"Well, Bo." Billy Kay said, coming up to Bo just as he was getting off the phone and slapping him on the back. "Are you ready?"
"I've been ready for this every since I was old enough to know what a car was!" Bo replied enthusiastically.
"Well, that's good. I'm looking forward to seeing the two of you paired up one more time, you and the General Lee that is."
Bo's smile quickly disappeared from his face.
"What's the matter, Bo?"
"Well Mr. Kay….."
"Billy, Bo. Just Billy."
Bo nodded his head. "Billy, I don't quite know how to tell you this." He took a deep breath. "When you made a deal for me to be in this race, part of that deal was for me to sell you General Lee. Now being in a Nascar race has been a dream of mine for a long time, and I want to run this race more than anything. But I can't do that without a clear conscious."
"I'm not quite sure I follow you, Bo." Billy replied.
"Billy, what I'm trying to tell you is….well, I'm not sure how Boss Hogg shuck-n'-jived you exactly, but, we put General up as collateral against a loan from Boss, and as soon as we paid the loan off, we's supposed to get him back."
Billy leaned against a car for a moment, letting it all sink in. "So what you're trying to tell me is that you had no intention of selling the General Lee to me?"
"No sir."
Billy rubbed his eyes in frustration. "I should have known that fat marshmallow was up to something."
"Look, I'm really sorry. I understand if you don't want me to race today, seein' how I didn't keep up my part of the deal. I'd a told you before but I didn't really realize what was happening until you called me earlier today and told me you had the General with you."
Billy held up his hand. "It's my own fault for not checking things out better. When I get my heart set on something, my brain sort of runs behind. Look, General's already set up to be in the race, and you're already here, so let's just go on with things as planned. I'll deal with Commissioner Hogg when this is all over with."
"Yes sir!" Bo exclaimed in enthusiasm.
"Listen, we still have about a half-hour or so before race time. There's an old abandoned warehouse next door with a good-sized parking lot. What'll ya say about us going over there and getting the General warmed up?"
"I say Yeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaa!" Bo replied.
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"Come on!" Luke exclaimed in frustration as he sat on the freeway going into Atlanta. Traffic was more or less at a dead standstill. Luke despised the concrete barriers that were a part of the wide Atlanta roads. In Hazzard, there were no traffic jams because if a problem existed on the road, you just made a new one.
He looked ahead and saw a short bridge with no shoulder. Just past the bridge, the emergency lane opened up. He planned to hit that emergency lane wide open as soon as he had the chance. Hopefully, he thought, Jesse managed to get ahold of Enos.
He thought back to just a little while earlier. Cooter had driven him and his Uncle to the Choctaw Indian Caves where the real General was rumored to be hidden. Sure enough, it was. It was then that Jesse, who was still recovering from surgery, decided it would be best to return home. Having experience what a ride with Luke was like in a situation such as this, he didn't think it was a good idea to subject his recovering body to such violence. He had informed Luke that he would call Enos to explain the situation and have him contact the Atlanta Police and the Georgia Highway Patrol so that Luke wouldn't run into any problems with the law concerning speeding. He also said he would try to talk with Bo once again, even though the operator at the Speedway didn't seem very willing to make special efforts to find people.
"C'mon lady, just a little more." Luke coaxed the woman in front of him as she slowly inched her car forward. She was the last obstacle in the way between Luke and the emergency lane. After what seemed like forever, she had pulled forward far enough and Luke shot down the emergency lane at full speed.
He had barely begun his trip when he saw the familiar blue lights flashing behind him. "Dang it!" He said, slapping the steering wheel again. Apparently Enos had failed to notify the authorities. No matter. The race was scheduled to start in ten minutes and that's about how long it would take for him to get there at the rate he was going. There was no way he was going to stop.
His first order was to increase his speed. He just prayed that none of the passengers in the stopped traffic suddenly decided to open their car doors and get out for a look. He barreled down the emergency lane sending discarded hubcaps and trash flying in his wake.
The cop behind him was all too familiar with Atlanta speeders. He managed to stay on Luke's tail with no problem.
Luke looked ahead and was horrified. A disabled car was up ahead on the emergency lane!
Traffic continued to be at a dead standstill to his left. To his right, on the other side of the guardrail, was nothing but a sharp drop-off. Luke didn't know what he was going to do.
Then suddenly he spotted his break. Just before the disabled car was a highway exit. He sharply cut the General to the right onto the exit without ever slowing down, the cop still in full pursuit. Luke could not believe his luck.
Down at the bottom of the hill, Luke saw the next element of his salvation. Apparently a crew had been working to add extra turning lanes to the ramp. They had the land graded off and all the excess dirt was pushed up at the very end into the shape of a perfect launching ramp.
Luke easily passed through the lightly weighted caution barrels and increased his speed even more as he approached the ramp.
The General launched up in as smooth a jump as one could ever hope for. He sailed completely over the highway which ran opposite the interstate above and landed perfectly onto the return ramp on the other side.
Soon Luke found himself back onto the same emergency ramp just past the exit, with the cop no where in site. Fortunately, the traffic had began to break up and Luke could re-enter the regular lanes.
"Thank goodness Jesse wasn't with me. That would've tore his stitches open." Luke summarized as he estimated he was still 5 minutes from the speedway.
He actually madeit to the speedway about 3 minutes later, but it could have been 30 as long as it seemed to take. He quickly forced his way inside and past security guards, asking questions all the way until he finally found some of Billy Kay's pit crew.
"Over there over at the old Atlanta Warehouse Parking Lot takin' the car on a test drive." One of the pit crew told him when he asked where Bo was.
"Where?" Luke demanded.
The crew member pointed across the parking lot toward an empty parking lot just next door. Empty, that is, except for Billy Kay's black van, several people standing around, and a brightly colored orange blip racing around madly in circles.
"Bo!" Luke shouted, as if his cousin could hear him. Without any thought as to what he was doing, he began madly sprinting across the Speedway parking lot in an effort to reach Bo on time.
Then something happened. Something that stopped him dead in his tracks.
Luke saw huge flames shooting up from the decoy General Lee, followed by the sound of a large boom.
I know ya'll are looking for me to say something real clever at this point, but for once in my life, I'm speechless.