BETWEEN GESTURES AND WORDS
Catherine Burns enjoyed the landscape outside the window while Bo Duke drove The General Lee; after the sudden braking and her revelation about the reason of her arrival in Hazzard County the three cousins remained silent, from time to time looking at each other, and she was wondering what's going into their minds. They were shocked, and Catherine understood how close they were to Enos Strate.
Strange fate.
She was eager to ask them about their friend Enos, everything about him, but she was aware it wasn't the best moment for her questions. Moreover, she was going to meet officer Strate, maybe that same day, and she wanted to know more about him not only by his best friends and fiancée but from Hazzard's citizens too.
She had to know everything about the cop who dared to break the LAPD's Blue Wall of Silence, nearly paying that ratting with his life. She could image the impact of his interview in "The Los Angeles time".
Hazzard town. She observed that small square and the buildings surrounding it: so different from Los Angeles.
Her eye caught a uniformed man at the opposite side of the square, and the men and the woman inside the car understood what caught her attention, looking again at each other, somehow disappointed she was going to meet their friend so quickly.
There was no doubt that cop was Enos Strate. She saw him just twice, and his friends' reaction inside the car was a confirmation of his identity beside her memory.
She saw him the day he testified against his colleagues; she remembered his hazel eyes looking down at his hands and his soft voice as the lawyer pressed him with questions about a gun, pushing him to admit that maybe there was a gun but he didn't see it. She remembered him leaving, his head down, along the Courthouse's corridor after the acquittal of his colleagues, his deposition demolished and not trusted. That day she tried to talk to him (she believed in his deposition) but the Police Department built a sort of curtain around him, so she couldn't reach him.
She saw him that dramatic day, as he lied on a stretcher, unconscious and naked (except for a sheet covering him up to his waist), his body showing marks of the violent beating he faced as doctors were bringing him to the operating-table in order to save his life.
It wasn't simple to match that dramatic image with that new calm and daily image, but she recognized him, and she observed him.
His uniform: so different from LAPD's uniform. No black shirt but a sky-blue shirt on black trousers, and a black hat.
His build: he was a tall man, really tall, and pretty muscular (though he seemed slimmer than the man he saw in L.A., no surprisingly after the time spent in Hospital, anyway).
His gestures: he was helping an old woman, carrying her shopping bags to her car. The woman thanked him with a gentle touch on his arm and Catherine could see him blushing and smiling shyly, an awkward and funny smile.
Did that man, simple and gentle man, survive in a city like Los Angeles?
She came out the car and she walked to that cop, his friends following her.
Daisy's heart beat fast in her chest, both 'cause of that reporter's stunning revelation and 'cause of worrisome about Enos' possible reaction to that intrusive presence.
Was Catherine Burns right? Did Enos' colleagues beat him? Catherine said it was just a supposition, and Daisy, from the bottom of her heart, hoped the reporter was wrong, 'cause she knew Enos enough to understand how much something like that could shatter him. It was much worse than she thought of. She prayed Catherine Burns was wrong.
"Enos Strate?"
The reporter called him, and Daisy observed him turning to the stranger and looking at her with surprise, his surprised look turning into a thoughtful look in his attempt to recall that woman's face (Enos was shy and clumsy, but he had good memory for people's faces, and he surprised her and her family many times in his recalling faces of wanted people). Did he already see her in Los Angeles? Catherine didn't talk about her meeting Enos previously, did she lie to them?
Enos' eyes opened wide for few seconds and he imperceptibly stiffened: his fleeting reaction could pass unnoticed to everybody but not to Daisy, who knew Enos better than anybody else in Hazzard. He was Enos, swinging between excessive manifestations of some emotions (wide and funny smiles, nervous fidgeting, sudden starting in fear, quick and high-pitched talking, plain blushing) and secretive thoughts and emotions; whereas the most part of people read him through his rumbling, clumsy and plain nature, along the years she's learnt to read him through his secretive nature, and it was for sure a deeper way to understand him.
Enos recognized that woman; Daisy was pretty sure he already saw her.
"My name's Catherine Burns," she stretched out her hand to him, "and I'm a reporter of The Los Angeles Time."
He took his hat off and he shook hands with her, "Nice to meet you, madam," an uncomfortable smile on his face, and Daisy caught a soft start as he heard Catherine's name. Not only Enos already saw that woman, but he knew also her name, and Daisy told herself she'd have checked the name of the journalist of "The Los Angeles Time" who wrote the articles about the case of police brutality and about the beating of Enos, though she was already pretty sure to know that name.
Police are investigating after protesters kidnapped a policeman for three hours and gave him a severe beating. A police spokesman said: "The cop was freed after officers in riot gear stormed a abandoned building where he was being held. A police investigation is ongoing." Police are appealing to the community to help identify who was responsible.
Did Enos read those articles as he was in Hospital? He did it for sure, Daisy felt it, and it was why he knew Catherine Burns' name. Daisy dramatically understood why Enos kept on reading "The Los Angeles Time" after coming back from L.A., she understood what he was looking for: he was looking for articles about that investigation. Both if other cops or protesters beat him (she didn't know it, yet), he had a good reason to look for those articles, though reasons with a different spirit and meaning.
She forced herself to stay calm, fighting back her desire to hug him.
"I'd like to interview you about what happened to you in Los Angeles."
After Catherine's request, Enos glanced at her cousins and then his eyes lingered on her. Since they were with Catherine, and since Catherine came out The General, he was obviously wondering if the reporter told them what happened.
When his eyes met hers, he sighed, and Daisy realized her look was probably so sad to be a clear answer to his doubts. Enos knew they knew, and, despite Daisy's attention to his imperceptibly moves and looks, she didn't understand if his sighing was a sign of disappointment, resignation, or relief (or maybe a mix of all these feelings).
Anyway, he knew they knew everything, so it was pointless to keep on beating about the bush.
She walked closer him, her hand gently touching his forearm, "Enos, Catherine told us about… what happened to you: about the trial against your colleagues, about the riots, and…," Daisy lowered her voice, weighing her words and focusing her attention on every possible revealing gesture or look from him, "… about how you was injured," her hand gently squeezed her forearm, "about how protesters kidnapped you and beat you."
He held his breath and his muscles briefly tensed under her touch when she mentioned the trial and the riots, his eyes into hers, but, when she mentioned the protesters beating him, he looked away with a soft sigh, his tension loosening.
"Uh, it seems you know everything, now. But… I'd have preferred you didn't find out something like that," another uncomfortable smile.
His eyes away from hers, his tension loosening, and his elusive and light talking: Daisy read his terrific secret between his gestures and words.
Protesters weren't responsible of his beating, and Daisy gave herself up, hugging him.
"Oh sugar." Daisy's arms wrapped around him and she buried her face against his chest.
She knew.
Bo and Luke knew. Enos looked at his best friends, on their face the same sadness he previously saw in Daisy's eyes, mixed with embarrassment: since they knew his pride they could understand how much he'd have liked to avoid to become, to their eyes, "the cop kidnapped and beaten by protesters".
Officers arriving on the scene found him unconscious. It was apparent Strate had been hit more than once with some blunt object.
Officials weren't specific about the injuries the officer suffered, but police said the suspects beat him with baseball bats.
Police officer Strate is currently in critical but stable condition.
Did that journalist use those words (or something similar) to explain to Daisy, Luke and Bo what happened to him?
He was glad nobody in Hazzard read "The Los Angeles Time", he was glad nobody read those lines about him. He hated when people looked at him with pity, especially his friends.
He felt weak to their eyes. He's always felt weaker than them, unable to take care of himself, and everything happened in L.A. was a discomfiture, a proof of his weakness. Fortunately they couldn't know the truth about who beat him: he only knew it… he only, and who beat him.
Why was that reporter in Hazzard? What did she want to know from him?
Daisy Duke parted from the cop after a tight and long hug, staying by his side, both her arms wrapped around his arm.
"An interview? Sorry to disappoint you, madam, but I have nothing to say about what happened."
Catherine remembered very well Enos Strate's polite and sincere tone; she stared at his fidgeting, his hat in his hands, remembering the same fidgeting the first time she saw him (another hat in his hands), whereas the second time she saw him he was motionless.
"I'd like to talk to you… privately. Just some questions, and you'll be free to answer me or not."
Careful. She couldn't reveal him what she wanted to talk about, not in the middle of the road.
A delicate topic to face in a quiet and private place and time, and that Daisy Duke skillfully managed to talk to him about her revelations without touching that thorny (and still doubtful) topic: clever and caring woman, that Daisy.
"Please, officer Strate, I should talk to you about some…" she looked carefully at him, "…. news about your beating. News about police investigation."
He turned pale and he looked at her with a mix of shock, fear and curiosity.
She got it: protesters weren't responsible of his beating (she read it in his reaction), and he was now curious to find out what she knew. That curiosity would've pushed him to accept to talk to her.
News about police investigation: what was that woman talking about?
Since his coming back to Hazzard, he kept on reading the "The Los Angeles Time" looking for those news: betrayed by colleagues and system, he was torn between rage and sadness to understand what level that betrayal could reach, and hope that, at some point, someone like him would've talked in support of him, giving credit to his deposition and paying honor to his integrity.
Betrayed hope.
On my honor,
I will never betray my badge,
my integrity, my character,
or the public trust.
I will always have
the courage to hold myself
and others accountable for our actions.
I will always uphold the constitution
my community and the agency I serve.
Betrayed uniform.
Everything about his time in L.A. came back to his mind with a ravaging force, and he felt a cold grasp around his neck and his legs bending.