Sammy had just buttoned his shirt and adjusted his collar when he heard a knock on the door. Stepping around the bed, he walked over to the door of his motel room.
"Cooter Davenport! Long time no see." Sammy exclaimed, accepting the both hand that Cooter offered him along with the couple of pats on his shoulder.
"Hey Sammy. You remember Jesse and Bo?" Cooter asked, motioning to the men who stood behind him."
"Sure do. How ya'll doin'?" Sammy asked.
"Fine, just fine. Heard your mom was sick, Sammy. Hope she's doin' better." Jesse replied.
"A lot better, Mr. Duke. Thanks for your concern." Sammy said. "How 'bout you all? Any luck findin' Luke?"
"That would be a negatory." Cooter sighed. "Which is why we come down here to pick up that car you's tellin' me about."
"Because if it's the one Luke was drivin', we thought there might be somethin' in there that could maybe tell us where he is." Bo clarified.
"'Cause we've plum run out of ideas on where he could be." Jesse added.
"Well, I didn't figure ya'll come all the way to Atlanta just to ask about mom. Last time I checked long distance charges was still cheaper than gas prices." Sammy chuckled. "Follow me out to the tow truck and I'll take ya to it."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A short while later they were all at Steve's garage in Acworth. While Steve had taped a note to his door stating that he was out to lunch, the wrecked car was still on the lot, out in the open for them to examine.
"Yep, that's definitely my car." Cooter announced, walking up to the wreck and patting a fender that was adorned with two jagged, rusty scratch marks more than a few years old. "Put these on here myself in the first annual J.D. Hogg Derby."
Bo struggled to speak as he looked up at the smashed up jalopy that would no longer be fit for anything other than the junkyard. "Un…..Uncle Jesse, look at that thing. How could Luke have……."
"He did." Jesse replied, cutting Bo off. "I mean, he had to. Otherwise he'd been found in the car, right?"
"Hey ya'll." Cooter said, pulling his head out of the driver's door window after a short interior inspection. "I hate to lay any more on ya, but this steerin' wheel's got blood on it."
Jesse and Bo went forward as if they had to see the stain for themselves.
"Well wherever he is, he's hurt. That confirms it." Jesse reluctantly admitted.
"That is, if it is his blood. Don't forget some guy could'a stole the car from him and wrecked it himself."
"Oh well I suppose that should make me feel a whole lot better, Cooter." Bo replied sarcastically as he slapped the car. "Maybe you're right and Luke wasn't in that car. Maybe somebody shot him for it and left him layin' in a ditch somewhere instead."
"So if Luke's layin' in a ditch somewhere, how would that explain the bootprint we found?" Cooter reasoned, although it was with a short tone.
"Bo………" Uncle Jesse trailed off.
Bo didn't have to look at Uncle Jesse to know that he expected him to soften his attitude. "I'm sorry Cooter." He replied, giving the mechanic a light hug. "I'm just worried about Luke, ya know?"
"I know." Cooter replied as a small pickup truck pulled into the parking lot of the garage. The friends pulled apart and turned to look at it with little emotion, all except for Sammy, who frowned in confusion.
"Now why are them boys……"
"Uncle Sammy!" Matt replied, leaping out of the truck so fast that it would be hard to determine if it had actually come to a full stop beforehand. "Uncle Sammy, we gotta talk to you!"
"Slow down, Matt!" Sammy exclaimed as the young man took some much needed breaths. "What in the world are you two doin' in Acworth? I thought your Pop sent ya fishin' at the lake today."
"That's what we come to talk to you about Sammy." Anthony added, having joined the group. "That guy….the one that's in that wrecked car…….we saw him!"
"You saw the guy that was in this car?" Sammy asked, pointing to Cooter's wreck.
"Wait a minute, how do they know anything about him?" Cooter had to ask.
"Never mind that for now, Cooter! Didn't you hear what these boys was sayin'?" Jesse asked.
"They're sayin' they saw Luke!" Bo emphasized, as if Cooter actually had trouble comprehending the situation.
"Luke?" Anthony asked. "No, we heard somebody else callin' him Jeremy."
"Sounds like someone did take the car." Jesse pondered.
Bo quickly extracted his wallet from his pocket. "Did he look anything like this?" He asked, hurriedly pulling out a picture he had of Luke.
"Yeah….yeah that's the guy." The boys confirmed.
"Well where is he?" Cooter asked.
"He's over at the lake." Matt replied.
"Did he look hurt?" Jesse asked.
"We'll figure that out when we see him for ourselves. Let's go!" Bo insisted as each member of the party went to their vehicles, vehicles that would each suffer unusual engine abuse as the party made a beeline for Lake Allatoona.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
"You know……" Luke trailed off as he stopped paddling the rowboat and sat gazing at the sunset.
"No I don't know, but I'm dying to hear." Kathleen replied with a laugh as she observed Luke's eyes, the blue even more obvious as he watched the sky being magically painted with red and orange hues.
Luke chuckled a bit at his flub. "I'm sorry. I was just gonna say that…….that this has been a nice evenin', ya know? To tell you the truth, I didn't have much hope for it…not with this amnesia and all."
Well the last part was a bit of a fib. While it was true Luke hadn't expected much from the evening, it wasn't because of his condition. It was mostly because his 'wife' seemed strange at times. She could be sweet one minute, secretive the next, and at times almost demanding. Luke hadn't been sure how to take her before and, in fact, had began to wonder what he would have ever seen in a woman such as her. But with the baby out of the way, clearing some time for them to have dinner, play a game of cards, and talk as they rounded the lake then paddled the boat away from the shore, she seemed to be letting her guard down, displaying some characteristics that Luke would find appealing.
And the more time she spent with him, the more appealing Luke became to Kathleen as well. Without even planning it out, she leaned forward and planted a kiss on his lips.
When it wasn't returned with much enthusiasm, she leaned back and tried to act more nonchalant than she felt. Already mentally preparing herself for the rejection, she was surprised to find herself looking at Luke once again as he came forward for a kiss of his own!
But it was ended much too soon when the sound of a siren could be heard in the far distance, instinctively separating them. When it faded away and they realized that 'Jeremy' wasn't in any sort of danger, they relaxed and shared a nervous chuckle.
"That was nice." Kathleen said after a few moments.
"Yeah." Luke simply replied, already lost in thought.
"What are you thinking about?" Kathleen asked.
"Well………" Luke trailed off. "This is such a nice evenin' that I hate to ruin it, but maybe you oughtta tell me about them cops that's huntin' me at the hospital today. That way if I see 'em out and about I'll know to stay away from 'em."
"Oh…..I suppose that makes sense." Kathleen admitted, both welcoming and dreading the opportunity all at the same time. Greedy when it came to her new man, but still leery of the fact that Luke's memory could come back with the proper stimulation, she wanted to tell him enough details about his family that he would know to stay far away from them, but at the same time wanted to keep the description as simple as possible in order to thwart any memories. "Well they seem to be working undercover. It's an older man and a younger one, kinda tall. As a matter of fact, I think it's the same two that caught you before. I remember that orange car they drove."
"Orange car?" Luke cringed. "Who in their right mind would paint a car orange?"
Kathleen fought hard to hide a smile and managed to shrug her shoulders. "I don't know, but I figure that might be why the color is such a vivid part of your memory."
A memory seemed to be fighting to make itself known, but Luke eventually stopped concentrating as a new headache threatened him. "I think I might be ready for a little rest, Kat. It's been a long day."
"Okay, Jeremy." She sighed in relief, afraid for awhile that she may have revealed too much.
They rowed silently back toward the cabin dock, opting instead to enjoy the remaining display of the sunset, the last calls of the birds to one another, and………..the faraway sound of someone shouting.
In confusion, Luke turned toward the shore. A good distance away stood several people, appearing as if they were flagging him down. While he was too far away to make out any features, he did see that amongst them was a tall youth accompanied by an elderly man.
"You don't think….." Luke trailed off.
"I think so!" Kathleen exclaimed. "Let's get out of here quick!"
Luke immediately began to paddle toward the cabin as fast as he could, and in the exact opposite direction from the observers. Taking several instances to check on his progress and their whereabouts, he was shocked to see the two in question flag a nearby fisherman down and somehow talk their way into the use of his motorboat. In moments, they had began the slow but sure treck toward the duo.
In response, Luke paddled even harder toward the dock. Getting closer to shore, he figured he could at least jump out and climb the bank if worse came to worse.
And then it happened. The rowboat they traveled in came to an abrupt halt!
As the couple paddled backward, then forward, it became more than obvious that they were hung up on some sort of underwater obstacle. Considering himself too chivalrous to abandon a lady to a stuck boat, despite the circumstance, Luke wasted no time as he jumped overboard and into the water, holding his breath and keeping his eyes open to observe the problem.
The problem turned out to be a tree in the water. Now that he knew what it was, Luke vaguely remembered a haphazardly cut stump on the shoreline. Apparently the tree had uprooted at some point and the lake caretakers had simply been content to get it off the path, not especially concerned with where it would eventually rot away.
And now some of the branches of that weeping willow tree had bowed back, balancing the little rowboat perfectly as if it were a dish on a pedestal at a fine meal.
Luke kicked over and quickly worked on the branches, pushing them away as he gave the rowboat pushed back toward the deeper part of the lake.
Just as Luke's lungs were burning for air, he finally knocked the last branch away. Kicking toward the surface, he was surprised when his effort was quickly halted.
In surprise, he looked down. He was shocked to see that a cluster of the thin willow branches had somehow encircled his ankle!
Luke pulled and pulled, but the effort seemed fruitless. Finally, he sought out his pocket knife.
But eventually, the lack of air was too much for him. As he struggled with the blade, he felt himself getting lightheaded as the last of the sunlight slipped below the horizon, bringing complete darkness to Lake Alltoona.
Ya know, that boy's had it pretty rough. 'Bout time he had a break.