Author's Note: This is a story I wrote about the Dukes and their first years at the farm. I tried to keep it with them from the point where they got to the farm, and carry on throughout a couple of years. It's a growing and learning experience for all of them. There are also notes at the end of each chapter, a credit of sorts to a father from his son.
Warning : The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen.
Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix….
Learning To Love…
Chapter 14 ….. Walking
"Luke, can ya keep an eye on Bo?" Martha asked without turning around. She was in the kitchen fixing the supper while Jesse was in the family room with Luke and Bo. She didn't want to ask Jesse thought, it was the first chance he had that day to sit down and read his newspaper.
Luke pouted as he agreed, he was busy playing. He hadn't hardly gotten to play all day. There was chores, and there was Daisy, and now Bo as well. Jesse had now made it his chore to feed the chickens and bring the eggs in, as well as give Maudine an armful of hay. When it was a chore it meant that he had to do it even when he didn't want to.
Martha had wanted him to play with Daisy as well, she said she was busy and Luke had to help out. At times that was okay, but today it was awful, she only wanted to play a lot of silly girls games.
Now he suddenly had to watch Bo, and as he was moving around more and more he was no longer allowed to play himself as he watched him. She said then he wouldn't watch him proper like, and Bo would do something bad and get hurt.
He sure was acting strange today Luke thought as he watched him. Bo was sitting on the floor beside the coffee table, but then he grabbed a hold of the table leg. Luke frowned wondering if he was supposed to do that or not, but there was no table cloth or anything that he could pull down, so he supposed that it wasn't too bad.
What really surprised him was when Bo let go off the leg and stood on his own. He was waving his arms around but Luke had never seen him do that before. He would stand holding on to his uncle's hands, or his aunt's, but never on his own like that.
Luke frowned as Bo started a very unsteady stroll across the floor towards where Luke were sitting.
"Aunt Martha, Bo's doing something I don't know if he should do or not?" He called out needing to know if he was supposed to put a stop to it or not.
"Well what is he doing?" Martha asked, Luke's description didn't really let her know anything.
"Good Lord, the boy is walking!" Jesse exclaimed as he looked up from his newspaper.
"Bo's walking?" Martha came rushing into the family room in time to see the last few steps before Bo reached Luke and clung to his arm.
"So it's okay if he does that then?" Luke asked, the only thing he could think it meant, was that Bo would be even harder to look after now.
"Luke, Bo just took his first steps." Martha explained, almost teary eyed.
"Yeah," Luke nodded. "Reckon he didn't want to be over there no more" He pulled Bo up in his lap. "He's gonna be even worse to watch now," he complained.
Martha smiled to herself, Luke was too young to grasp what it meant that Bo had just taken his first steps, but she hadn't missed the significance of it. Bo had taken his first steps so that he could walk to Luke, that had to mean something, and she thought she knew what.
"Ulu," Bo giggled clapping his hands together before grabbing at Luke's shirt to keep himself upright. No, there was no doubt about it. Bo was absolutely amazed by his cousin in so many ways. Luke was his hero, and Bo's favorite.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Luke frowned. "Why can't ya learn to talk proper like?"
"He's doing his best," Martha smiled amused. "Give him a little longer Luke, an' he won't be quiet."
"Sure seems like he's growing up too fast, don't it?" Jesse mused folding up the newspaper and turning to the side. As much as he enjoyed the peace and quiet needed to sit down with the paper there was nothing quite as precious as some of those childhood moments.
"Why don't we see if he feels like doing it again?" Jesse asked. "Come on Bo, why don't ya walk on over here to yer Uncle Jesse?"
Bo gave him a quizzical look as if he was wondering why he would walk over there when he had just worked so hard to get where he was.
"Come on Bo, ya can walk over to yer Uncle Jesse, darling," Martha urged him gently, helping him to his feet again.
"Luke, come on over here," Jesse instructed him and as Martha took Bo's hands Luke got to his feet and walked over to his Uncle's chair. Bo gave an unhappy squeal before he let go off Martha's hands and stumbled off towards Luke. Thought this time he tripped and was unable to get up without anything to use for support. Crying out with annoyance he sat there and waited untill Luke came over to him.
"He knows what he wants," Jesse smiled as Bo quieted down when Luke sat down beside him. "The boy sure does know what he wants."
"It's a bit strange thought that he has taken so much to Luke," Martha frowned.
"Well, Luke is a lot like himself in some ways, old enough to take care o' him, but not so much bigger than him." Jesse pondered. "I never tried to pretend that I understood children. Just look at the Davenport boy, he still ain't the responsible kind, but he's still doing a decent job looking after Luke."
"How long do I have to watch Bo?" Luke asked from the floor interrupting them.
"Until supper dear," Martha told him as she headed back out into the kitchen.
"But I haven't gotten to play anything at all al day," Luke objected. "An after supper yer gonna say that it's to late to play, cause we's got to take our baths."
"Luke, ya mind yerself now boy." Jesse cautioned him.
"I just wanna play some," Luke objected.
"Play some with Bo then, an' mind yer behavior or I ain't sure we're gonna be minded to give ya any desert tonight." Jesse picked up the newspaper again and Luke tried to figure out what games he could play with a baby that was literally clinging to his jeans.
"Alright then Bo, come on," he told the baby. He picked the boy up and carried him into the bedroom. Getting Billy from his bed he handed it to him and picked up a car before taking Bo back into the family room. If Bo was occupied with the goat, he hoped that he could be able to drive the car around some. At least as long as he made sure he was watching Bo the whole time.
His aunt and uncle didn't seem to think that he could do anything at all while he was watching Bo, but sitting and doing nothing but looking at him was silly. Still, Luke couldn't help but grin as Bo crawled over to where Jesse sat and started hitting the goat against his legs.
"Luke," Jesse lowered the newspaper and gave his oldest a stern look. "Watching Bo means ya watch him an' don't let him do things like that." He bent to turn the young boy around, nudging him to crawl over towards Luke instead. "Now ya watch him proper or yer gonna have to put that car away."
Luke pouted over the command, it didn't seem that anything would be good enough today. He had been on the verge of getting in trouble the whole time. When his aunt didn't think he was doing something good enough.
Jesse sighed as he saw Luke's face, the boy certainly wasn't trying to act up. He knew better than to think that. "Come here Luke," he folded up the newspaper and motioned for Luke to come over. Then he lifted him to sit him on his lap. "Is something bothering ya today Luke, or are ya just feeling moody?" he asked.
"Dunno," Luke shrugged. "I ain't got to play nothing on my own today, Daisy wouldn't play nothing but games I didn't want to play, an' when I told her she had to play at least one thing I want, she ran off crying so Aunt Martha said I's being a bad boy."
"But it wasn't Bo who did that," Jesse stated. "Luke, learning to walk ain't easy fer a baby, Bo just took his first steps, he's learning to walk, an' he did it cause he wanted to get to ya. Now, if he did something like that to get to ya, don't ya think ya could play some with him as a reward?"
"Okay," Luke agreed sliding of his lap. Taking Bo he scrambled off into a far corner of the room where he could be alone some. Bo kept making those baby noises and clinging to him, so Luke tried to use it to make him be more cuddly like. If he was going to be doing this with Bo, he wanted to do it his way.
There were bright sides though, once Bo, Daisy and lastly Luke were all bathed Jesse told them that he would read them a story, and as Luke came out newly dressed in his pajamas Bo stumbled over to him again. It felt good to know that when Bo walked it was Luke he preferred to go to. So he sat down on the couch with Bo in his arms as Daisy climbed up to sit in Jesse's lap as he read them the story.
In credit of the man who could give the most cryptic instructions….
TBC
Please review, the Cricket is hungry…..