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 25 ……….Nighttime
Luke wound up napping for about two hours, and then he really did feel better. So thanking Cooter's mother he went outside to find them.
"Luke!" Bo cried as soon as he saw his cousin, running over and throwing his arms around him. "Luke, ain't mad, are ya?" he asked worriedly.
"No Bo, I'm sorry I snapped, but my head hurt," Luke explained.
"Kiss it better," Bo declared, standing on tiptoe and pulling on Luke's shirt so that he bent over, pressing a wet kiss to Luke's forehead. " Better?" he asked hopefully.
"Yeah, it's better," Luke assured him.
"Good, come here an' look what we're doing," Cooter grinned.
"We's building a house," Bo declared. "We's making you a room to."
Luke grinned as he picked up Bo and hugged him. "Bo, I'm real sorry I snapped before, It was just it made my head hurt when ya was loud." He didn't want to be mean to Bo. "Didn't mean to be snappy at you either Cooter."
"That's okay, I understand," Cooter grinned. "Come on, lets see how much we can get done before supper."
Putting Bo down after receiving a new hug Luke joined in helping them. Maybe it wasn't the most professionally built hut, and it did look a bit rickety, but Luke had seen worse.
After a while they had to go back to the house to eat though, and by then Bo was already complaining that he was hungry.
Rita greeted them and served them food since Josh would be home very late that evening. Grinning as Bo dug in happily, and smeared the sloppy Joe's all over his face. Luke ate more carefully, he knew he hadn't behaved his best and wanted to make it up, even offering to help with the dishes, though Rita just told him to hurry out and play.
The kids hurried off to continue building, until it both got pretty dark and Bo started to look kind of tired.
Rita took care of him while the boys brought in the two backpacks they had brought. Only their pajamas and a clean change, they didn't have any sleeping bags. Rita had bedded for them on the floor though, with an old mattress and some blankets, and Luke was going to be sleeping on some blankets alone. Bo got the mattress because he was the smallest.
Bo thought it was kinda of strange to have someone else than his aunt help him to get ready for bed, and he didn't want to go to sleep before Luke and Cooter, not and being alone in the room. They were allowed to stay up longer though, they were reading comic books in the living room, and so Rita allowed him to stay with them. She figured Bo would fall asleep fast enough when he got tired, and sure enough, soon his head dipped down and he tipped over where he sat.
Luke picked him up and carried him to Cooter's room, putting him down on the mattress and tucking him in, putting the bear in his arms. Then he went back to Cooter, enjoying a last glass of lemonade as they started looking through an old thumbed and worn car magazine Cooter had, before both boys went into the bedroom as well.
The two of them lay whispering in the dark, quietly, both so that no one would hear them but also so that they wouldn't wake Bo up.
They had just about gone to sleep when Bo woke up on his own, crawling over and shaking Luke's arm.
"Luke, I's had a bad dream," the little boy declared.
"Bo, go back to sleep," Luke mumbled sleepily.
"Please Luke, was scary," Bo insisted. "I's scared."
"Alright, I'm awake," Luke muttered, wishing that it wasn't true.
"I had a bad dream," Bo declared, sitting down beside him. "Really scary, monsters."
"Bo, there ain't no monsters here," Luke assured him. "Did ya see any before when we's playing?"
"No," Bo admitted.
"That's because there ain't none," Luke decided. "Wanna go back to sleep now?"
Bo shook his head. "What if they's don't know they's ain't here? I don't want the monsters to get me."
"Don't yer teddy bear keep them away?" Luke asked hopefully.
Bo shook his head. "Only works on monsters he knows, these are new ones, he don't know them."
"Alright, ya wanna sleep with me then?" Luke asked, knowing that was usually what he was after.
"Yes please," Bo nodded. "Ain't no monster can get past ya."
"Alright," Luke crawled out from under the blanket. "But we sleep on the mattress."
"Kay," Bo crawled back over, settling down beside Luke and waiting for Luke to wrap an arm around him. "Love ya Luke," he declared pressing a kiss to his cheek.
"Love ya to Bo, now please sleep," Luke asked. Bo closed his eyes and snuggled closer before falling asleep.
In the morning Luke woke up because Bo was starting to crawl around, he opened his eyes and realized Cooter was still asleep, and he wanted to do that as well. Apparently Bo wanted up though, and wanted company. He had crawled over and grabbed a race car from the floor, then moved back so he was driving it over their bed.
"Bo, go back to sleep," Luke said hoping that he would obey.
"I ain't sleepy Luke," Bo explained to him, driving the car up Luke's leg.
"I ain't a race track Bo," Luke pointed out to him.
"Luke's a mountain," Bo beamed happily.
Luke tried to ignore him, but when Bo ran the car over the inside of his thigh it tickled so that he giggled and the car fell off.
"It crashed," Bo stated thoughtfully.
Then the bedroom door opened and Rita peeked inside. "You boys awake yet?" she asked, and Bo jumped to his feet. Running over he held up his arms to be picked up for some morning hugging.
"Could you two get Cooter up?" she asked as she hugged Bo, the boy holding close like he had always done to his aunt. Bo still missed his aunt a lot, and he had started to turning to different ladies they knew for hugs. That was the part Bo liked best about church, afterwards there was plenty of nice ladies that would pick him up and hug him.
"Okay," Bo declared, leaning his head against her.
"Good, because then I am going to the kitchen an' make sure ya get some good breakfast," she declared smiling before putting Bo down.
"What about chores?" Luke asked, used to taking care of the chores in the morning.
"We don't really have any morning chores Luke," Rita told him. "So when you get Cooter up, an' all of ya are dressed, ya can just come to the kitchen."
"Okay, thanks ma'am," Luke nodded.
Rita left the room and Bo ran over to the bed, climbing up and sitting down beside Cooter. "Wake up!" he called, much like he would do to Luke.
"Huh?" Sleepy green eyes opened to focus on him.
"Wake up time," Bo declared.
"It's morning, yer mamma said we should get up an' get dressed fer breakfast," Luke explained.
"She always says that," Cooter mumbled. "Why ya awake so early anyway?"
"Bo woke me up," Luke told him.
"Ya trying to be an early bird an' catch worms?" Cooter asked, ruffling Bo's hair.
"No worms, breakfast," Bo told him firmly.
"Come her Bo," Luke called. "He had already pulled on his jeans and his shirt, and he had found a clean shirt from Bo's bag. Pulling on his socks while Bo slid down from the bed and came over to him.
"Come here, an' put this on," Luke told him handing him the shirt, then helping him with the buttons, doing the same with his jeans and giving him a pair of clean socks from the bag as well, putting the dirty ones back in it.
He heard Cooter laugh and looked up to see Bo, he had pulled on Luke's boots instead of his own, and they reached so high on his legs he had trouble walking. He was shuffling forward with stiff legs as he giggled.
"I's got big feet," he giggled.
"Good for you, bad fer me," Luke told him, showing him that he couldn't even get Bo's on. The toddler laughed really hard, coming back to Luke and dropping down in his lap.
"Can I have my boots back now?" Luke asked him, smiling.
"Why?" Bo asked showing a toothy grin.
"Cause if I don't, I's gonna tickle ya," Luke told him, tickling his sides and Bo squirmed around, shrieking with laughter.
"Come on now, I'm hungry," Cooter told them. He had dressed and he wanted to eat breakfast.
"Okay, help Bo," Luke told him. Pulling the boots of Bo's feet he pulled them on himself and let Cooter help Bo on with his own. There had never been any doubt that the boys were little rednecks Jesse had once declared. Both boys loved the cowboy shows, and who wanted tennis shoes when there was boots?
Piling into the kitchen Bo discovered he had a problem. At home there was a high chair for him, the same that Daisy had used, but the Davenports didn't have one, so he had been seated on a box that was placed on a chair the night before, and he couldn't get up there.
"Cooter," he pleaded and the older boy lifted him up while Rita served them pancakes.
"Eat up now boys," she encouraged them. "Yer uncle is gonna be here soon, an' by then I want ya to have a sturdy breakfast."
"Shame y'all have to go home," Cooter declared.
"Can't ya come sleepover with us?" Luke asked him.
"In a while Luke," Rita told him. With Jesse still dealing with the loss of his wife, he didn't need to have another wild boy in the house, in fact, she and Josh had decided they would try to have the Duke boys over a bit more so Jesse got some peace and quiet every now and again. "Until then, you an' Bo are more then welcome here to spend the night again."
"I like sleeping here," Bo grinned as he seemingly tried to force the food through his cheeks, at least if you went by the amount of syrup on his face.
The three boys ate hurriedly, hoping for some more playtime before Jesse came to pick them up. It always seemed like he came too soon. This time to, when the white pickup came up the driveway and they had to run fetch their bags, hugging Rita goodbye.
Bo was so excited that he fell asleep even on the way home.
In credit of the man who left me to play here and there….
TBC
Please review, the Cricket is hungry…