Hey ya'll, sorry about the delay. I went to my grandma's for three days and when I got back I didn't have a lot of time to write. Life can be sooooo busy. Anyway, on to the story!
Friends 'Til the End
Chapter 5: Good news!
Bo awoke to a strange sound coming from somewhere close by. Opening his eyes, Bo closed them immediately when a bright light made his head hurt. After waiting for the pain to go away, he slowly opened his eyes, this time giving them a chance to adjust to the light.
Hearing Bo move around, Timothy looked over at the young man and saw he had his eyes open. Smiling, he stood up and walked over to the young Duke.
"Good to see you awake." Timothy said with a smile. Bo looked over at the grey haired old man.
"W...where am I?" Bo asked, his voice barely a whisper.
"Yer in my cabin just near the county line. Where ya from, son?" The old man asked kindly.
"Hazzard. Oh God, my family must be worried sick about me. I gotta let them know I'm ok." Bo said as he tried to sit up. Instead of sitting up, Bo collapsed back on the couch, moaning a little.
"Easy now son, yer pretty banged up." Timothy said as he gently held Bo down so he wouldn't hurt himself anymore then he already was. "Can you tell me yer name?"
"M'name's Bo…Bo Duke."
"Duke? Now why does that name sound familiar?" Timothy said to himself. "It'll come to me later. Anyway, my name is Timothy Grant. Tim for short. And this is Sammy, he's the one who found you." Tim said, pointing to the blue tick healer hound sitting next to him.
"It's nice to meet you, and thank you for saving me."
"It's no problem. Now you rest up, I'll go fix you some soup. Do you need anymore blankets?"
"No, I'm fine, thanks." Tim nodded as he left the room to fix Bo some soup. Bo snuggled down under the blankets, since he was still freezing from being in the cold water for so long. He hadn't meant to, but after a couple of minutes, he fell asleep. While the soup was warming up, Tim had gone back into the living room to check on Bo. He wasn't surprised when all he saw of the young man was a mop of blonde hair sticking out from under the blankets. Smiling a little, Tim went to the closet and got out another blanket and draped it over Bo. Afterwards Tim went back to the kitchen.
The following day, a search team was formed and instructed to search along the banks of the river for any trace of Bo. Jesse, Luke, and Cooter would search the area inside Hazzard, while Rosco, Enos, and a couple of local Hazzard boys checked in Chickasaw, since the river went through that county as well. Even Boss' nephew, Cletus, was asked to help. While the search teams were out looking, he was to stay at the Duke farm incase someone called with word on Bo.
After an entire day of searching without any results, the search teams headed back to their houses for the night, since it was to dark to search any longer. They planned to pick up their search first thing in the morning.
The next morning, Luke was up bright and early. Since there wouldn't be much time to eat a good breakfast, not that any of them would want to until they'd found Bo, dead or alive, much more preferably alive, Luke fixed a quick breakfast which consisted of toast, coffee, and scrambled eggs. Breakfast was uncomfortably quiet, each Duke lost in their own thoughts. None of them ate very much either, since they were all to worried about Bo to have much of an appetite. Finally at eight o'clock, they were ready to start searching again.
After cleaning off the table, the Dukes went out to their own vehicles, Jesse in his pickup, Daisy in Dixie, and Luke in the General Lee, just as Cletus pulled up in an old blue four door sedan, ready to listen for the phone once again, hoping that there'd be some kind of word on Bo's whereabouts. Luke led the way to an old fishing cabin which was the search teams' temporary base. If anyone in either of the two groups found anything that was where they were to report. The ones who stayed at the base were Daisy and Boss Hogg. They were on standby incase one of the searchers got injured or incase they found Bo and needed an ambulance.
After everyone in the two search parties, plus a few new people, Luke laid out a map of the areas surrounding the river.
"Alright, since we have a few new helpers, we'll need to divide them up into the two existing teams." Luke said as he looked around at everyone. "Ok, Bobby Joe, you will be in the same group as Uncle Jesse, Cooter, and me. The same goes for Billy and Johnny. We'll be searching around the ponds and lakes and any other places the Kokosing River empties into. The rest of you will be in the same group as Enos, Rosco, and Tommy Lee. You'll be searching around in Chickasaw. Remember to check all the places that the river empties into as well. I want everyone to report in every thirty minutes just so we know everyone is alright. Now, if there's no questions, we'll get going." Luke finished. After seeing there weren't any questions, the two groups split up to begin the long day of searching.
"I hope they find him today." Daisy said sadly as she watched everyone leave.
"Don't you worry none Daisy, they'll find yer cousin." Boss said. Even though Boss didn't care for the Dukes', he hated to see one of them hurt or missing.
"Oh, I hope your right Boss; I just can't stand not knowing where Bo is and if he's hurt or not." Daisy said. Boss put a hand on her shoulder as he too watched everyone else leave.
Back in Chickasaw, Bo was enjoying some warm homemade chicken noodle soup. He was feeling better then the day before, but he was still really sore and still a little cold.
"How're you feelin' today?" Tim asked as he refilled Bo's soup bowl.
"Better then yesterday." Bo replied.
"That's good to hear." Tim said with a smile as he handed Bo the soup.
"Thanks. This is really good."
"I'm glad you like it."
Bo smiled a little as he began eating the soup. Once he was finished, he was feeling much better, although he was still a little chilly and still pretty sore. After a minute, Bo started looking around, hoping to spot a phone so he could call Jesse and tell him where he was. After not seeing one anywhere, Bo let out a disappointed sigh.
Tim was sitting in an old recliner, reading a book. Looking towards the young blonde, Tim smiled sympathetically. He felt sorry for the young man and knew how worried his family must be. As if knowing what Bo had been looking around for, the old man stood up and walked to the kitchen, coming back out moments later with a black phone. Sitting it down next to Bo, Tim looked at him and smiled.
"You best call yer family. I know they's worried sick 'bout ya." Tim said as he patted Bo on the shoulder. Bo smiled gratefully at him before picking up the receiver. After asking the operator to connect him to the Duke farm, Bo waited, hoping someone was there.
Cletus had been in the kitchen drinking some coffee when the phone rang. Sitting his cup down, he ran into the living room, almost tripping over himself in the process. He quickly picked up the phone just as it was about to ring for the fourth time.
"Hello, Duke Farm." Cletus greeted.
"Cletus? What're you doin' there?" Came the surprised reply.
"May I ask who's calling?"
"Cletus, it's Bo. Is Uncle Jesse there?" Cletus nearly fell over with shock. He was expecting someone to call saying they'd found Bo, but he sure as heck wasn't expecting Bo to be the one calling.
"Bo! Where are ya? Everyone's goin' crazy tryin' ta find ya! Are you alright?" Cletus practically yelled. Bo moved the receiver from his ear, not wanting to loose his hearing from Cletus' yelling.
"Just calm down Cletus, I'm somewhere's in Chickasaw County. I ain't for sure where at exactly."
Alright, um, I'll get a hold of Uncle Jesse and let him know you called. So, yer somewhere in Chickasaw?"
"Yeah, but like I said, I don't know where at exactly."
"Alrighty, just hang tight. I'll let everyone know."
"Thanks Cletus. I owe ya one."
"It's no problem Bo. See ya soon."
"Yeah, see ya." Bo said as he hung up.
Hanging up the phone, Cletus let out a happy whoop and ran over to the old CB that was kept in the house. Picking up the mic, he pressed the button and began talking.
"Breaker breaker! This is Cletus Hogg callin' the Hazzard search teams, ya'll got yer ears on, come back?" Cletus said, a grin spreading from ear to ear. After a moment, the CB crackled to life and Daisy's voice was heard.
"This here's Daisy, what'cha want Cletus? Come back."
"Daisy, I got good news!"
"You mean, someone's found Bo?" Daisy asked, getting excited.
"I dunno, but they must've, cause he just called here! I talked to him myself!" Cletus said happily. For the first time in nearly three days, Daisy was smiling and actually getting happy again.
"Did he say where he was?"
"He said he was somewhere in Chickasaw, but he wasn't sure where."
"Ok, I'll let the teams know. Thanks a bunch Cletus!"
"It's no problem Daisy, I'm gone!" Cletus put the mic down and ran outside and jumped in his car. Starting the engine, he put it into gear and raced off towards the base, eager to see everyone happy and smiling again after they got the news and got Bo back to Hazzard where he belonged.
Looks like everythin's turnin' out right, don't it? Don't forget, Katie's still out there, and still wantin' to cause trouble. Stick around, ya hear? Thing's are bound to get interestin'.