Balladeer: "Everybody was centerin' in on the weddin' nobody wanted, 'cept Enos, an' he wuddin' too sure. Wuddin' too bright neither."*

Daisy: "Keep your opinions to yourself, or I'll give you bright – as in stars."


Chapter Three: A Fine Kettle of Fish

"Run the rattling pages o'er;
Scatter poems on the floor;
Turn the poet out the door."

Robert Frost


Daisy hadn't been able to change the outcome and wake up to a new day. She thought, 'Maybe it was something someone else had to do or change. If this was a game of cards, she'd try to figure out what the other players were thinking.'

Dressed in her gray-blue frock, with the pink roses, Daisy went downstairs, striving to be as nonchalant as she could, thinking, 'There's only one way to find out.'

The kitchen was like an undertaker's waiting room, with the bereaved family all sitting around in mourning. After forty-three do-overs, this script was getting stale. Was it this dirge-like the first time, on the actual wedding day, or had she not noticed until now? Since she hadn't found a way to make them stop their moaning and groaning, she decided to ignore their surly attitudes, infuriating as that was. She'd bet a week's tips that she'd done that the first time. She couldn't remember.

That was another thing. She hadn't worked at the Boar's Nest in forty-six days.

"Good morning, Uncle Jesse," Daisy said with a smile on her face and light-hearted lilt to her voice. "Good morning, Bo…Luke. Gonna be a nice day for a wedding, don't ya'll think?"

"Yeah, nice day," Luke said with all the enthusiasm of anticipating a root canal.

Maybe she just imagined it – blowing it out of proportion. And why not? Who would blame her if they knew what was going on? But she was alone in this.

"Ya'll won't be late for your appointment at the dry-cleaners, will you?" she asked, reeling herself back in from…wherever.

"No, Daisy. We'll be there on time," Uncle Jesse said. Though not supportive, at least he sounded more sympathetic. Suddenly, she wondered if that was good or bad.

"Thanks, Uncle Jesse." She kissed him on the forehead and went back up to get her gown and wedding heels.

In her room, Daisy reached for her Aunt Lavinia's dress, which she had lovingly placed on a hanger that Friday night a month and a half ago (by the new Daisy timeline – she wasn't sure if time was standing still for everyone else, or moving more slowly, or if everyone else was forty-four days older…).

Sigh

The floor-length gown was made of dotted Swiss lace, with no less than three layers of ruffles in a V pattern on the bodice and four layers of matching ruffles at the skirt's base. Although it had been carefully preserved the best Lavinia and Jesse had been able to afford, that hint of champaign coloring spoke volumes about the age of the garment.

From the jeweler's box, Daisy removed Enos's wedding ring – small gold and silver bands braided between gold outer bands keeping them held tightly together – and tied it into the little hidden pocket under the left side, just under one of the ruffles closest to her heart.

Daisy had seen the dress numerous times since her uncle had said, "Your Aunt Lavinia had that on when I married her. She'd be right proud to have you wear it,"* but never before that first Friday night. It had been neatly folded with tissue paper and smelled of fresh lavender sachet. A testament to Jesse's abiding love for his wife even after she had passed so many years ago. The scent was as fresh tonight as it was when she'd first opened the lid – everything from that Friday stayed the same as it was, never-changing – like everything before her wedding day.

Which is why she was sure there had to be something about Saturday she was supposed to be working out. Her brain or the Universe was trying to tell her something. If she could find it and fix it, the top would stop spinning, and she could get off.

Today – scratch that –this do-over day, her mission was to follow Enos around. He was the other key player in this comedy of errors.

What was the one thing that should have happened on Saturday and didn't? The wedding. What was the one thing that kept the wedding from going forward? The Hives. They were supposed to get married – third time's the charm and all that…Why hadn't she thought of it before?

Maybe because it took this long to figure out it wasn't all about her!

Hells bells. Not only was she talking to herself more, but she also answered herself just as often. And why not? She was the only one who believed her!

Careful Daisy or the Universe might take away that stash of aspirin in the bathroom that never seems to deplete…or refill. Ugh! She was doing it again.

Damn!

Stop it!


Daisy sailed through the day until 2:15 pm, at which time she found herself, once again, in the parking lot behind the Boar's Nest. Enos turned around, and for only the second time since she got stuck in this loop-ta-loop, she was genuinely taken aback by the blisters on his face. She hadn't let the reenactment of her wedding day take her to this part since that first do-over. She remembered it word for word:

["Hi, Daisy."

"What happened to your face?"

"Hives."]*

She remembered gasping.

["It ain't just on my face."

"On our weddin' day?"

"That's why I think I got um. Every time somethin' good happens to me, I break out. I started scratchin' the minute we talked about gettin' married. And now, gettin' ready to walk down the aisle, I––"

"Enos. Are you tellin' me that marrying me is givin' you the hives?"

"My system can't take all that happiness. I…I know it sound crazy but if just thinkin' about it b'fore we get married breaks me out, what's it gonna be like on our honeymoon? Or every day of my wonderful life bein' your husband…I'd scratch myself to death, Daisy."

"What are we gonna do?"

"Well, I'm gonna try to find some way a' marryin' ya and bein' happy without the hives. Maybe between me and Doc Appleby, we can find a way a' stoppin' um."

"It'll take a lot of time, though."

"Anything's really good's worth waitin' for, Daisy."

"Enos, you're the most wonderful man in the whole world. Now, are you sure this is what you wanna do?"

"The way I care for you, it's the only right thing to do right now."]*

When they reached that part, she had a momentary notion to deviate from the original script and plan for the day and try to talk him into marrying her anyway. It wasn't as if she hadn't devised her arguments over and over in her mind in those hours before dawn she'd waited for Saturday to start anew.

Twenty years and counting…How much longer a wait was too long?

But the man was as stubborn as the day is long. Once he got some notion in his head, even her feminine wiles couldn't budge him.

So, she decided to keep with her original plan. Find a cure for the hives before the wedding. Then argue. Or after the wedding, today or tomorrow or however long it takes and then before the wedding when…sheesh.


Managing to get away from Lulu and the crowd at the Boar's Nest, Daisy, still in her wedding gown, yanked the cans off Dixie's back bumper and headed for the farm. The paper bells and garland got ripped off by the wind before she got half a mile down the road.

She wasn't worried about damaging the dress, either. She'd already been through that. Somewhere around the fifth or seventh iteration, Cletus ran into her and spilled punch on the dress. She was in tears thinking she'd allowed something to happen to Aunt Lavinia's gown and ended any chance of going through with the wedding that day by crying her eyes out in Boss's office. The next morning she'd awakened to find the dress in the same condition as it was when she opened the box lid for the first time.

Thus, she discovered another rule...or at least, part of one. The dress couldn't be damaged or likely destroyed. There were other things damaged on one day only to be restored to their original Friday condition. On one of the mornings that she'd forgotten to skip reaching in the nightstand drawer, she'd knocked the alarm clock onto the floor, and both bells were bent. When she awoke the next time, the clock was in the same place on the nightstand, both bells completely intact. After that, she experimented by damaging some unimportant items and found most had returned. She still didn't know whether not finding the other items next time meant there was a flaw in the slaw, or they were just not things that were important to that day. She had no idea how all this was supposed to work.

All she could say for sure was that neither Aunt Lavinia's dress nor her alarm clock could be damaged, as long as the day rebooted…and she'd have no way of proving that until the day actually did change to Sunday.

Pity she would eventually forget that in her efforts to free herself from this whirligig of time.

After changing into jeans and a button-up blouse at the farm, Daisy headed for the clinic so that she could arrive in enough time to intercept Enos.

Pulling into the parking lot, Daisy realized she had slightly miscalculated. Enos's truck was already there, and he was not in it.

'Already inside. Damn. I'll just have to get here five minutes earlier next time,' she thought.


She'd had to face those blisters three more times before she got the timing just right to arrive at the same time Enos did.

Yes, she already tried just asking him to meet her there at a specific time…wouldn't it be great if it could be that simple. Apparently, there were rules to the game she hadn't quite gotten a handle on yet.

"Hi, Enos."

"Hey, Daisy. What are you doin' here?"

She noticed the blisters on his face and neck extended down to his chest – which she could see because the top three buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned, and he wasn't wearing an undershirt. When her eyes went down to his waist, noting his shirt was also not tucked in, Enos's cheeks started to pink, and he began to button his shirt.

She caught his hands. "Don't do that. You'll just be more uncomfortable and make yourself scratch more."

"Daisy, I don't know how much more uncomfortable I could be right now," Enos said, a little nervous laugh escaping along with the words.

"You don't mind if I tag along while you see the nurse, do you?"

"No, Daisy. But I'm not sure why."

"You don't think I'm as interested in finding out why you got the hives on our wedding day?"

"I told you why Daisy. I just can't be that happy an' not get––"

"Horse pucky."

"What?"

"I don't believe it. Somethin' else is causin' this and we're gonna get to the bottom of it if it takes me another forty or fifty times relivin' this day!"


Okay, so that was the wrong way to go about it. Let's try that again, this time without the 'horse pucky' part. Aunt Lavinia never swore, but she had enough substitutes that she didn't need to use the actual words, and that one was one of her favorites.


"You don't mind if I tag along while you see the nurse, do you?"

"No, Daisy. But I'm not sure why."

"I just wanna make sure they're takin' good care of ya, sugar."

"You've always been real good at takin' care of me, Daisy. I don't think I woulda got through that case o' pneumonia last year without all the carin' you done."

"Oh, Enos. You're the sweetest man. Now let's go get you some relief for those hives."

"Hey, Enos." The receptionist said when they entered the clinic.

Daisy had never seen her before.

"Oh, my. What happened to your face?"

The distinct come-hither in the woman's voice made Daisy move closer to Enos. She wrapped her hand around his bicep, only to feel it flinch under her touch. 'He must have blisters on his arms too,' she thought and eased up on her grip.

"That's why I'm here, Joanie. I gotta get somethin' for this rash so I can go on duty in the mornin'."

"I thought I read in the paper you were getting married today," Joanie said with a frown that broadcast disappointment. "Is this––?"

Enos said, "Where are my manners? Daisy, this is Joanne, but she likes Joanie. She's new here in Hazzard. Only been here a week."

A brunette with dark creamy skin and dazzling amber eyes, the woman leaned forward over the counter, and Daisy could have sworn she actually batted her long eyelashes. "My car got a flat tire that first day out on…where was it Enos?"

"Sand Creek Road," Enos said, with a sappy smile.

"That's it. And I didn't have a spare, so Enos drove me into Hazzard to get a new tire, then drove me back out to my car and changed it for me. You don't get that kind of chivalry where I come from."

"Joanie's from New York City."

Daisy tightened her grip on Enos's arm, ignoring the flinch, and said as sweetly as she could muster, "Whoda thunk?...Miss…" She looked at the nametag. "Arcola. My fiancé here is real uncomfortable. Do you think we could see the nurse now?"


References:

* Direct quotes from Season 7, Episode 16 - "Enos and Daisy's Wedding"