OLD WOOD AND EXPLOSIVE POWDER
"Are you OK, Daisy?" uncle Jesse looked at her niece entering the farm with her crutches, walking to the couch and sinking into it with a big sigh, resting her left leg on the small table in front of the couch.
"I really hate this cast. It itches, and it's heavy. Moreover, I don't like to walk using these crutches," she casted an annoyed look at the crutches by her side, "it's tiring."
"Stop complaining of your crutches, Daisy. You're alive and it's the most important thing," uncle Jesse came closer her and he gently squeezed her left shoulder, "Do you want a cup of hot chocolate?"
Daisy felt ashamed of her complaining: she spent just a single day in Hospital because of her broken leg and her concussion, whereas Enos stayed in Hospital for more than one month, and because of something worse than a broken leg and a concussion.
"You're right uncle Jesse. Sorry, I can't complain of it, but just thanking God I'm alive," she looked at her uncle, smiling, "yeah, I'd like a cup of hot chocolate," she looked away, at the window, "Dark clouds. It's goin' to rain, again, like this morning, and it's more difficult to find that bomber driving along muddy and lonely roads."
Bo and Luke entered the farm and sat by her side while uncle Jesse walked to the kitchen.
"How's Enos? Yesterday he looked exhausted, I hope he slept enough, this night," Daisy looked at Luke by her left side, catching his glance at Bo. She turned to Bo, sitting by her right side, "What did happen?" her question having just another glance between her cousins, "Stop looking at each other, what are you hiding to me?"
Uncle Jesse entered the living room, a steaming cup in his hands, "Hot chocolate for you, Daisy, and you'll feel better," her rested the cup on the small table in front of Daisy.
"What did happen, uncle Jesse? Something happened, didn't it?"
Uncle Jesse sat on his armchair, perfectly aware he couldn't avoid Daisy's questions and her stubbornness, "Drink your hot chocolate while I tell you everything. OK?"
Daisy took the cup from the table, inhaling the sweet scent and sipping the brown liquid, her eyes on uncle Jesse.
"Just a nightmare. Enos had a nightmare, he suddenly woke up, and we also woke up because of his… shouting," uncle Jesse rested his back against the armchair, ready to his niece's upcoming questions. Question after question, he told her about that strange nightmare (spider-webs, bugs, dark figures eating Enos… it was what Enos told them, a confused talking until he calmed down), he told her about Enos sleeping in Bo and Luke's room (a peaceful sleeping) and he told her about how Enos simply went to work in the morning.
At the end of uncle Jesse's words, Daisy still had the cup of chocolate in her hands, no more hot but tepid chocolate.
The rain started to hit the farm's window, and Daisy totally forgot about the chocolate, laying the cup on the table and limping to the window: it was raining, and the sun was already setting.
The rain ticked on the roof.
Enos opened his eyes trying to get used to the darkness in the room: where was he? What did happen? He didn't remember anything.
A sharp pain in his right temple, radiating to his right eye, made him feel sick, so he closed his eyes having a deep breath and trying to push away that rising nausea.
His left cheek rubbed against a rough floor smelling of mould, dust, old wood and another smell he wasn't able to catch.
He didn't know where he was and how he arrived there.
Despite the darkness and his headache, he tried to stand up.
Chains: his arms were tied behind his back as he lied on his left side, and a chain around his ankles prevented him to move. He tried to crawl on the floor, but chains were tied to something firm: he felt like a dog tied to his chain.
He was trapped, and he didn't know how it happened.
When the rain against the roof became stronger and stronger, he started to panic.
The pain behind his right eye was pulsing, any pulse like a blow.
He focused on his breath, his mind back to his last memories.
He recalled uncle Jesse's arms around him when he woke up at the farm after a terrific nightmare. What did happen after that nightmare? Everything was confused: the talk he had with uncle Jesse, Bo and Luke in the kitchen, drinking a cup of hot milk to wash away the cold he felt in his bones; the following hours spent in Bo's bed whereas Bo slept in the guest room (Bo and Luke didn't let sleep him alone, and uncle Jesse agreed with his nephews… and Daisy too would have agreed with them if she had been there), Luke checking from time to time he was sleeping (in his state between sleeping and waking, he could hear Luke moving in his bed, sitting up and looking at him); the morning at the Police Station; his patrolling, looking for the bomber in any abandoned barn, cabin or still.
His patrolling was his last memory: someone kidnapped him during his patrolling, and he probably was in one of those abandoned barns, cabins or stills.
Her eyes on the muddy road in front of the farm, Daisy sighed, "I hope Enos had some rest after the nightmare, otherwise this evening he'll be exhausted."
The noise of some splashes along the road announced a car approaching, and Daisy smiled at the sight of a patrol car: was Enos back? For sure he knew she came back home.
Her smile faded as she realized it wasn't Enos' patrol car but Rosco's one: the Sheriff parked the car in front of the farm, he came out and he ran under the lashing rain.
Despite her limping Daisy reached the door before Rosco, opening it when Rosco was going to knock, "Come in, Rosco! You're soaked!" she moved aside and she let Rosco enter, then she closed the door, "Where's Enos? Did you find the bomber and Enos is at the Police Station with the bomber and detective Colt and Molise?"
Vain hope: since she saw Rosco's patrol car stopping in front the farm and as soon as she looked at his face after he entered the farm, she understood something was wrong, but she couldn't help but showing him her hope through her question: her way to shout him "please, don't give me a bad news. PLEASE!"
Vain hope.
Rosco took his hat off, his eyes lingering on the Dukes, on everybody in the room, finally staring at Daisy and answering her, "Enos is missing."
"MISSING? What are you meaning?" Daisy opened her eyes wide.
Bo, Luke and uncle Jesse stood up, walking to Rosco and circling him, waiting for his answer.
The Sheriff fidgeted with the hat in his hands, shrugging, "Missing means missing," his tone gruff as he tried to hide his worrisome, "he's missing. He didn't come back to the Police Station after his patrolling. I called him, but he didn't answer."
"Maybe his C.B. doesn't work," Daisy looked at her family, waiting for their nodding, but they averted their eyes from her, freezing her optimism, but she didn't give up, "Well, sometimes it happens. Maybe his C.B. doesn't work."
"He should have come back to the Police Station one hour ago, before the sunset. We planned to come back to the Police Station after patrolling, but he's late, one hour late, and he didn't answer my call."
Rosco's words froze her optimism for some minutes, silent minutes inside the living room, but she didn't want to give up, "Maybe he's sleeping somewhere. He had a bad night, and maybe…"
"I know that dipstick sometimes sleeps at the speed traps. But..." Rosco shook his head, and his unsaid words fluttered about room as crows: Enos would have never slept during patrolling, especially with a bomber out there, a bomber who injured Daisy.
"OK, I think we should look for Enos. Maybe he had a car wreck: the roads are muddy, and Daisy's right. He had a bad night," Luke tried to comply with Daisy's optimism: better injured in a car wreck than what any of them was thinking of (and fearing).
"OK, I'm going to drive my truck, whereas Bo and Luke The General. Rosco, where was Enos patrolling?"
"Chalk Hills," Rosco put his hat on, ready to go out.
"OK," uncle Jesse nodded, "We're goin' to start from it. And I'm going to warn my friends in order to know if they saw something strange." Uncle Jesse's friends meant moonshiners, people knowing hills as their pockets.
"And detective Colt and Molise are goin' to help us with their car. They don't know very much Hazzard, but they can be helpful. Today, for example, they used their car in order to wide our catch: I explained them where to go and how to reach the Hills," Rosco walked to the door.
"Wait, wait, wait, Rosco, "Luke walked past Rosco, blocking him, "Are you telling us that today detective Cold and Molise weren't with you, in your patrol car, like usual?"
Rosco stopped and looked at Luke, confused by that sudden block, "Yeah. They used their car, helping Enos in his patrolling at Chalk Hills."
"When did they talk to Enos for the last time?" Luke pressed Rosco with his questions.
"One hour before to come back to the Police Station. They though to meet Enos there, but when he didn't show up, we tried to call him, we waited for him for a while, and after one hour, not having any answer from him, we understood something was wrong."
Luke rubbed his hair, his eyes moving from uncle Jesse to Bo and from Bo to Daisy.
"Come on, I came here to ask for your help," Rosco walked past Luke, reaching the door and opening it, "We aren't goin' to find Enos if we stay here," he came out and he walked to his car.
Inside the farm, the Dukes kept on looking at each other, in their mind the same though: did the bomber hurt Enos or did…?
"Bo, Luke, WHY didn't you keep an eye on Enos?"
Bo shook his head, staring at Daisy, "We spent the day at the Hospital. Doctors decided to have new analysis and we had to wait for it before to bring you home. We didn't know we had to wait for so long, otherwise…"
"Stop complain of it, we need to find Enos," uncle Jesse walked to the door.
Heading to their car (uncle Jesse to his truck, Daisy with him), and Bo and Luke to The General Lee, they prayed Enos was alive, maybe injured but alive, in their mind any possibility, in their heart the terror their worst suspicion was coming true: did those detectives kill Enos, and were they now trying to blame the bomber of it?
Explosive powder: Enos suddenly gave a name to that unknown smell mixed to moist, dust and old wood.
In the darkness of the room, he heard the door opening and quick steps moving to him: two hands grabbed his head and the man blindfolded him.
A feeble light filtered through the dark cloth covering his eyes.
"I'm sorry deputy, but I have to use you as distraction for your friends. They'll be busy to find you while I'll leave this County. I'll leave in an explosive way, and you'll enjoy the fireworks. YOU will be a firework."
A hoarse laugh filled the room.
His mind became more and more foggy, the cloth on his eyes recalling him another cloth, the rain on the roof recalling him another rain.