and praying that it would make it this time.
He pulled the trigger and this time, he saw the snake's head explode and its body started wriggling, which Becky heard and he could hear her whimpering.
"It's okay, Becky, come on," he said, she being only too happy to. She came and stood by his side as he lowered the gun, sighing, "You alright, Beck?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, her voice sounding a little shaky, but then she looked up at him, "are YOU alright?"
He nodded, loosening his grip on the gun and rubbing the top of her head with his palm, "'Course I'm alright."
Becky knew that he had been scared to death, even when he had the gun in his hands and was ready to shoot. He wasn't scared for himself, though, he was scared for her. He was a hero that day, at least in her eyes if to no one else. Without thinking, she wrapped her slender arms around his waist.
He was used to her hugging him, but never quite in serious moments like this, so it had taken him a second to return the hug. But then she broke away from it, seeming a little ashamed that she had suddenly done that. He pretended he didn't see the awkwardness and cleared his throat, "Well, I'm gonna go unload the gun and put it away."
"Okay, I guess I'll head on home for now," Becky replied.
Luke nodded, "Alright, tell Nathan to come on by later with you when Bo gets home or something."
"'Kay... see ya... and thanks."
"I wouldda done it any time, Becky; see ya 'round."