CHAPTER 7
The steam was filling the comfortable bathroom as Daisy relaxed in the bathtub; she looked up at ceiling resting her nape against the bathtub's border, lying in the bathtub and enjoying the warm water covering her body: the bathtub at the farm was really small, so small she couldn't lying inside it but just sitting down.
The soap scent, vanilla, mixed with the steam, gave the bathroom a pleasant and quiet atmosphere.
Daisy closed her eyes and had a deep breath, then she sat up and she rubbed the soft sponge all over her body, washing away the tiredness due to her past sleepless night and the hours spent on a plane.
She was in Los Angeles: a so strange feeling, everything happening so suddenly.
She remembered her previous and only staying in L.A. along her brief career as driver in the Baja Auto Race, nearly three years before. She recalled her arrival in that big city with her manager; she recalled her staying in a wide and rich Hotel; she recalled her meeting with Enos and with Enos' partner, Turk Adams.
Daisy rubbed her face with her hands, washing away that sad image, and she stood up, coming out the bathtub.
She looked at her body reflected in the mirror: she was a beautiful woman, and she knew it.
Her first time in L.A. she felt totally out of place, as in that moment: she was a country girl, after all, despite her vanity (woman's vanity) and her thirst of glory. She smiled thinking of her dream to become a singer, so many years ago, and then at her fleeting career as racer; she smiled, sadly, thinking of all her crushes for good-looking and successful men, lured by their world where everything seemed shiny and bright, wanting to be bathed in the same light. She smiled, happily, at her growing old with the awareness she didn't need any more anybody's else light 'cause she had her own light: she had no need to prove it to anybody.
She wiped her body with a red soft towel, she untied and combed her damp hair (previously tied in order not to wet them in the bathtub), and she dressed her white and long nightdress and a pair of socks.
Looking at the close door of the bathroom, her heart raced: Enos was waiting for her at the other side of that door, and, despite their long friendship, she felt nervous because of her domestic and simple outfit.
Before to open the door and enter the bedroom she had a deep sigh.
"The bathroom is all for you, now, sugar," she smiled at Enos who was lying on the bed, but he didn't answer her, his eyes wide open as he watched the TV screen.
Daisy followed his eyes, turning to the screen, her heart skipping a beat when she realized the meaning of the images flowing on it: police cars, ambulance lights, yellow-black tapes, and pictures of two cops.
Daisy walked to the TV and turned it off; the screen turned black and the journalist's voice quieted while the room fell into a cold and deep silence. She turned, "Enos…" in his name all her worrisome, sadness and love for him.
"Time to have a shower," averting his eyes from the TV and from her, Enos got up and walked to the bathroom.
Folding her arms and lowering her head in her typical way to show her disappointment mixed with worrisome, Daisy walked to the bed and she sat down, looking at the small hollow Enos' body left on the mattress, her hand sliding on the blanket in order to catch his warmth.
"Oh Enos," she whispered his name, in her ears the noise of the water roaring in the shower at the other side of the bathroom's door: he chose the shower instead of the bathtub, probably not in the mood for relaxing with a long bath and preferring a quick shower.
Outside the window it was dark, but a different darkness than the total and silent darkness of Hazzard, the darkness she was now used to, but that scared her when she was a little child. City's darkness: darkness weakened by city's annoying lights and noises.
Her eyes observed the small but comfortable room: the wide bed with a yellow and soft blanket on it, yellow carpet, yellow curtains, two small night tables at the bed's sides with a lamp on them, a round and wooden table with two chairs near the wide window. It was an elemental but cute room.
The noises and lights outside the window recalled Daisy the big difference between that city and her small town, making feel her uncomfortable and making her wonder how Enos got used to it along his staying there.
Enos was stronger than people thought, stronger and more mature than her despite his naïve and shy look. In her past she underestimated him because of that naivety and shyness, not realizing his real strength: he decided to become a cop and he went to the Police Academy despite everybody's surprise and his past as moonshiner's son, he came back to Hazzard as deputy, not losing his honesty despite Boss and Rosco's corruption and trying to do always the right thing, he decided to leave Hazzard in order to follow his dream to be a cop in a big city and he endured his time in a city so different and so far away from Hazzard, and, finally, he's kept on loving her despite her continuous pushing and pulling.
His pure and unconditioned love for her was the real prove of his strength, and she surrendered to it. But his strength was also the reason why he didn't marry her: he sacrificed his happiness for her; his strength was also the reason why he didn't allow himself to ask for help and to rely on her.
She both loved and hated his strength.
The water stopped roaring inside the shower, and Daisy heard him moving inside the bathroom until he came out.
She glanced at his white t-shirt, black trousers and white socks as he walked to the bed, stopping near it and scratching his nape.
"I may sleep in the bathtub," he was looking around the room, probably wondering how to create a sort of curtain in order to divide the bed, a curtain similar to the one he created the night she slept at the Boarding House.
"In the bathtub?" she was surprised but also amused, "you're kidding, aren't you? Come on, the bed is large, I won't pass this line," she traced an imaginary line along the bed, "and neither you. OK?" She smiled and she patted the mattress of his side of the bed, "Sit down," she stood up and she walked to her bag, taking a pack of cookies, "are you sure you don't want to eat something? I bought it for you." They decided to have dinner in a small café at the airport before to reach their Hotel, but he just nibbled at a piece of bread and a small salad, so she decided to buy something for the night, just in case he was hungry.
"I'm not hungry, now. Anyway, thanks," he smiled and he gently pulled the blanket down, cuddling up on the bed, "I won't cross the line, don't worry."
She reached him, she cuddled up at the other side of that imaginary line and she pulled the blanket up, covering them.
"I'm sorry to involve you in this sad… thing." In the darkness, his voice was soft and tired.
"Involve? Enos! I decided to come with you on my own, 'cause I didn't want to let you face this thing all by yourself."
Silence.
Daisy wondered what Enos was thinking of.
"Ask me why, Enos. Ask me why I decided to come with you and to stay by your side," the palm of her hands became sweaty while she waited for the question that could offer her a way, simple way, to confess her feelings without talking about their nearly wedding, an insensitive and selfish talk before the funeral of Enos' friend and partner.
"Thanks Daisy. I really appreciate it. I think that…," he paused, "… I'm not really good to face this thing. I'm…" he paused again, "… fragile. More fragile I thought of."
"Fragile?" surprised by his words, Daisy sat up and looked down at his figure in the dark, "Enos! Stop underestimating you. You're really strong, more strong than you think of. People respect you 'cause you're a self-made man. You have an honest and respectable job, you always do the right thing even if it isn't easy, and you don't rely on anybody else but you. How can you say you're fragile? Maybe… you are sometimes too much sensitive, and you're kind, but you are a strong man. I know you enough to say it for sure."
Silence.
Did he realize it was a sort of declaration of her love for him? Or, at least, it was a declaration of all her esteem and respect for him.
"I don't rely on anybody's else but me 'cause I know I'm fragile. I'm aware of how fragile I am, and I know that if I rely on someone else I'd be lost," he rolled on his right side, departing from her and moving near the bed's limit, "please, may I sleep, now?"
Daisy lay by his side, "OK, it's time to sleep," masking her sadness for his moving away from her. She cuddled on her right side and she looked at his nape in the darkness, while the city's lights and noises filtered through the heavy curtains of the window.
Her eyes on him, trying to catch the sense of his words, she was unable to sleep.
His soft sobs suddenly shook his back.
"Enos…" she whispered his name, "you aren't alone. You can rely on me."
He rolled on his belly, his head still turned from her, and his hand slowly reached their imaginary boundary.
When they fell asleep, his right hand was squeezing her right one, no hand crossing the invisible line between them but simply resting on it.
Her left hand squeezed his right one as they walked along Hazzard's square.
"Doctor said the baby is OK, though I keep on feeling sick. I can't eat anything else but these cookies," she raised a bag in her right hand, a bag full of cookies' packs.
"Let me bring it," he reached out his left arm and took the bag.
"It isn't heavy, Enos," she laughed, "just cookies. Don't be so overprotective!"
"I can't help but being overprotective to you and…" he looked down at her still flat belly despite the ongoing pregnancy, "… the baby," he blushed.
"I know, Enos," she turned to him and she kissed his right cheek, "I know. And it's why I love you so much. You make me feel as a queen."
He stopped and he turned to her, face to face, "You are a queen, Daisy. My queen," he bent forward and he gently kissed her, not letting go her hand.
When the kiss deepened, their fingers intertwined.