CHAPTER 12

"Enos!" Daisy laughed, "are you hungry, sugar?" she rested her chin on her right hand and her right elbow on the table, looking at Enos who was eating his breakfast. She smiled both of amusement and affection.

Swallowing his last pancake and then sipping his coffee, he blushed, the new red on his cheeks covering the hives' marks; resting the cup of coffee on the table, he sighed, "I need to recover my energy."

"Have you dried your energy out, honey?" she kept on smiling, now both of amusement and malice.

"YOU dried my energy out, Daisy," he blushed even more and smiled shyly, answering her laughing after his answer.

"Oh Enos," she shook her head, reflecting his blushing after his sweet smile.

He gently wiped his mouth and then he rested the napkin on the table, "I confess… I was planning to sleep in the bathtub, yesterday evening, but…" he looked down at the table, embarrassed, "I can't believe it happened."

Daisy opened her eyes wide and rested both forearms on the table, "Sleeping in the bathtub? Why were you planning to sleep in the bathtub?" She waited for his answer even if she could guess it.

Keeping on looking at the table, he gently shook his head, "Yesterday morning, when I woke up… I was hugging you… we were hugging each other," his voice turned into a whisper, as if he was afraid someone near them could hear his confession, "and it nearly drove me crazy. I mean, being so close to you. You were still sleeping, so you didn't notice it," he glanced at her before to stare again at his hands on the table, "but… shucks, Dais… I had a cold shower to calm me down. So I was planning to sleep in the bathtub… just in case… but then… it happened."

She sniggered and shook her head, covering her face with her right hand, "Oh Enos, you're really something else." So, he answered the questions floating in her mind the previous morning when she was eating her breakfast at that same table in that same hall: it wasn't a dream, they really slept hugging each other and they were still hugging each other when Enos woke up.

After his confession, he slowly looked at her, on his face the look she knew very well, a look always making her smile: shy, embarrassed and sweet. Clumsy.

Their new intimacy didn't change his shyness and sweetness, and Daisy was happy of it.

FLASHBACK

Daisy walked to Enos, standing near him and looking at him, "Did you hide at the farm to watch me washing my unmentionables, Enos?"

Sitting at his table at the Boar's Nest, he tried to hide his face in his hat's shadow, looking down at the table, "Uh? Me? Your unmentionables? Oh well," his voice's tone low, pretending self-confidence and indifference, professional tone, then he shook his head and his tone turned friendly and funny, as usual, "I can't lie to you, Daisy. I was watching you," he glanced around him and he whispered as if he feared someone could hear him, "But it was just for official police business. I watched your unmentionables," he looked again at the table, averting his eyes from her, "but I wasn't lusting, honest." After his clumsy confession, he glanced at her and then again at the table, with his funny look: pressed lips and raised eyebrows.

"Oh Enos," she smiled both amused and embarrassed, she shook her head and she walked away.

"It's time to go, now." Enos stood up and walked to the reception's hall while Daisy followed him. Waiting for him in the hall while he walked to the reception's counter, she looked carefully at everything around her, collecting in her mind every detail for her future memories and saying good-bye to that small and comfortable Hotel, a Hotel that gave her a precious gift.

Their bags in their hands, they left the Hotel.

Outside, Los Angeles' streets were sparkling in the sunlight; the sky was blue and terse and the clear light reflected on the storm's signs: everything seemed perfectly cleaned by the rain, and the sun seemed now drying everything up. Asphalt, windows, walls, cars and trees: everything washed and then bathed in the same clear light.

"We have to hurry up. The flight boarding is at 1 p.m."

Glancing at his clock, 8.30 a.m., Daisy wondered what he was talking about: they had all the time they needed to reach the airport.

"Before to go to the airport… if you don't mind…" realizing her silent question, he stopped and looked at her, "I need to do something before to leave," he averted his eyes from her, "don't misunderstand me, Daisy. I'm really happy of what happened this night, but..." a brief sigh as he shook his head, keeping on looking down and the ground, "… I can't help but feeling ashamed because of it. I need to recall myself why I'm here."

Daisy nodded and grabbed his left hand, "Ok. I understand you, Enos." His left hand in her right one, she kept on walking, being perfectly conscious why and how they reached that intimacy: they were getting hold of life after facing the death of someone close to them, close more to Enos than her, in effect, and Enos couldn't forget the pain of that death, feeling somehow guilty simply 'cause he was alive, totally and happily alive.

Their new intimacy and the happiness in it didn't change Enos' sensitivity, sense of respect and honesty, and Daisy was happy of it.

At the graveyard, Daisy observed Enos standing in front of Turk's tombstone; she looked at him from the distance, respecting his need of solitude in that final good-bye.

Their bags on the ground near her feet, Daisy folded her arms around her chest and looked down at the wet grass: the day was sunny, but it was winter, a cold and windy winter day.

On the grass, just her lonely shadow until another shadow paralleled her one.

Daisy moved her eyes from her shadow to the new one, and from that new shadow to the person provoking it: a woman, blue eyes, blonde, long and wavy hair.

A stylish and refined woman, and she was staring at Enos, whispering his name.

"Do you know Enos?" Daisy couldn't help but ask that woman why she knew Enos: maybe a colleague who didn't come to the funeral because she was on duty?

The woman turned to Daisy, smiling, "Yes. My name is Joy, oh, well, my real name is Sarah, Joy is just my professional name" her eyes moved from Daisy to Enos, "Enos and Turk helped me, some years ago, when I was in trouble. They saved me, and now I'm a free woman. I'm here to say good-bye to Turk; yesterday I was in San Francisco, so I missed his funeral. But, now, I'm here." Without waiting for Daisy's answer or for new questions, Joy walked to Enos.

Joy's gray raincoat fluttered in the wind, and so the red foulard around her neck and her blonde hair while she walked to Enos, her shiny black boots trampling on the grass: observing her, Daisy thought of a movie star, feeling ashamed of her country look, her vanity goading her pride.

Enos noticed Joy, he turned to her, they talked, they turned to Turk's tombstone and they prayed: Daisy was observing them. After their silent and sad good-bye, Joy turned to Enos, she hugged him and she finally kissed him, a sweet and brief kiss on his lips but Enos didn't answer her kiss and had a step back, parting from her and shaking his head; Daisy's heart burst in confusion and pain, realizing what was in Joy's tone when she whispered Enos' name: it was love.

Did Enos and Joy have a love affair when Enos stayed in L.A.? Impossible!

After Enos' rejection, Joy said something Daisy couldn't hear and she walked away, Daisy's eyes on her.

Her eyes still on that gray raincoat and that red foulard, Daisy didn't notice Enos was by her side, his shadow paralleling hers.

"She was a prostitute."

Enos' words were so surprising Daisy turned to him, her eyes wide open while she listened to his spontaneous answer to her obvious and due question.

"She was involved in a case of blackmailing Turk and I were working on. But now she's free, she's an actress, a pretty famous actress. She has always dreamt of becoming an actress."

Her eyes moved from him to his shadow in the grass, ashamed of the upcoming question, "She kissed you," she swallowed against the lump in her throat before to go on, "had you a love affair with that woman when you stayed here? Had you a crush on her?"

The wind whistled in the trees' branches and the grass bent.

"No. I had no love affair with Joy. I had no crush on her… though…"

A pause, and Daisy's heart raced in her chest.

"… just for a moment, I felt something for Joy, I felt I could fall in love with her. But it was just an illusion. I met Joy few after knowing you were dating Jamie Lee Hogg and planning to get married. So, just for a moment, I thought that if you had married Jamie Lee, maybe I could forget you… with Joy. Stupid idea, not respectful to you and nor to Joy. I'm sorry, sometimes I'm so stupid."

The wind passed through their shadows, bending the grass.

Daisy shivered, "You aren't stupid, Enos. I! I was stupid, always falling for the wrong guy. Jamie Lee was self-confident, soft-spoken, good-looking… a charmer, my kind of crushes. I thought he was honest, too. When I found out about his real nature my heart broke." Daisy recalled those days, talking about it honestly and openly: Enos' honesty deserved her total honesty. "I suffered, I suffered very much because of it. I really loved Jamie Lee, to the point to think, after he got arrested, that he could change, coming back to me, some day or another. But uncle Jesse helped me to understand I didn't love Jamie Lee, I loved the image I had of him," she smiled sadly and shook her head, "I loved the romance, me and him, a Duke and a Hogg, like Romeo and Juliet. I loved the romance, I loved his image, and I loved the idea of the woman saving a man, changing him from a delinquent to a gentleman. Just a romance, and when I realized it was just a romance played in my mind, thanks uncle Jesse's words, I was finally free from it."

Silence.

Daisy wondered what Enos was thinking of, but she hadn't the nerve to move her eyes from his shadow to his figure. Did she hurt him, admitting her love, even if a past and forgotten love but love, for another man? Was he jealous? What did he think of her and her crushes? When he looked at her kissing her various crushes, did his heart explode the same way her heart did when she saw Joy kissing him?

"Self-confident, soft-spoken, good-looking… a charmer, your kind of crushes," he slowly echoed her words, but she couldn't understand what was in his tone: anger? Sadness? Disappointment?

"So, I should ask myself why you love me. I'm pretty different than your kind of crushes, for sure not a charmer, but clumsy," amusement and sweetness in his tone. He didn't doubt of her love; he didn't reproach her of her previous crushes.

Still looking at his shadow, she knew he was smiling.

"Not a charmer… but for sure good-looking," she smiled thinking of his naked body in the sunlight while he was sleeping, amazing vision, "you're really good-looking, honey." An offshoot from her shadow reached his one when her right hand touched his shoulder and then slid along his spine.

"Thanks, Daisy, at least I'm good-looking," he had a brief laugh, surprised and amused by her touch.

"You are not self-confident. You are not soft-spoken. You are not a charmer," her tone turned serious, "but you are much more, Enos: you are honest, you are serious, and you are generous. I know I can rely on you, always. You are true and not an image, and you aren't afraid of being true to yourself. It's why I love you so much."

Their shadows fused, two becoming one, when they kissed.

If you want to know who Joy (Sarah) is, look for 'Enos and Michelle Pfeiffer' on YouTube ;-), two videos, one of them in italian with english subs. It was one of the first roles of Michelle Pfeiffer, from the first episode of "Enos". Unfortunately, I can't find the series, and I don't remember very much of it. If I had to couple Enos with someone else beside Daisy, she would be Joy. IF I had... but I won't, LOL (though, time ago, I was planning to bring Joy, and troubles with her, in Hazzard).

Thanks for reading! Now, time to go back in Hazzard for the final.