Bo sat and glared at the window. Jesse had locked it before he fell asleep and that really wasn't fair. It was getting really hot in the room and now that he came to think about it, it wasn't fair of Jesse to put him to sleep tricking him with the shine either. Since he woke up, all he felt was hot, stuffy and plain awful and that was without the headache included.
It was just far too hot to lie beneath a warm cover when the window was closed and the sunlight was streaming into the room. How was sweltering in a hot closed room going to make him feel any better? He had managed to throw off the covers as soon as he woke up, but he still felt uncomfortable in the heat. He was sweating, and to put it in plain terms, he just felt generally awful.
When they got back from the doctor's, being carried through the door in his older cousin's arms no less, his uncle had told him off good. It didn't help the lecture none that he told Jesse he hadn't felt bad at all that first evening. It was just the next morning that he had felt it and even then he had just not given it much thought. He had an upcoming race he needed to focus on.
Trying to explain that to their uncle was however easier said than done…actually it wasn't done at all.
The tongue lashing Jesse had given him was one of the better ones he had gotten. Each word set off another explosion of pain in his head, and so his mind was solely focused on stopping the wave of nausea that crashed over him with every painful pound. At the time he had been glad that Luke was carrying him to bed, even if he was getting a severe telling off.
The last thing he had heard his uncle say before he closed the door to the bedroom was a threat about what he would do if Bo so much as set one foot out of the bed. At that time he wasn't even considering it.
It was in the morning he wanted to get up, when Luke got up and went out to the kitchen to eat breakfast, telling him quite sternly to stay put where he was. He later returned, bringing with him a bowl of chicken soup that Jesse had made, telling him it would help him recover quicker if he ate it. But that was the last Bo had seen of Luke. Having brought him the soup and some tea it seemed to Bo that Luke considered his duties as a caring cousin to be done. He only told Bo to eat, get some rest and get better, and then he was out of the door.
At that point in the morning though, he didn't feel up to facing the soup, so he settled for sipping the tea. Then he made the mistake of glancing towards the window, hearing a horribly familiar noise…Luke was tinkering away on the General. That was more than he could stand to be left out of. So what if his head was pounding, he was the one who was going to be driving in that race. He wanted to know what Luke did to the General, he wanted to help him. It did after all, concern him. Besides, who said he couldn't take it just as easy out there in the shade? It was even more peaceful out there anyway, with fewer things to distract him and more beautiful sounds to listen to.
It was just his luck that Jesse chose that moment to check on him. Oh, he had gotten quiet enough of those lectures already. It wasn't as if he was trying to do something stupid, he just wanted to keep himself updated on what was happening. Unfortunately for him Jesse didn't really give him a chance to explain anything at all, all he saw was Bo ducked half out the window.
In the end, all Bo got told was just how stupid it was to try and get up with a concussion, and asked if he wanted it to get worse. By the time Jesse was finished with the lecture and had locked the window, Bo's head was pounding again and he felt just about lower that a snakes belly in a set of tire tracks.
He wasn't trying to be a bother and, contrary to what Jesse and Luke seemed to believe, was not trying to break a new stupidity record either. He was only trying to help. He wanted to help. If he won that race, they would never have any trouble with the bills ever again. They could get a new tractor and a new roof on the barn. Daisy wouldn't have to serve beer for tip money anymore and Jesse wouldn't have to worry about how to feed and clothe them. Luke wouldn't even have to worry about what the repairs to the General cost, which would feel not only unusual but also so glorious. They could modify the General to their heart's content, turn him into the race car they always wanted him to be, that the General deserved to be.
He could fix all of that, he could, it was him they wanted to race. They were offering to pay an awful lot of money for him just to enter, enough to make the most important dreams of the family come true. The window might be locked but he could still look out on the farm outside.
How many generations of Dukes had lived here? The ground had been soaked with sweat and blood as each generation labored, fighting any and every system that threatened to take it all away. They always seemed to be just a hairsbreadth from losing it all to those systems that offered nothing but mortgages, bills, taxes and debts. It always seemed that they never knew quite where to spend the last penny. How many times had he and Luke gone out hunting, not for pleasure, but because they couldn't afford to add to the grocery bill.
Luke had even gone against his deepest beliefs and fought that boxer for them to keep the farm. He didn't want to; Bo had almost been disappointed with him because he was so reluctant to do it. He had told them all that if Luke wouldn't fight then he would and he had meant it, because he wanted to help. Because he could never stand by and watch them lose the farm while he was doing nothing.
He had wished that he could step up and do it, he wanted to know that he had done something good. Jesse had taken him in when he had no one else. How do you repay someone for that? How do you make up for all the grief and worry you had cost someone over the years? How could you repay every single loving word, hug, kiss and gesture…if you don't take your only chance to end those troubles once and for all.
It scared him a little to know that it all depended on him, but at the same time it made him so proud that this time it would be he doing something good. Luke being the oldest one was always the one who saved the day and their hides, more often than not at the same time. This time it would be Bo who would do the saving, he had the opportunity to make his older cousin proud, to be like his hero.
He had still been pondering that when his uncle tricked him. It hurt that his uncle would do that to him, especially since sleeping only seemed to serve to make him feel even worse than he had done before he had fallen to sleep. He padded over to the window to look out, but this time he couldn't see either Luke or the General around, which made Bo feel even more down.
Luke had been doing some tune-ups and now he had to be out testing them, and where was he? Put to bed like some kid with orders not to set one foot out of it, which he already had done. He didn't really care though; he was tired of staying in bed.
His head was fine, the headache only got bad when they were yelling at him. He could even agree to let Luke drive for a few days if they really wanted him to. It was this enforced long term stay in the bed room he objected to. He was always the active one out of the two boys, always the one to be found climbing trees, jumping fences and exploring the hidden part of the woods and having to stay in one place for so long was unnerving and aggravating.
He sighed as he looked out the window again. Luke for sure hadn't wasted any time taking off when Jesse had knocked him asleep with the 'shine. If anything, he would have preferred Luke to stay here so that he could at least have someone to banter lightly with. But no, Luke seemed to be more interested in General Lee than helping his sick cousin.
"Bo, what are ya doing outta bed?"
He turned around to face his uncle, who looked none to happy about where he found him. He sighed dreading another lecture.
"It ain't fair Uncle Jesse." He objected. "I ain't feeling that bad. It's only a small headache, and I've had those plenty 'afore."
Jesse nodded. "Back to bed Bo, now."
"Yes sir." Bo murmured, hanging his head as he shuffled back to bed and sat down on it. His back rested against the head board and the sulking look on his face clearly asked his uncle if he was happy. Bo wasn't rude enough to ask it in so many words, but the look said it all.
Jesse sighed as he sank down on the bed to face him. He couldn't really bring himself to be so angry on the boy when he knew the next few days might see his heart broken, and Bo spending more time in this room than he cared to think about. He sighed again and rested his hand on Bo's knee, hoping to try and reason with him.
"I know ya's had headaches plenty 'afore, an' most of them after a late night at the Boars Nest at that. But this is something different Bo. This ain't no ordinary hangover or headache. It's something that could be serious. Now, I know ya don't like to be cooped up in bed…"
"I hate it." Bo interrupted. "It ain't fair, Luke's out there with the General, an' I should be with him."
Jesse nodded. "I know ya want ta Bo, an' ya know I'd never tell ya ta stay put in here if it wasn't fer a good reason. I hate ta see you so miserable and havin' to tell ya off every 5 minutes, it ain't a busherful of laughs for me neither….but neither is standing by and watching ya risk ya health on account of me."
He took a deep breath squeezing Bo's knees fondly, hoping that maybe he could soften the blow just slightly if it should fall later.
"Bo, ya have ta understand that there are some things in life that are far more important than others. An' it ain't always this farm that's got ta come first. What good would it be ta me if I didn't have ya three kids here? Ya mean more ta me than some land and lumber."
He could see in Bo's eyes that what he was saying was registering, but it also seemed to harden his resolve. There was a determination in his eyes that surprised even Jesse with its strength. Standing in the way of Bo wasn't something that was easy to do when he had his mind set on something. He could be far more stubborn than Maudine when he wanted to be, which meant he didn't always listen to reason either.
"I know how much ya love ta race, an' how much it means ta ya. But ya have ta know something too, an' that's that I ain't gonna stand by an' see ya risk ya self an' ya health for nothing. We've managed before, we can again. We mightn't be rich, but it don't matter none as long as we have each other."
He let go of the knee and put his hand on Bo's stomach as well, causing the boy to look up at him and see what he was doing.
"Family's the most important thing we have Bo, more important than anything else. Knowing ya's safe is the only thing I care about."
"I know that." Bo mumbled. "But Uncle Jesse, there ain't nothing ta worry about. I'm fine. I just need to win this race, an' then we won't have ta worry anymore." He looked up and that enthusiasm was shining in his eyes again, the heart-breaking enthusiasm that Jesse felt sure he was not going to see again for a long time.
"I just want ya ta worry about ya'self first, an' that race an' this farm, an' everything else second." He said softly.
Bo nodded, but Jesse still knew he hadn't quite managed to reach him yet.
The boy had a golden heart alright, but it was also all too easy to break gold.
"Just ya take care of ya'self now."
He said softly as he rose to his feet and left the bedroom, turning in the door to smile as he regarded the boy, sitting there in his bed pouting like a peacock with ruffled feathers. He couldn't quite suppress the loving smile, but he tried to make up for it with his gruffest voice.
"An' ya had better not let me catch ya outta that bed once more, or concussion or no concussion I'll be hauling ya sorry hide over ta the woodshed, and tan ya hide good, got that."
"Yes sir."
Bo looked at him, and Jesse found it despairingly amazing how he looked a tad more cheerful at the prospect of getting a switching. Jesse shook his head as he closed the door. The lord knew what was going on in that boys head at times, or if there was anything going on in there at all at other times. One thing was for sure, he was a good kid, he and Luke both, and even Cooter.
They were all good ol' boys, and he thanked the lord for them every day.