Author's notes - Well, I've been fighting with the document manager, but I finally decided to get over it and just post anyway, so here's chapter 4.
As always, thanks for reading, and for those who have reviewed, double thanks. It makes worthwhile those moments when the boys won't do what I tell them to do and Rosco refuses to play along and I'm pulling out my hair.
I don't own the Dukes of Hazzard or any of the main characters, and there's no money to be made for what I've put them through. Andy's half mine, half Warner Brothers'.
Chapter 4 – Gators Can't Fly
For a change, Daisy was grateful to have the early shift at work. Usually she preferred the better tips the nights provided, not to mention the fact that those early days were hard to face after pulling a late shift the night before. Then there was the fact that when she worked the lunch through dinner hours, there was no way around having Bo and Luke pick her up. She couldn't chance being spotted in Andy Roach's car, and during the evening twilight, they would surely be seen and recognized by someone. She usually had to pull one early shift sometime during her week, though, and she always dreaded it.
But after last night's brawl, Daisy was pretty relieved to be facing the extremely tame lunch "crowd" which usually consisted of Cooter, Enos, Boss, Rosco and a those few others who worked in town but could get away long enough to eat out. In other words, these were either friends or people she didn't have to watch her back around. She felt awfully bad about what had happened last night. If she'd moved faster to serve the rowdy group, she could have avoided the whole mess. Instead, by the end of the night, both of her cousins had looked pretty miserable, Enos had been forced back on duty, Cooter had actually left before closing time, and she and Al had both worked well into the night to put the place back together. After all that, she hadn't been much company to Andy on the way home, either.
"What's the matter, sweetheart?" Andy had asked when she got into the car without her usual good cheer.
"You were there, weren't you? You saw that mess."
"Yeah, and it's nothing I haven't seen before. It's not a normal week around here if you don't see at least one of those."
"But this one was my fault. Paul Winter was trying to get my attention and I was too busy making sure that my cousins didn't find out that Enos wasn't the one driving me home. If I hadn't been paying more attention to them than my job, it wouldn't have happened."
"Now, that's not true. Those Winter boys were lookin' for a fight all night. Bo just helped 'em out. And he didn't seem to mind doin' it, either."
"No, Bo don't mind a good fight, or even a split lip. But he shouldn'ta had to be fightin' to protect me. Especially since I've been lyin' to him."
"You ain't really lyin', just lettin' them come to their own conclusions. And it's for a good cause, right?"
"Is it?"
"What better cause is there than love?"
Love. Did Andy love her, and did she love him? What, exactly constituted love, anyway? There was no question that she loved Uncle Jesse, Bo and Luke, and had loved her Aunt Lavinia before she'd passed on some years back. She would do anything for any member of her adoptive family. Her mother had died when she was born, her father when she was too young to remember. She supposed she probably loved them, too, though that was harder to define. Could you really love someone you'd never gotten the chance to know? Then there were friends like Cooter, who she cared deeply about, and she supposed that equaled love. It wasn't as fierce a thing as loving her family, but she would go out of her way for Cooter, and she definitely wanted him to be happy and healthy.
This thing with Andy, though, was totally different. It wasn't just that Daisy would do anything for him, but also what doing anything for him seemed to mean. Here she was, misleading her family about him, something she never thought she'd do. In the beginning it hadn't seemed like such a problem, but it was quickly becoming one. First there were the consequences of last night's fight. This morning when her cousins had emerged from their room for the pre-breakfast chores, Bo had looked terrible with a very fat lip and bruised cheek. Luke had appeared physically normal, but was nearly silent. Neither of the boys seemed particularly happy, nor were they speaking to one another in more than monosyllables. The only good thing about it was that at least neither of them had asked her how she got home.
Aside from the brawl itself, though, there was the fact that Daisy couldn't see where this relationship with Andy could go. She could keep a couple of rides home a secret, but how could she hide a serious relationship from her family? And if Andy was using the word love, wasn't this relationship serious?
With a wince, Daisy remembered her conversation with her uncle, which had been about Enos, but certainly fit this situation with Andy as well. She couldn't possibly have a serious relationship with someone who might have to turn her family in for conducting its business. Could she?
Choosing between her family and the one man she felt more strongly for than any other she'd ever met was not something Daisy wanted to do at that moment. Putting off the more difficult decision, she instead determined that she could only continue to see Andy so long as he never asked anything about the family business. If she could compartmentalize her life, maybe she could manage the separate pieces.
Daisy had never been so grateful for an interruption of her thoughts as she was when Enos walked in to make the first lunch order of the day. As the new deputy, Enos got the worst assignments, more than his share of K.P. duty, and the last choice of break times. No one wanted the 11:00 AM lunch break, since it meant going through a very long remainder of the day without another bite to eat. Enos, however, cheerfully accepted his place at the bottom of the totem pole. After all, he was working in his field of choice, and he mostly didn't care if that meant mopping the floors and starving through the afternoon.
"Hey sugar, what can I get you?"
Enos nearly fainted when the barmaid aimed that beautiful smile in his direction. He'd been losing his balance in the presence of Daisy Duke for about a decade now, sometimes with comical, sometimes quite dangerous consequences. Still, Enos figured that if he was going to wind up in the hospital at some point it wouldn't be so bad, so long as the cause was having spent too much time in the company of his favorite girl. Turning distinctly purple, Enos looked down at the bar and said, "Just the usual Daisy," before lifting his head just enough to get a shy glance at her face.
"All right, you just sit right down there and tell me about your day while I get it, sugar."
While she fixed his tomato sandwich and sweet tea, Enos said, "Shoot, there ain't much to tell, Daisy. Just the usual patrol and keepin' an eye out for trouble. What about you? Are you all right after last night?"
"Of course I am. I can take care of myself in a fight."
"Well, I know you can, Daisy. What about the boys? Are Bo and Luke okay?"
"They're fine, Enos. Well, Bo looks a little like he went up against a truck and lost, but he's all right. It ain't even enough to keep him from his chores."
"That's good Daisy, cause I know you all can't keep the farm runnin' as well without both them boys workin' hard."
Daisy took a close look at Enos. Despite the fact that she'd known and trusted him all her life, she found herself wondering if this was just the usual asking-after-the-family that folks in Hazzard always made a point to do, or whether Enos could have an ulterior motive. She wouldn't have thought it possible, except for that conversation with Uncle Jesse. Daisy handed Enos his lunch then made a point of busying herself behind the bar.
Enos, for his part, noticed a slight change in Daisy's demeanor, but wasn't quite sure what he'd done wrong. In case it was his words, the deputy decided not to talk about her cousins any more. "What time did you finally get out of here last night, Daisy?"
"Oh, real late Enos. I don't even know." She remained guarded, this time wondering whether the conversation would lead to exactly how she got home. Daisy decided to take the reins in the discussion. "It helped that Rosco made everyone help us at first. Wasn't he funny last night? I ain't never heard him sound quite that crazy," her eyes danced as she laughed about it.
Despite the intense pleasure he felt in listening to Daisy's giggles, Enos found that he had to put his foot down. "Now Daisy, the Sheriff has a lot to worry about. You ought to show him more respect."
Daisy didn't completely catch the change in Enos' mood. She pressed on, "I don't know Enos. What's been happening down there at the Sheriff's station that would make a man stammer like that?"
Enos stood and said, "You know I can't tell you what goes on in the Sheriff's office. That's official police business and I can't talk to a civilian about it."
Daisy was completely taken aback. This was coming from the boy who'd sat next to her in math and laughed at every silly or snide comment she'd ever made, even if it got him in trouble with the teacher? "Well, okay Enos, it's all right sugar. I was just kiddin', that's all."
"Well you can't go kiddin' about the law Daisy. That just ain't right. I got to go now."
"Now Enos, honey, you didn't finish your lunch. I won't joke about anything, I promise, just eat your sandwich."
"No, I'm sorry, Daisy, I got to get back to work now. I'll see you later, though." Enos practically ran back to the safety of his patrol car. Life was much easier in there.
Jesse Duke watched his boys through a mostly silent dinner. Both seemed unusually interested in the patterns on the plates in front of them. As soon as he reasonably could, Bo excused himself and headed off to the barn, ostensibly to check on the new hound dog pups, but Jesse thought it was just to escape the unbearable quiet.
"Luke?"
"Yeah, Uncle Jesse?"
"You all right?"
"Yes, sir."
"There's nothing you want to talk about?"
"No."
"Then you can go on back up to the still. It's probably about time to drain off the backings."
Relieved, Luke got up to go.
"And Luke, take Bo with you."
Luke considered protesting, but one look at Jesse's face and he thought better.
"Yes, sir."
By the next day, the boys were back to their old selves, or at least as close as they had been during the last couple of months. When it became clear to Luke that Bo actually planned to drop the subject of his behavior at the Boar's Nest, he relaxed and worked easily beside his cousin, just as they always had. Together they ran off a batch of whiskey, then stored it away at the still site. Because there were two of them and they knew each other's next move before it was even made, they finished early enough to go home and get some sleep before rising for the next morning's chores. Seeing them working so well together, Jesse felt quite justified in setting them free for the afternoon.
Having taken Daisy to work, they were out in the car again, preparing for Bo's first intentional hop. He'd gotten some air a few times when he was moving quickly over uneven ground, but this was to be more of a planned, controlled jump.
"Okay, now remember, the landing is the most important part. You can jump fifty feet and it won't amount to a hill of beans if you beach yourself on a rock. So while you're approaching your takeoff point, spot the place you want to land." Luke had to pause to laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"The look on your face. You're so serious. Did you ever look at any of your teachers this way?"
"Of course not. That was school. This is something important."
Chuckling, Luke continued his instructions. Eventually Bo decided that as fascinating as the lecture was, the lab part of this class had to be more fun, so he prodded Luke to let him make the jump. They lined the car up about a thousand feet from a natural ramp at the edge of a narrow, dry creek bed. Luke had chosen the area because the opposite bank was grassy and would likely provide a safe landing no matter how Bo took off.
"One last thing, Bo. Once you decide to jump, you have to commit yourself to it. If you try to pull up, you'll hang the car off the ramp and damage the undercarriage. If you try to swerve out of it late, you could hit a tree or boulder. So once you decide to jump, you have to see it through. Line it up, get up to speed, steady, then give it your all. All right?"
"Got it."
"Go for it, Bo."
Bo was nervous, but he really wanted to do this, more than he had wanted anything in his life, well, other than having spent those three years wanting Luke home, safe. Looking over at his cousin, who was trusting him not only with the car, but also his own safety, Bo committed. Kicking up the loose dirt as he stepped on the accelerator, Bo focused his eyes on the ramp in front, then the grassy area upon which he intended to land. The car felt almost like an extension of his own body, and he used his instincts more than his gauges to tell him whether he'd gotten enough speed. He could vaguely hear his cousin encouraging him, and that, along with the sound of the powerful car's engine, filled his ears with all the information he needed. Just before the ramp disappeared beneath the nose of the car, Bo gave the accelerator an extra shove, and then they were flying, both letting out a rebel yell to express their pleasure.
Too soon for Bo's tastes, the car thumped to the ground, and Bo brought it to a skidding stop. Luke got out to find the impression where they had landed and gave a low whistle.
"Bo, come here."
"What, Luke?" Bo was almost afraid that Luke had found some important part to the car lying in the dirt, sheared by the landing. Instead, Luke just seemed to be pointing to a depression in the grass.
"That's where you landed."
"Right, that's where I planned to land."
"Bo, do you know how far you jumped?"
"Not really." Bo sensed a math problem, and tried to figure out how to get out of having to do the calculation. He was surprised when Luke said, "Neither do I, exactly, but it's at least twice as far as I thought you'd get. Bo, that was amazing!"
Here came the grin that Luke had missed so much while he'd been away, and had hardly seen since getting back, either.
"It was, wasn't it?"
Luke was tempted to say something sarcastic about Bo's swelled head, but he couldn't stand to see that smile fade even a little bit, so instead he threw his arms around his little cousin and said, "Yeah, it was perfect, Bo." Bo hid his surprise at Luke's unusual display of affection, and just hugged him back. The teenager hadn't been this happy in more than three years.
Luke wasn't the only one that was amazed by Bo's feat. Andy Roach had followed the boys at a safe distance after they dropped Daisy at the Boar's Nest. He hadn't exactly expected them to lead him to a still site at this time of day. Besides, he knew they were probably smart enough to watch their tails if they were headed someplace like that, and he didn't doubt that they could shake him if they spotted him. Still, he needed to get a better grip on their schedule if he was going to catch them making a run. He didn't have the heart to use his original plan, which was to somehow trick Daisy into telling him something useful. So he would have to tail the boys and their uncle until they accidentally gave something away.
After leaving town, the yellow Plymouth seemed to be headed nowhere except for a joy ride. The agent had watched as young Bo Duke took the car through a series of turns, spins and skids that mostly spoke of two boys tearing up the Hazzard County dirt for no other reason than the pleasure of it. He was just losing interest in the surveillance when the car stopped and sat still for a long time. Andy hid his car in the tree line on a hill overlooking a field that was divided by an old stream bed, and watched the boys' car for its next move. He pulled out his binoculars to try to determine what they were doing in there. It wouldn't be the first time he'd seen a moonshiner's sons enjoying some of their wares during daylight hours, but usually it would be in a more comfortable and secluded spot than the Duke boys had chosen to sit. And from what he could tell, they didn't seem to have any bottles in the car, at least none in sight. No, they just seemed to be talking. Funny, he'd never noticed either one to be a real conversationalist before.
Intrigued, Andy decided to see his covert operation through to some kind of conclusion. He watched as Luke seemed to make a lot of hand gestures, and Bo hung on his every move. He saw a look pass between the boys, then quickly pulled the binoculars back from his face as the car suddenly vaulted forward. To his amazement, he watched as the younger Duke boy aimed the car straight for the dried up creek. Since he was not a lifetime resident of Hazzard, he did not know the width or depth of the trench that the water had left behind when it abandoned this field, but he did know that it would likely wreck a car and possibly seriously injure the occupants. Was he watching some kind of a suicide pact?
The agent couldn't help but look away as the car rushed the last few feet towards its destruction. He wondered how he would tell Daisy that he had happened to see the whole thing, and whether he could even try to explain the boys' actions. His eyes were closed but his ears were on full alert to tell him when it was all over. He heard an impact, but was surprised that it was more of a thud than a crash. He carefully squinted his eyes back open, mentally preparing himself for carnage. He saw nothing at all.
"Bo, come here."
Andy raised his eyes from the trench itself to the area from which he'd heard the voice. There stood Luke Duke, in apparently perfect health. His cousin Bo was walking towards him. Maybe a hundred feet away from the boys, the Plymouth sat, still idling, and in good condition. The agent could see the area of flattened grass where the car had landed, and between that spot and the car were surprisingly short streaks where the grass had been torn up in a skid. A controlled skid, judging by the straightness of the line.
"He just jumped that creek," the agent muttered to himself, "and he could have jumped one three times the width." Andy shook his head. He would have to be sure, should he find himself chasing them, that the Duke boys did not have access to a creek, gully or ditch. If they did, he'd never catch them. They'd be in one piece on the other side, while he was plummeting to the bottom.
This was going to be a challenge. Despite how he felt about their cousin, Andy couldn't resist the opportunity to chase and catch the Duke boys.
"You shoulda seen it, Cooter!" Bo couldn't contain himself. "After that first jump we went back the other way, and it was even better. Luke and me are gonna find a good place to jump Bowman's Creek tomorrow."
"Bowman's Creek? You sure you want to do that Bo? You miss the landing and the gators'll get ya."
"Gators can't fly, Cooter. They ain't gonna touch me."
Cooter turned to Luke, "You ever think about getting him some help for that pitifully small ego he's got there?"
Luke snickered, Bo sighed. "Funny, Cooter," he said. But his mood was not dampened in the least.
"You just be sure and use those moves on Rosco. I want to see his face when you jump a creek and suddenly he's in the water!"
"You want to see the color of his money when he has to call you to pull him out," Luke corrected.
"That too," Cooter agreed. "Hey, have y'all noticed that ol' Rosco's been a little strange lately?"
"A little!" Bo grinned. "He's always been a little tweaked in the head. But did you hear him the other night at the Boar's Nest? Do you have any idea what he was going on about?"
Luke blanched a little at the mention of the night at the Boar's Nest. He busied himself puttering around Cooter's father's garage, letting Bo and Cooter continue the conversation without him. He was not happy with the battle mode he'd slipped into, but even worse was that he'd done it here, in Hazzard, in front of his two younger cousins. He wanted nothing more than to keep that kind of violence out of their lives. There were things he never wanted them to have to experience.
Luke was brought back to the here and now by the mention of Hatchapee Mine Road. "What about that old road?"
"I was just sayin' that Rosco has Enos watchin' that road for traffic for some reason. I think maybe Rosco's Mama washed his hat and now it's all shrunk up and squeezin' his brain."
"Now why would Rosco care about who goes out that way? And who would bother?" an incredulous Bo asked.
"My point exactly."
Cooter and Bo watched as Luke's face took on that faraway look again, the one they'd been seeing from time to time ever since he got back. But instead of looking hard and cold, his eyes twinkled and a smirk played at his lips.
"Feel up to a little hike, guys?"
"Well, I sure want to be along on whatever adventure you've got planned Lukas, but I can't get take any daylight time away from the garage for a couple of days. My old man would kill me." Cooter didn't necessarily like working for his father, but mechanics was in his blood, and in Hazzard that left him only one place to work – The Hazzard Garage, owned by Jerome Davenport. Cooter knew he'd inherit the garage someday, something he both looked forward to and dreaded. He hoped it would be a few years at least. He wasn't ready to be tied down just yet.
"We definitely want you along, Cooter. Three is better than two when you don't know what you're about to put your foot in. It can wait a couple of days. Whatever Sheriff Rosco's got going on up there, it'll keep a little longer."
Cooter chuckled, "Can't wait to see what it is."
"Me neither," Bo said with a huge grin, both because he was looking forward to the upcoming adventure and because Luke was waving him over to Daisy's car so they could go out and fly some more.