Chapter 7
When we left this adventure, poor ol' Enos had lost the tape recorder again. I hope they find it before Boss Hogg and Rosco do.
"What do ya mean it ain't there no more?" asked a panicky Bo.
"Relax guys," Luke cut in before anyone else could say something. "Enos, you musta knocked it down. It's right down here. I have it."
All of Dixie's other passengers breathed a sigh of relief. Luke, Bo, and Enos each wore a smile bigger than the state of Georgia.
Well, ain't that good folks? Them boys' luck might be turnin' around after all.
In front of them, Rosco did a power slide. Boss Hogg's driver encased them in by also doing a power slide. Rosco at once stepped out of his car.
"Alright you Dukes!" Rosco commanded.
"And a Davenport," Cooter pointed out.
"And a Strate," Enos added.
Rosco mumbled something incoherent. Then he said, "Freeeeeeeeeeeeze!"
They all froze, literally, no matter what position they were in, so they looked like statues.
"Thank you," Rosco said before advancing closer to Dixie. After coming to a stop once more, he ordered all four visible passengers to come out.
Once they did, Rosco began searching them. When he got to Daisy, she had a few objections. "Rosco!" she demanded. "What d'ya think you're doin'?"
"Searchin' ya," Rosco replied simply. After finding nothing, he went on to search the car.
Uh-oh. He's gonna find poor Luke. Hope Luke's gotta plan.
Which he did. Rosco lifted the blanket and called out to Boss Hogg.
"Boss, Luke Duke is down here. We got 'em! Khee khee!" Rosco was real excited.
Boss was, too. "Yeah! Oh, we got 'em alright! Nice job, Rosco!" Even Kristen had her ever-radiant grin on her face. This made Bo so angry, he wanted to beat her to a pulp. Then he remembered it was only a few hours before when he was completely in love with her.
"Ya'll are under arrest," Rosco began, feeling smart because he knew exactly what he was doing, "all four of ya. For harborin' a fugitive."
Luke sat up. "Not so fast Rosco." He picked the tape recorder up off the floor. "This here tape recorder will prove me an' Bo are innocent."
Bo, Daisy, Cooter, and Rosco had never heard the exact contents of the tape. So when Luke pressed the "play" button, they all listened intently to Boss Hogg and Kristen's conversation. At the end, Boss Hogg screamed "Rosco! Confiscate that recordin' device!"
Rosco lunged at Luke. But before he could get it, Luke tossed it to Cooter. Boss Hogg tried to get it from Cooter, but he tossed in Bo's direction, but Kristen intercepted it. She smirked at Bo and said sarcastically "Sorry sweetheart." Bo glared at her, but she wasn't phased by it. "Rosco, catch!" she said before tossing it to him, but this time Daisy intercepted it.
"Sorry sweetheart," Daisy said, imitating the exact tone of voice Kristen had used on her little cousin. Kristen ran toward Daisy, but Daisy quickly tossed the recorder to Enos. Then Daisy went on to fight with Kristen.
Ain't she feisty? She's a Duke alright. Sticks up fer her family. Y'know, I like that in a girl.
Luke used Daisy's attack on Kristen as a diversion. While Boss Hogg, Rosco, and Kristen were distracted, Luke signaled to Enos to toss him the tape recorder. He did. Bo watched this occur, and when it was over he pulled Daisy off. "Whoa, hang on Daisy, she ain't worth it."
Boss Hogg then remembered the task at hand. "Rosco! Get the recorder from Enos!"
"You got it Boss! Gook, gook!" Rosco chortled. He walked over to Enos.
"Sorry, sheriff, I don't got it," Enos said.
"Well, who does?" Kristen wondered aloud through a lip that was fatter than her uncle (if you can believe that)
Luke had a plan for this. "We'll tell you who has it, and even give it to you if ya let us go. On second, thought, we'll keep it fer a while to make sure you keep your word. If ya go back on it, I'm sure Uncle Jesse'll be glad to show it to the state police. You could do some jail time. You too." He looked at Kristen.
Boss thought about this for a moment. "Alright," he said somewhat reluctantly, "you win." He looked around and set his sights upon Enos. "Come here, Enos."
Enos nervously made his way over to the Boss. When he stopped, Boss Hogg wasted no time in ripping off the badge. "You're fired!"
"Wait a minute Boss," Luke interrupted. "If you fire Enos, well, remember, we still have the tape."
"Dah! Oh alright Enos, you're unfired!"
All the Dukes, plus Cooter and Enos smiled. "Thank you, Luke," Enos said gratefully.
Bo answered for his cousin. "Well, you did all that fer us. We was just repayin' ya."
And that's the legend of how Enos helped the Dukes out of a jam. Everything returned to normal in Hazzard, whatever that is, except for Bo, who suffered from a broken heart. But we'll let Uncle Jesse fix that.
Bo sat out on the porch swing staring out into the night. It's strange, he thought. This mornin', I hated Cooter, and I loved Kristen. Now it's the complete opposite.
He heard the screen door open and close. Without looking up to see who was there, he said, "I wish Cooter would have been wrong about Kristen."
Bo still didn't look up, but he knew he was talking to Uncle Jesse when he felt his uncle sit down beside him.
"She's not a great loss, Bo," Jesse pointed out.
"I know, that's the problem. If she had been, I wouldn't feel so stupid."
"What d'ya mean, Bo?" Jesse asked his youngest nephew.
"Just that." Bo sighed before going on. "How could I have been so blind? I couldn't see what was right in front o' my face evenwhen one o' my best friends showed it ta me."
"D'ya feel too stupid ta look me in the eye?" Jesse waited for Bo to finally look up before continuing. "Ya were in love, Bo."
"Maybe, but I almost got me an' Luke arrested, which would have gotten you and Daisy evicted from the farm. I almost got Enos fired, no, wait, I almost got him and Cooter and Daisy arrested, too."
"Bo," Jesse shifted himself so he could look more directly at his nephew. "Let me tell ya a story about a young man, who was prob'ly bout a year or two older than you are now."
Bo raised an expectant eyebrow.
"He was just like you. Same personality, and he looked a lot like you, too."
Bo could see a mischievous twinkle in the older man's eye. He decided to confirm his suspicions. "What was his name?"
Jesse looked out to the barn, where Toby the cow was. "His name was, uh, Toby. Anyways, he was an exceptional moon shiner. Once, he had a lady client, and they fell in love. I believe her name was Maudine."
"You mean like our mule?" Bo cut in, stifling laughter.
"That's right, just like the mule. Anywho, Toby and Maudine were in love, or so Toby thought. One day, Maudine turned around and tipped off the police where Toby and his brother, uh, Carl, were gonna make a moonshine run, cause she wanted the reward money. The police set up a roadblock. Them boys, they outran the police and then threw the moonshine in the river to destroy the evidence."
"Uncle Je-" Bo started.
"Hold yer questions till the end. Now, where were we? Oh yeah! Well them boys' clients heard about that, an' they was real angry. They came after Toby and Carl, and one of 'em shot and killed Carl." Bo saw a glimmer of tears forming in the older man's eyes, and he knew this story was somewhat true.
"Toby felt horrible. He had already figured out Maudine was the one who told the police. He felt his brother's death ta be all his fault."
"Why?" Bo asked. "He didn't pull the trigger!"
"Think about that, Bo."
Bo thought about that for a moment. "Oh. I get it. I guess yer right Uncle Jesse. None o' that was my fault."
"Feel better now, Bo?"
Bo laughed. "Yeah, except I still feel kinda stupid, but now it's because I didn't see that one comin'."
Jesse laughed, too. "That'll go away soon. But fer now, I'll tell ya the rest of the story."
"There's more?" Bo was curious.
Jesse nodded. "Ya see, Carl had gotten some girl pregnant just before he got killed. She had a baby, but she died durin' the birth. The baby was a girl. She was turned over to Social Services. Toby found her when she was about two, when his own new wife was pregnant, so the girl came ta live here at the Duke farm."
"Daisy," Bo murmured. "That means you did make up everyone's names."
"Guilty," Jesse announced.
"So this 'Toby' was my . . ." his voice trailed off.
Jesse nodded. "Yup. He was yer papa."
Ain't that an interestin' piece of Duke family history?
Jesse stood up. "Well, I'm gonna call it a night. Ya comin'?"
Bo nodded and followed Jesse inside.
Now folks, that's the end o' this here tale. But there's bound ta be more trouble in Hazzard soon. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?
THE END
A/N: There it is! Okay, this is pretty sad, but I've made it my life long goal to figure out how we know Bo is younger than Daisy. If you have a good answer, please say so in the review that you are about to write. PLEASE REVIEW!