"The best way is not to fight it, just go. Don't be trying all the time to fix things. What you run from only stays with you longer. When you fight something, you only make it stronger."
Chuck Palahniuk
NEW REVELATIONS
Standing in front of the kitchen's window, Daisy stared at Enos as he talked with Bo and Luke, three men chatting 'bout engines, their eyes focused on the General Lee, as so many times in the past. She sighed and she faintly smiled.
"Enos's out there?", uncle Jesse, standing in front of the sink, turned to his niece wiping his hands after doing the dishes.
"Yeah, he's talking with Bo and Luke. They seem busy with the General's engine"
"A good sign"
Daisy nodded. Three days passed since Rose Strate's funeral, and she couldn't forget Enos' reaction that evening, his panic and his pain; she couldn't forget his tears and his distress that night, his passing from an agitated sleep to a confused desperation, his looking for her body in those confused moments, between awake and sleep, between tears and desperate kisses. He spent the day after sleeping (or pretending to sleep, she couldn't say it for sure), and then, finally, he got up and he started to act in a nearly normal way: he started to eat something more, to talk and, surprisingly, to smile, faint smiles but smiles.
Looking at him with Bo and Luke, a scene so similar to many other scenes along the past years, her heart stirred, both with relief but with worrisome too: he didn't know 'bout Andrew Salinger, yet, and, now he seemed recovering from his terrific grief, he had to face something that could shock him, again.
They couldn't wait: they knew he had to come back to his work (Boss granted him only one week off after the funeral), and they had to talk to him BEFORE he left the farm, BEFORE someone else talked to him. A hard and ravaging task, but they couldn't avoid it.
Uncle Jesse came closer Daisy and he looked outside the window, in his mind her same thoughts.
"Daisy, I think it's time to talk to Enos 'bout… that thing", they referred to their task as "that thing", "I know the funeral was only three days ago, but he's goin' to come back to the boarding house and to his work… so we can't wait any more. He won't stay here at the farm forever, as a pea in a pod".
Daisy swallowed against the lump in her throat, "I know, uncle Jesse, I know".
Outside the window, Luke rested his arm on Enos' shoulders and he patted gently on Enos' belly, in a confidential and friendly way, men's way, telling something Daisy couldn't hear, and Enos, surprisingly, laughed briefly, blushing, as Bo and Luke looked at each other with a knowing smile: engines and women, men's usual chatting, a common scene of friendship between good old friends. Daisy wondered if she was the woman they were talking 'bout, the woman why Enos blushed, and, reflecting Enos' blushing, she blushed too; were her cousins teasing Enos 'bout his virginity (now lost, but they couldn't know it, could they?) like many times in the past? Pretty improbable, or she hoped so.
When she felt her uncle's hand resting on her shoulder and gently squeezing it, the fire on her cheeks disappeared as every speculation 'bout Bo, Luke, and Enos talking, and she looked at uncle Jesse coming out the kitchen.
"Enos, boy, we should… have a talk".
Uncle Jesse's voice was hoarse, and Daisy saw Bo and Luke freezing, looking at each other, their features tight; Enos too stiffened, looking at uncle Jesse and then at her, a silent question… or a calm resignation. She couldn't help but folding her arms around her waist, a sudden blast entering the kitchen's opened door and hitting her like a icy slap: it was still winter, a long and cold winter, after all, and spring seemed so distant.
She forced herself to smile at Enos, probably a pitiful smile, since Enos' eyes became more and more sad, then she headed to the living room, before her family's men (yeah, Enos was definitively a man of her family, now) came in, and she rekindled the fireplace: they needed warmth.
When Enos sat on the couch she sat by his side, catching his right hand and squeezing it; he answered to her touch, squeezing her hand and having a deep sigh. He knew, somehow, a pesky and painful talk was going to start: Daisy's by his side squeezing his hand, uncle Jesse sitting on the near armchair, and Bo and Luke standing near the fireplace, their eyes lost in the fire… everything was a sign of an upcoming painful talk, and Enos could guess 'bout what.
Uncle Jesse cleared his throat, "Enos… I think you should know 'bout… some rumors here in Hazzard".
A long silence filled the living room, uncle Jesse's words somehow resounding in the room as in cave, or it was Daisy's feeling as she held her breath, Enos' hand squeezing more and more her one.
"I supposed everyone is talking 'bout… how my mother… did it… and 'bout the fact she wasn't alone", Enos' voice was like a whisper, his eyes lost in the fireplace, or in something beyond the fireplace.
Uncle Jesse sighed, "Yeah. Before to go on, just a question: Enos, do you know something 'bout that man? Anything 'bout him?". Uncle Jesse remembered Miss Kate telling him Enos didn't know anything 'bout that man, but, despite he trusted that woman, he somehow felt Enos knew something: intuition, age, wisdom were his help, and they rarely failed.
And they didn't fail, not even this time.
Daisy felt Enos' body stiffening near her, in an inner fight, a long and exhausting fight before he decided to answer to uncle Jesse's direct question, "I saw him… only one time, when I was a child. He… was with my mother… and they were kissing. I don't know when they started to… meet, maybe even before my birth, maybe… he's my real father". After his words he relaxed, as he's just relieved himself of a heavy weight, a weight carried for a long time, a too long time.
Everyone in the living room looked at him in shock: did he know 'bout her mother and that man since he was a child? Did he see his mother kissing… a man different from his … reputed… father? Did he think Thomas Strate wasn't his real father? And did he hide it to everyone? It was surprising how shy and transparent Enos could sometimes totally stun them with his way to conceal things (facts and emotions) inside him so hermetically.
After the shock, uncle Jesse asked what everyone was wondering 'bout: "Did you know who he was? Did you know his name?... DO you know his name?"
Enos shook his head, "No. I remember his face since then, but… no, I didn't know his name, I don't know his name. It doesn't matter, anyway. He's… dead, and my mother too"
Dukes looked frantically at each other: he didn't know the man's identity, but he already thought that man could be his real father. Telling him who that man was like slapping him, now, but if they hadn't "slap" him, someone else would've did it, in a rougher way and with worse consequences.
Uncle Jesse threw the bomb; there was no choice, no other way to tell it.
"His name was Andrew Salinger"
And he waited the bomb's explosion.
Before the explosion, a silent implosion sucked all the air inside the farm; Enos' look, lost in the fireplace, changed from that sort of emptiness into a forced recalling (recalling where and when he heard that name), then into revelation (a terrific revelation: that name was an infamous name in Hazzard, and especially at Dukes' farm) and then into shock.
And finally, the explosion: Enos suddenly stood up, freeing his hand from Daisy's grasp, and he ran out the farm, Bo and Luke, after a brief moment of confusion, running after him.
So strange, Dukes running after a lawman instead of the usual contrary.
Fortunately he didn't run to his car, but he ran away the farm, along the dusky road and then into the wood, heading to nowhere, only running away, away from reality, Bo and Luke after him.
He ran as fast as possible, his lung in fire, his heart trying to jump outside his chest, every muscle of his body aching as if someone beat him with a baseball's bat. He could hear only the sound of the wind in his ears, and it prevented him to hear his name shouted by his friends behind him.
A problem with his right knee (an old injury from high-school) and his innate clumsiness made him stumble so Bo and Luke reached him, their hands grabbed his shirt and they pushed him to the ground: a ruinous fall of all of three of them.
Panting, Enos tried to stand up again, but Bo and Luke didn't allow him to run away again. Luke pushed him again to the ground, and he sat astride him, his knees firmly pressed against Enos' ribs, "Enos, STOP!, please".
Luke's tone, imperative but sweet at the same time, calmed Enos down; he closed his eyes and he stayed still under Luke's pressure, his breathing heavy.
"Luke, leave him". Daisy walked toward his cousins and Enos, and Luke, standing up, noticed she wore her tennis shoes instead of her boots, and she was panting after the long running; he remembered how may times they ran into those woods when they were children, trying to catch each other, Enos usually the one stumbling, and Daisy a tomboy who could run after them: at that time three boys and a tomboy having fun, now three old boys and a beautiful woman facing life.
Daisy knelt by Enos' side, caressing his cheek, "Enos, sugar, please, open your eyes and look at me".
Since they were children Daisy had a great power on Enos, being able to convince him to do whatever she wanted to, and sometimes abusing of her power. Old times.
She looked into Enos' eyes, "Enos, I love you, no matter who's your real father, no matter who's your mother's lover. You are YOU, and I know you since we were children. I love YOU. NOTHING can change it". She bent down and she kissed him, as Bo and Luke, exchanging a smile and a knowing look, looked away, a bit embarrassed of that plain manifestation of love between their friend and their cousin.
When Enos slowly stood up they approached him, patting on his back.
"It's the same for us, Enos. I mean… nearly the same, change the word love with affection and don't wait for a kiss from me", Bo patted gently on Enos' cheek, smiling, "Nothing's changed, for us. You are YOU".
"Thank you", a faint smile appeared on Enos' face and his eyes filled with tears, "thank you".
"Hey, don't try to run away from us. Never again", Luke sweetly patted on Enos' nape, "never again, OK? Besides, YOU are the one who usually has to catch us… and by car".
The three old boys and the beautiful woman burst out laughing, a laugh of relief, and then their laugh turned into a long and tight hug: Daisy hugged Enos, and Bo and Luke hugged the couple.
When they finally arrived at the farm, uncle Jesse was waiting for them on the porch, clearly worried, but his worrisome changed in relief as he saw their calm faces, the way Daisy's arms were wrapped around Enos' arm and the way Bo's and Luke's hands rested on Enos' shoulders. That image turned, in his mind, into a older image: three boys and a tomboy covered with dust (or mud) coming back to the farm after an afternoon spent running everywhere and getting into troubles.
Uncle Jesse smiled and he came into the farm: Bo and Luke wouldn't have abandoned their best friend, never, Daisy would have stayed by her man's side, always, and he, the Dukes' patriarch, would have protected them (any of them) 'till his death.
The man tapped his pen on his desk, looking at the woman, "You should forget 'bout it. It's happened, and nothing can change it".
"This woman killed my father, I CAN'T forget 'bout it". The newspaper trembled into the woman's hands, "I've talked with the coroner: my father was under sedatives when he... died; in his car there was a thermos with coffee, a coffee full of sedatives. That woman drugged him, and when he was sleeping she killed him… and her too; it was a homicide-suicide, not a double suicide. My father didn't want to die!"
"That woman is DEAD. She can't pay for having killed your father. Forget 'bout it", the man rested his pen on the desk and he stirred.
"I want to know everything 'bout that woman. When she started to have an affair with my father, why, and how long it lasted. She can't talk anymore. She can't pay for what she's done. But she has a son, and HE'll carry the weight of what his mother did to MY family"