TIDY FLOOR
Water. A dark blue wall ran towards him, but he couldn't move, his feet stuck on the ground, a flabby ground, like quicksand. Unable to move, the roar of the water in his ears, he crouched; his arms on his head, he was waiting for the blue wall, resigned to die. Light disappeared and drops of water started to fall as the wall was bending forward, obscuring the sun and swallowing him.
Enos sat up in his bed, his eyes open wide in the night's obscurity, his heart beating hard in his chest, his throat dried and a shiver along his spine.
He switched on the lamp on the night table, looking around and repeating to himself he was at home, in Hazzard, at the Boarding House.
Home. Home. Home.
He focused his mind on that day, a peaceful day spent in the fields with Dukes; he focused his mind on Daisy's apple pie for breakfast, on the sun warming him as he slept under a tree after lunch (Daisy's sandwiches), on wheat's scent, on the familiar kitchen at Dukes' farm, on Daisy's soup for dinner, on his playing draughts with uncle Jesse after dinner as they talked about life in Hazzard, just funny gossip (no mention to L.A., no mention to his bellyache the day before, no mention to Doc Appleby's words).
Dukes (and Daisy) were feeding not only his body but his soul too, and he felt safe by their side, as many times in the past. His best friends… and his love since the third grade, always protecting him, but they couldn't protect him when he stayed in L.A.
He got up and he walked to the fridge; the buttermilk eased the pain in his throat.
2 a.m. He switched off the lamp and he cuddled under the blankets, closing his eyes and trying to sleep, his mind still at Dukes.
Blow after blow. Chest, belly, arms, legs, face, nothing spared as he hung from the ceiling as a punch-bag.
"PLEASE, STOP!"
5 a.m. He was again sitting on his bed, drenched in cold sweat and struggling for breathing. He heard someone walking in the apartment at the low ground, someone probably woken up by his shout, 'cause he was pretty sure he shouted, and he was glad he declined Dukes' invitation to stay at the farm for the night: the last thing he wanted was waking them up during the night because of his shouting after a nightmare, it was already embarrassing having them watching him as he was writhing in pain.
A gentle knock at his door and he faced Mrs. Marple's scared face.
"Is everything OK, Enos? I heard you…," the Boarding House's owner, a small and aged woman always caring for him like a granny.
"Sorry Mrs Marple, just a nightmare, I'm sorry I've woken you up."
Mrs. Marple nodded, a shy and worried smile, and walked away; Enos wondered if she knew something about his being injured in L.A., or she simply noticed he was changed. How many people in Hazzard noticed something was wrong with him? The same way Daisy noticed he was slimmer (so she was more and more zealous in feeding him), someone else noticed it for sure, and for sure his getting drunk at the Boar's Nest didn't pass unnoticed, and he was pretty sure Lulu Hogg talked about his visiting Doc Appleby several times.
He looked at the watch on the night table, he shook his head and he headed to bathroom.
There's no way to sleep again.
In the steam filling the bathroom as the water roared in the shower, he undressed his drenched white t-shirt, his pajama's pants (black pants from old overalls) and his boxer, and he entered the shower. When the first drops hit him, he crouched, embracing himself and resting his forehead against the cold tiles, and he cried, a desperate and non-stop crying.
Nothing could be the same again.
When Daisy parked her jeep, early in the morning, Mrs. Marple was sweeping the small walkway in front of the Boarding House, a small path surrounded by a garden Mrs. Marple took care of with great diligence.
The aged woman looked at the young Duke walking along the walkway with a bag in her hands.
"Good morning Mrs. Marple," Daisy smiled at the woman.
"If you're here for Enos, Daisy, I'm sorry, but he's already gone."
"Already?" Daisy opened her eyes wide, surprised, then she hid her disappointment with a shrug, "OK, it seems Enos is really eager to work, so I'm goin' to bring him his breakfast," she gently lifted the bag in her hand, showing Mrs. Marple what she was talking about, "at the Police Station. Bye, Mrs. Marple, have a nice day."
On her way back to the jeep, Daisy heard Mrs. Marple calling her. When she turned, the woman was looking down at the ground, her hands fidgeting with her apron, "Sorry if I'm goin' to ask you something like that, Daisy, but… it's about Enos. See, tonight…"
Daisy listened to Mrs. Marple's words, her mouth open wide.
"Please… stop," the same words Enos shouted that day at the pond, after the crash.
"They nearly killed me. They beat me with no mercy just 'cause I did my duty," Enos' confession to Bo and Luke.
The colors of Mrs. Marple's beautiful garden turned grey whereas new images, terrific and vivid images, took form in Daisy's mind.
8 a.m.
When Rosco entered the Police Department, Enos was already there, filling reports with his clear and rounded handwriting, and Rosco wasn't surprised since Enos Strate was the kind of deputy who usually arrived at his office before his Sheriff, but Rosco didn't know his deputy was there since 6 a.m., for sure too early even for the most zealous deputy.
Enos dressed his best smile but it didn't work, 'cause Rosco looked at him with suspect.
"Enos, did you sleep?"
Enos wondered if Rosco knew why Boss gave him a day off, but Rosco answered his silent question.
"Boss told me you didn't feel well, yesterday. Are you OK?"
"I'm fine, thanks," his best attempt to convince Rosco, but he was totally unable to lie.
Rosco looked at him silently, then he pointed at the door, "Hurry up, dipstick! Go to the Busy Bee and buy coffee and doughnuts, two coffees and tons of donuts, for me and you."
Walking to the door Enos smiled, despite Rosco's rude tone. He knew Rosco had a particular way to show his affection for him; he had no doubt about Rosco's affection and respect for him, even if Rosco wouldn't have ever admitted it, he wouldn't have ever admitted he missed his deputy during his staying in L.A.
Coffee and doughnuts: great idea, and Enos knew it was Rosco's way to take care of him (those coffees and doughnuts were more for Enos than for Rosco).
On his way to the Busy Bee, he said hello to people he met; a brief nod and a smile to everyone, and everyone answered him. Everybody in Hazzard knew him. Everybody! Everybody respected him. Everybody! (maybe, with few exception as Beaudrys, but honest people respected him for sure).
Everybody respected him 'cause he was the only honest lawman in Hazzard, and people trusted him. They didn't look at him with suspect and hate because of his uniform, but they looked at him with respect thank of his uniform (and he's never betrayed their trust).
He stopped and closed his eyes: he was back in Hazzard, he was at home, and people around him didn't hate him. He tried to catch that sudden and saving awareness, enjoying that temporary lightness, enjoying the idea of forgetting about L.A. thank to that awareness, the present fighting back the past, Hazzard fighting back Los Angeles. Forget about L.A., completely: it was his only desire. Break any chain to that city, the only thing to do, the best thing he could do.
But when he walked past the newsstand he stopped, that chain again around his neck, as a collar.
In the distance, Daisy saw him walking to the Busy Bee and stopping at the newsstand, buying a newspaper totally different from "The Hazzard's Gazette". Daisy knew pretty well "The Hazzard's Gazette" (as everybody in Hazzard), and that newspaper wasn't "The Hazzard's Gazette".
She fought back her desire to run to him and to ask him what's going on, but his words in her mind ("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") stopped her; if he had seen her in that moment, he'd have been really saddened: a lot better to wait and to meet him after calming down.
She entered the grocery and, from its window, she waited 'till he went back to the Police Station (coffee and doughnuts in his hand, so he didn't need anymore her breakfast), then she walked to the newsstand.
Few questions to the young vendor, and she knew what she wanted to know (her appeal didn't fail, never): since his coming back from L.A., Enos bought the "Los Angeles Times", and he asked the vendor to get that newspaper for him, every day, even if he was the only one in Hazzard asking for the "Los Angeles Times".
Daisy realized the answer of what happened to Enos in L.A. was in that newspaper: there was a reason why Enos kept on reading that newspaper, probably an echo of what happened to him when he was in L.A.
"And, do you have another copy of it, Andy?" her most sensual voice.
The young vendor nodded, "Yeah. From L.A. they send me just few copies every day of this newspaper; just one copy would be enough, in Hazzard, in effect, since nobody reads it except Enos, but I prefer to have some copies in stock, just in case… Do you want it? You and Enos are the only ones reading this newspaper, in Hazzard, except some stranger from time to time, but actually you and Enos are the only ones."
"Thanks, Andy. Yeah, I think I'm goin' to read it."
Back to the Police Department with coffees, doughnuts, and newspaper, Enos sat at his desk, sipping the sweet coffee and biting a doughnut, glancing from time to time at the newspaper on his desk, a newspaper waiting for him to be read: both the coffee and the doughnut lost their flavor, and his hand trembled, so he spilt the coffee on his uniform.
"Possum on a gum bush."
His coffee in his hand, Rosco shook his head as he looked at Enos walking to the locker room to change his uniform's shirt, "That dipstick."
The "Los Angeles Times" in her hands, sitting on a bench, Daisy started to read the newspaper, feeling guilty as she was going to read a secret diary, or to ransack, again, Enos' place. But she had no choice: she couldn't know what happened from Enos, and she HAD to know it, 'cause she felt the only way to help him was to know it.
She skimmed some local news.
Body of missing O.C. woman found; roommate held.
Man who claimed police brutality is rearrested.
Three gang members arrested in cold case killings.
Fire official charged with arson, theft.
L.A. area campus lock down after threatening call.
With a sigh Daisy closed the newspaper, more and more confused. Impossible to know if in those article there was something relating to what happened to Enos. There could be something really important as nothing at all.
Was she was waiting for? An article starting with "officer Enos Strate"?
The only thing she knew for sure, now, was that Los Angeles was a violent city.
She looked again at the newspaper in her hand, confused but at the same time sure she had in her hands the key to understand what happened to Enos.
She stood up and she walked to the newsstand. When she told the vendor what she wanted him to do, he looked at her with both eyes and mouth open, speechless, but he couldn't say "no, too complicated" to Daisy Duke.
In the locker room, Enos stared at his locker, those letters surfacing in his mind.
Those disgusting letters scrawled on his locker in L.A.
R
A
T
Overwhelmed by rage, he punched the locker with all his strength, just one punch, enough to understand, again, that nothing could be the same again.
LOS ANGELES – FLASHBACK
Tidy floor, so bright it seemed a mirror.
Silence around him, in that place there was always silence.
He didn't sleep along that night, and he didn't eat anything for dinner and for breakfast, but despite his stomach was empty he felt like he had to vomit.
He looked at his figure reflected on the floor, a pitiful version of him: even if he was in uniform, and well combed, he was pale and his features tight.
He wanted to run away.
What if…?
"Enos is the only honest lawman in Hazzard"
Honest lawman. He couldn't run away.
"Officer Strate. It's your turn."
His heart raced, his hands became sweaty and his stomach twisted; he stood up and he followed the woman along the Courthouse corridor.