KEYS' TICKING
"Is he still sleeping?" uncle Jesse entered the room, sitting on Bo's bed by Daisy's side.
Already sunset, and Enos was peacefully sleeping on Luke's bed, Daisy's eyes on him. He slept deeply, as the day Daisy entered his apartment.
Just a week before, and Daisy now regretted even more the way she woke him up that day: Vicodin's bottle on the night table and that deep sleeping had now a different meaning, for Daisy, so that she would have slapped herself because of her childish and selfish behaviour. That day Enos was probably sleeping after taking Vicodin for bellyache, or for the pain in his left leg, and she should have let him sleep: if she had let him sleep, would he have nearly drowned the day after? Maybe she interrupted his rest, leading to those consequences. When he woke up he seemed OK, and he seemed OK also when he came back from work, but, maybe, if that afternoon he had slept a bit more…
"Daisy, what are you thinking about? You're thinking of Doc Appleby's words, aren't you?", uncle Jesse's voice a whisper in order not to wake Enos up.
"I can't forget his words, uncle Jesse. He didn't tell what happened to Enos, but he let us know Enos nearly died, 'cause it's what he told us, isn't it?"
Uncle Jesse sighed, "Yeah, it's what Doc Appleby wanted us to know"
"I'm … angry to myself, uncle Jesse"
"Why?" uncle Jesse turned gently to her.
"Cause when he was in L.A. I thought he was too much busy with his job to find the time to write me. When he stopped writing his letters, he was in Hospital. NOW I know it, but at that time I was angry."
"You couldn't know what's happening to him, Daisy. You can't feel guilty 'cause of an emotion. It was a natural emotion, after all, especially since… you love him, don't you?"
In the dark room uncle Jesse couldn't see Daisy blushing, but he heard her soft "yeah."
"You love him and you felt rejected when he stopped writing his letters. You shouldn't feel guilty for it. You couldn't know what's going on."
Uncle Jesse was right, but rationality didn't match with her emotions.
She felt guilty for a lot of reasons, most of all her way to treat Enos along the years (how many times did Enos feel rejected as she flirted with every good-looking man around?): she treated him like a puppet, since they were children, especially since she became aware of Enos' crush on her; Enos was shy and caring (he would have done everything to please her), so it was pretty easy to take advantage of him, and she did it, several times, using him as her puppet.
"Enos, may you give me a lift to the party, sugar? Enos, may you bring my bag, please? Enos, may you….? Enos, may you…? … Enos, may you lie down in the puddle so I can walk on you and my shoes don't get dirty?" There was a time, when she was thirteen years old, she nearly asked Enos to lie in a puddle for her, just to prove herself he'd have done anything for her, to prove her crush on her, a child becoming a woman and starting to realize her power (woman's vanity but child's mind): fortunately uncle Jesse and aunt Lavinia were teaching her to respect people, so smoothing her vanity (beside, if she had asked something like that to Enos, uncle Jesse and aunt Lavinia would have tanned her hide). She liked Enos and she cared for him, even then, even if she treated him like a puppet; she was simply immature.
And when Enos became Hazzard's deputy, she faced, with surprise, his first "NO" to her: a hard lesson to her pride and vanity. But, due to the troublesome relationship between her family and Hazzard's Law, she had to start to use her charm on him, and she had to admit she liked that shucking and jiving him, a sort of "revenge", a way to prove herself she had still a great power on him. A way to fight her only rival, his job.
Enos and his duty: it drove her crazy. Since he decided to be a cop, she understood his duty was the only thing she couldn't fight: "police business", Enos' words to recall her he was a cop. There was a time she was really annoyed by this integrity and honesty (duty, duty and only duty), but along the years she's learnt to love that side of him and to feel a bit ashamed every time she had to foolish him for her family's plans. She started to see his job no more as her rival, but an important side of Enos, a side to esteem and love: but during his staying in L.A. she started again to be jealous of his job, and she felt ashamed of it.
Enos never showed rage or disappointment for Dukes' using him: probably he simply let them foolish him on purpose, his way to boycott Boss' schemes, or simply he didn't even realize they were foolish him. Sometimes it was really difficult to understand what's going on in Enos' mind: naïve and talkative but sometimes secretive, clumsy but sometimes surprisingly perfectly able to do dangerous things and aware of police procedures, shy and sweet but sometimes offish, smiling and acting like a child but sometimes really serious and deep. A kaleidoscope of different personalities, and few people beside Dukes (especially Daisy) knew him so well.
"Daisy, whatever happened to Enos, it happened, and now we can only stay by his side, without forcing him to talk about things he doesn't want to talk about. If you insist, he's going to close like a hedgehog. Respect his privacy. Enos is a man, a stubborn and prideful man, despite his acting like a child the most part of time. And he's less naïve people think." Uncle Jesse's words, a perfect showing of Dukes knowing Enos: he grew with them, after all.
"It seems I can't sleep in my bed, tonight," Luke entered the room, sitting on Bo's bed, followed by his younger cousin.
"Take the folding bed in the barn, Luke, and let Enos sleep," a false reproach in uncle Jesse's voice, since obviously nobody had the notion to kick Enos off Luke's bed, and uncle Jesse knew his nephews' way to draw out the tension: they couldn't deny Doc Appleby's words and Enos' showing his physical pain shocked them all.
"We should undress him. If he sleeps with that sweaty shirt on, he'll catch a cold."
"Daisy…,", uncle Jesse shook his head, "it's not fair to check of signs of the surgical operation Doc talked about on Enos' body. Remember what I've said. Moreover, if we move him, he'll wake up, and he has already that blanket on to protect him from a cold", he looked at Daisy and Daisy blushed: her uncle got it, it was her awkward attempt to know something more about what happened to Enos, looking for any sign of it, even exploring his body.
Stubborn and impatient, she was stubborn and impatient, no doubt about it.
If uncle Jesse had known about her ransacking Enos' room: a side of her she wasn't proud of. A side Enos seemed to appreciate, not be angry at all about it, and his laughing at her "ransacking his unmentionables" stirred her heart as she tried to match the man laughing with her only one week before and the man nearly crying for pain on the couch. She wanted that Enos back, she wanted to see him laughing again. She had to make him laugh again.
Waking up from his nightmare, Enos opened his eyes wide, trying to understand where he was.
Darkness. He waited his eyes got used to the darkness, slowly moving his legs and arms: he could move legs and arms, no casts, no tubes blocking him in the bed.
He wasn't in Hospital.
His eyes finally able to pierce the darkness, he realized where he was: Dukes' farm, Bo and Luke's room. He was on Luke's bed, a warm blanket on him.
"Enos, sugar, if you sleep with this sweaty shirt on, you'll catch a cold."
He had a deep sigh and he sat up.
"Enos, buddy, are you OK?"
Bo's voice as the blonde Duke sat up, and Luke too sat up, so Enos realized his friend was sleeping on a small folding bed.
"I'm OK," he felt ashamed because of the reason why his friends were so worried for him, his nearly crying for pain on their couch, "Sorry for stealing your bed, Luke. I think it's better I'm going to sleep on the couch."
"No way. You should rest, and stop worrying for me."
Rest. He was tired, so he lied down again, with another sigh, but he couldn't sleep.
Again that rage and desperation, as he tossed and turned on the bed, trying to control his breath and to fight back his desire to punch the pillow and to shout: he couldn't let those bad emotions overwhelmed him.
Luke sat on the bed, "Enos, buddy, do you need Vicodin?"
"No, I'm OK, no pain, just… I can't sleep."
No physical pain while he was fighting that terrific anxiety and fear: he feared he could never be the same, he feared nothing could ever be the same. He was shattered; his spirit was shattered more than his body.
"What did Doc Appleby tell you?" He preferred to know, it was better to know what Dukes knew, in order to know what to say and not to say.
"Just you were badly injured in L.A. He said you risked to die, 'cause of… broken bones and internal damages. Nothing else." Luke held his breath, those words still incredible and shocking, for him.
Sitting on his bed, Bo listened silently to Luke and Enos talking.
Enos clenched his fists: the Dukes knew too much.
"I don't want Daisy worry about it." Daisy knew too much, for his taste.
"Enos, Daisy can't help but worrying for you. Everybody's worrying for you. You're our best friend, how can you ask us not to worry?" Luke expressed both his thought and Bo's one, and Bo nodded to his older cousin's words.
"I, and only I!, am Enos' most close relation, since I LOVE him, and I'd have married him if he hadn't postponed the wedding because of his stupid hives and if he hadn't decided to go to L.A. because of his darn job! "
The three men in the room recalled Daisy's words with a common incredulity and surprise, and Enos with confusion too (was it real? Did she really tell those words?).
"I don't want she worry too much. I don't want to see her worried," Enos had a brief pause, finally explaining the real meaning of his words, "I… need to see her smiling and laughing in order to… forget what happened." He loved Daisy, and he would have done anything for her, but he had to admit to himself that, in that moment, he wasn't so strong to go through that thing all by himself, and he needed Daisy: Daisy had to be stronger than him. He felt ashamed of that thought 'cause he felt selfish, but he needed his old and sweet Daisy to recover: Daisy's eyes on him that day at the pond saddened him, 'cause her worrisome recalled him the reason of her worrisome; he needed Daisy's laughing as that day at the Boarding House.
"I just want to…. forget. OK? And if you keep on asking me what's happened, looking at me with those worried eyes, I… won't feel better, but worse and worse." He told it. He admitted his need to forget, and admitting his need to forget he was admitting how much he was hurt.
Luke remembered that same desire when he came back from Vietnam, his searching his old life, his wanting so badly to forget everything about that distant Country (where he faced his friends' death and his fear to die there, on the other side of the World, away from his family) and to focus on his present and future in Georgia: his family helped him, understanding his need of normality, and, above all, his need of time before to opening up, 'cause, even if at that time he didn't know it, he would have finally forgotten his pain only after opening up, a spontaneous and not forced opening up. He perfectly understood what Enos was talking about: he risked to die, in L.A., no matter how and why, but he nearly died, so his longing for normality and his old life wasn't surprising.
Luke moved his hand to pat gently on Enos' belly, as many times in the past, in a friendly and knowing way, but he stopped (fearing to hurt him), his hand drifting from Enos' belly to Enos' shoulder, squeezing it gently, no need of other words.
Lying down on his folding bed after a brief but meaningful look at Bo, Luke wondered what to say to Daisy and uncle Jesse the next day.
"They nearly killed me. They beat me with no mercy just 'cause I did my duty."
Enos' words shocked Bo and Luke: he just confessed the reason of his injuries. They waited for other words, but Enos said nothing else, and they wondered if it was really a confession, an opening up, or if he was somehow talking to himself, unaware of their presence.
Enos closed his eyes: he told it. Now Dukes knew why he stayed in Hospital, and he hoped they weren't going to ask him anything else, being content of it.
Surprisingly, he felt better, that terrific anxiety and desperation loosing a bit its hold. But he couldn't say anything more, 'cause it was too much painful: Dukes should be content to know only the tip of the iceberg.
LOS ANGELES – FLASHBACK
His fingers were motionless on the typewriter at his desk, at the Police Department.
His heart beat furiously in his chest and cold sweat dropped along his spine despite the warmth of that April.
He tried to focus on everything happened.
He stood up and he walked to the bathroom, vomiting for the fourth (or fifth?) time few gastric juices, then coming back to his desk, looking at the white sheet in the typewriter, a white sheet waiting for his terrific report.
He recalled Hazzard and Dukes.
"Enos is the only honest man in Hazzard"… "and we need him." His friends' help when Boss Hogg replaced him with that crooked deputy, Billy Joe Coogan.
He focused his mind to everything happened, and his fingers started to push on the typewriter's keys, fingers still smelling of blood.
The keys' ticking filled the empty and silent room.