Chapter 2: Old Friends

"This is Cooter callin' Uncle Jesse, gotcher ears on, Jesse? Come back."

"Cooter, I ain't your Uncle Jesse."

"Yes sir, Uncle Jesse. Have Bo and Luke come back yet?"

"No, I haven't heard or seen a thing from them since they left. I thought they were supposed to get you those parts this afternoon?"

"So did I. Last I heard, they were heading to the old dirt fields off Oldhall Road in Chickasaw before coming back. Bo an' Luke are my friends, but I'm gonna be mighty mad if they're playin' out there still. I'm plumb out of work without those parts."

"What time were you expecting them?"

"About three hours ago."

"It's not like them to be that late. You couldn't raise them on the CB?"

"No sir."

"Well, let's give it a bit longer. I did keep 'em cooped up in the house all week, and they might've just forgot if they're havin' fun. If we don't hear from them by sunset, I'll go out and have a look for them."

"Yes sir, Uncle Jesse. I'll let you know if I hear from them. I'm gone."

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At about that same time, Bo was stirring on the grass at the side of Oldhall Road. He unsteadily picked himself up and put a hand to his head, looking for the crack in his skull that gave him such a splitting headache. He blearily looked around in the dim shadows fallen on the road as the sun sank behind the trees. Not much to see - an empty dirt road, with a few dried drops of mud where the General had been, and nothing at all where the RV had been. He took a step forward, and his foot kicked his discarded lemonade glass. His heart sank in his chest, realizing what had happened to him and Luke. Luke! Bo looked around quickly, and spotted his cousin lying in the ditch, up to his chest in rainwater.

"Luke!" Bo ran over, relieved to see his cousin was breathing. Grabbing him by the underarms, Bo hauled him out of the water onto drier land, and knelt beside him. "Luke! Wake up, man!" He shook his shoulder roughly.

Luke groaned, wincing before he even opened his eyes. "Bo?" He looked up at his cousin's concerned face.

"I've got some bad news for you, cuz."

Luke picked himself up and staggered a step or two before finding his balance. "Let me guess," he said, rubbing a hand at his temple as they walked up the embankment. "The General's gone, with the girls and the RV."

"You got it."

"So much for chivalry."

"What do we do now?"

Luke surveyed his soaked clothes and looked up and down the desolate dirt road. "Well…we walk. It's fifteen miles back that way to Chickasaw, with the sheriff waiting to arrest us on sight just for existing, or it's who-knows how many miles that way back to Hazzard. Flip a coin, cause I don't much like the odds either way."

"If I had one to flip. Let's head for Hazzard. At least that's territory we know."

"Sounds fair to me. Atchoo!" Luke sneezed. He reached for his handkerchief, only to realize it was as wet as the rest of him. Bo offered him a clean dry one. "Come on, it's gonna be a long walk."

With heavy hearts, empty stomachs, and pounding headaches, the Duke boys set out east along the dirt road. The girls weren't lying earlier when they said they hadn't seen a car all afternoon - it was as lonely a road as the boys had ever seen, with not a farmhouse for miles. The temperature dropped quickly as the sun set and the shadows on the road deepened. Luke was shivering before long. To make matters worse, his newly healed leg grew more stiff and sore with every mile, not used to the effort, and he started lagging behind his cousin. As soon as Bo noticed, he called a stop. Luke was glad of the rest no matter the reason, and eased onto a log fallen by the roadside while Bo disappeared into the woods to, ah, find a tree. After a few minutes he came back out, and found Luke rubbing his arms, trying to get warm.

"Here," Bo said, pulling off his tan long-sleeved outer shirt. "Take that wet jacket off, put this on."

Luke hesitated for a moment - he didn't want Bo to be cold in his t-shirt either - but agreed, pulling off his soaked denim jacket and plaid shirt and accepting the offered shirt. Bo was a bit skinnier than him, but the shirt fit well enough, and was much warmer against his skin than his own wet clothes. There was nothing to be done for his jeans and wet boots, though, and he still shivered some. Well, sitting around wasn't gonna get him anywhere warm, so he stood up, holding his wet clothes in one hand.

"Ready to go?" he asked, taking a couple limping steps forward.

"Here, Luke," Bo said. He came around Luke's right side and pulled Luke's arm around his shoulders, so his cousin could lean on him for support. They tried a couple experimental steps, and when Luke found how much it helped, he thanked his cousin.

"Well, Uncle Jesse's likely to whup the both of us if we're not home for church Sunday, so…" Bo joked, trying to lighten the predicament.

Luke chuckled, and they hobbled along. The evening breeze was cool on both of them now, and Luke figured they had made maybe three or four miles in a little less than two hours - not very good time. He had hoped they'd see a sign of life by now.

"How do you figure we're gonna find the General?" Bo asked what both of them had been thinking in the silence.

"I don't know…For starters, we ought to report it stolen, and let Cooter know…Cooter!" Luke exclaimed. "All his parts were in there! Aw, he's gonna kill us!"

"Us? It was you who stopped, if I remember right."

"Yeah, and it was you who was trippin' over yourself to change that tire. But fightin' about it ain't gonna get us anywhere," Luke added as Bo started to protest indignantly. "Let's just concentrate on getting home first, and then we can figure out what to do from there."

They walked on in silence as full dark settled on the land and the stars came out, with a reluctant three-quarter moon trudging through the sky. The moonlight lit the countryside like a bright spotlight on a stage, and the going was easier once the Dukes could see the road clearly. Once they frightened a small herd of deer feeding in the underbrush, reminding Luke of his bow. He was glad they'd left both bows behind this time to save room in the trunk.

A hollow sound made Luke stop - the sound of a distant engine. Bo heard it too, and they listened to see if it was coming closer - it was. Soon headlights appeared bright in the darkness, headed towards Chickasaw, and they stepped towards the side of the road, waving at the driver. The pickup truck slowed down and stopped beside them, engine rumbling, and an unfamiliar man leaned over towards the passenger side.

"Need a lift? You boys look a bit tired," the friendly old man offered.

"Well sure, mister, we…" Bo began, reaching for the door handle.

Luke put a cautionary hand on his cousin's arm, once bitten twice shy. "Hang on, Bo. Our car got hijacked from us a ways down the road," he explained to the driver, "and we've been walking for a while. We'd appreciate a ride, but you'll understand if I'm a little wary of another stranger on this road."

"Bo?" The grey-haired man asked. "Bo Duke? And little Luke? Are you Jesse Duke's boys?"

"Sure are, mister - do we know you?" Bo asked with a friendly smile.

"Why sure! I haven't seen you boys since you was little pups! How's Jesse doin'?" Seeing Luke's dubious expression, he bit back his enthusiasm and introduced himself. "My name's Jed Hawkins. I live back in Chickasaw just at the other end of this road, in what used to be Willet Hall that this road is named for. It's Hawkins Hall now, since my son bought it."

Hawkins…Hawkins…the name rang a bell with Luke. He squinted at the grizzled face. "You used to come over for Sunday dinner every week, for a while," he remembered. Bo looked at the man, trying to recall. "You were only four, Bo. I was nine. But you stopped coming."

Hawkins smiled gently. "Yes, your Uncle Jesse was mighty kind to me after the missus died. My son was at medical school in Chicago, we hardly talked, and I was all alone, so Jesse had me join your family for dinner once a week. And you boys and your cousin Daisy couldn't get enough of the rock candy I'd bring for you."

"Oh!" Bo exclaimed. Now he knew the man.

"Of course, you mention food and he remembers," Luke remarked to Hawkins.

"Well, would you boys like a ride, or you gonna stand out there all night?" he reminded them. This time Bo and Luke both eagerly climbed up into the truck cab. Hawkins closed the windows and cranked up the heat, noting Luke's wet clothing. "Are you still at the farm on Mill Pond Road?" he asked, turning the truck around.

"There'd be ten generations of Dukes rolling in their graves if we wasn't," Bo half-joked.

"I imagine so," Hawkins replied, familiar with the Duke heritage and personality.

As he drove, they talked, telling him of the day's misadventure, of Uncle Jesse, of themselves. Luke could see that walking this road would have taken them all night and most of the next day before they saw a single farmhouse, it was so little used. Hawkins said it used to all be land owned by the Willet plantation way back in the day, but now the parcels that had been sold off were lined rear to rear along Oldhall Road, with homesteads and driveways facing paved roads across the long fields and forests. He liked to drive it because it was so peaceful and quiet, and it offered excellent hunting. There were two deer, a buck and a doe, in the bed of the pickup. Bo was impressed with the eleven-point kill, and said as much, asking about Hawkin's strategy. The old man was about to explain when another set of headlights appeared down the road, coming towards them from Hazzard. Luke recognized the familiar headlights first.

"That's Uncle Jesse's truck."

"He must be out here lookin' for us," Bo concluded correctly. Hawkins slowed his truck to a stop and flashed his lights to Jesse, who likewise slowed and stopped.

"Boys, is that you?" he called from the truck cab through the open window. Hawkins rolled his down, and Luke shivered at the blast of cold air.

"Yeah, it's us Uncle Jesse!" Bo called back.

"And…well I'll be, Jed Hawkins!" Jesse exclaimed. "I haven't seen you for nigh twenty years!"

"Well, I've been away for nigh twenty years, since I moved north to live with my son. We've moved back here now, in Chickasaw, a few months back - he wants to open up a practice down here," Jed explained.

"Thank you for pickin' up the boys…I'm sure I want to hear this story. I'll take 'em from here, though, no need for you to drive all the way back across Hazzard tonight."

Bo and Luke climbed out of Hawkin's truck, thanking him, as he ruffled through his pockets looking for something. Pulling out a white card, he exclaimed "Ah! Here it is! John had these cards made up, with our address and phone number." He handed it to Jesse through the window. 'John Hawkins, M.D.' the card title read. "Give me a ring some time, we'll have you over for dinner."

"I'd like that," Jesse said as the boys settled themselves in his truck and shut the door. "Thank you again, Jed."

With waves goodbye, both trucks set off, each turning back in the right direction. Luke cranked up the heat again in Jesse's cab as he and Bo explained the afternoon's events. As they turned onto more familiar Hazzard roads, Bo called Cooter on the CB and briefly explained what had happened, apologizing for the loss of the parts. Cooter wasn't really that mad, but glad that the boys were alright, though the parts were a hard loss. He promised to put an ear out on his contacts for the General or the parts.

When they reached home, it was nearly 9pm. Daisy wasn't home from work at the Boar's Nest, but she'd left dinner in the refrigerator. Jesse set about reheating the pot of beans and the few scraps of ham hiding in it, while Luke change clothes and Bo put in a call to Rosco to report the General stolen. Rosco, as usual, didn't believe a word Bo said, and refused to take any report.

"Listen, Rosco, I'm serious! It was these two women in an RV…"

Rosco chortled with delight. "You had your car stolen by a couple of women? Serves you right, Bo Duke!"

"But Rosco…"

"No! You listen to me, Bo! I don't know what you Dukes are up to now, but I won't have any part in it, and I'm not listening to your lies a minute longer!"

"But…!" A dead tone met Bo's ear - Rosco had hung up, probably laughing some more. Bo sighed and hung up the phone. Luke was just hobbling back into the kitchen on his sore leg, and Jesse was serving their dinner onto a couple of plates. Bo's stomach growled - neither of them had eaten since breakfast - and he was disappointed by the meager dinner. He said so as he sat down.

"Well, if you'd gone out hunting instead of heading to Chickasaw to play, you might be eating venison for dinner!" Jesse scolded, giving Bo a warning look as he started to pick up his fork.

Luke gave him a exasperated look, folding his hands before him. Bo should know better than to complain about food, for one, and he should know better than to irritate Uncle Jesse more, for two. When his cousin was ready, Luke said grace.

"Bless us Lord, in these gifts for which we are about to receive through thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen."

"Amen," Bo echoed, glancing up at Jesse before reaching for his fork.

It was a quick meal, and Luke was sure Bo had set a personal record. As they washed their dishes, and the empty pot, Jesse sat at the table and asked about their plans for the next day.

"Well, we need to go hunting before we do anything else," Luke replied, very aware of their double failure that day. "Then I guess, if we can borrow your truck, Uncle Jesse, we'll go into town and try to talk some sense into Rosco, get him to put out an APB on the General and those two girls."

"Good luck," Bo grumbled.

"We have to try." Luke stifled a yawn. "In the mean time, I'm going to bed. I'm beat. Goodnight, Uncle Jesse, Bo." He left the cupboard open for Bo to replace his clean plate and limped back towards their bedroom. Jesse watched him go, regarding his limp with a frown. Closing the cupboard, Bo followed his gaze and guessed at his frown.

"He said it was just sore," Bo explained as Luke shut the bedroom door. "We walked some five miles before Jed picked us up."

Jesse nodded thoughtfully. "Well, I'm off to bed myself. Goodnight, Bo."

" 'Night, Uncle Jesse."