CHAPTER 21

Women chatting in front of the grocery.

Mrs. Macleod's excitement: "Enos Strate and Daisy Duke are goin' to get married, TODAY!"

Mrs. Clifford's surprise: "What? I thought they were planning to get married next month."

Mrs. Morton's perplexity: "Why are they hurryin' up this way?"

Mrs. Johnson's malice: "I know a reason why some couple hurry up."

Women sniggering.

Miss Tizdale's revision: "Jesse Duke talked to me 'bout something happened a couple of days ago at the orphanage. Enos and Daisy are planning to adopt little Lucy, so they have to hurry up otherwise Lucy will be adopted by another couple."

Women's surprised and amazed "OOHHH, so sweet!"

Mrs. Macleod's invitation: "So, see you at church for the wedding."

Mrs. Johnson's joking: "Hoping the wedding isn't goin' to be postponed again for a new strange reason."

Women's rebellion: "NO WAY!"

Luke fought with the tie of his tight, "Another hurried wedding. Folks will talk a lot 'bout it," he turned to Bo, "Help me with this, Bo, I hate ties."

Bo helped Luke with the tie and laughed, "How many times did we hire these tights, letting people think Daisy was goin' to marry Enos?"

Luke wore the jacket, "This is the third time we wears these tights, but now Daisy is really goin' to become Enos' wife," he shook his head and smiled, "We've always laughed at this idea, Daisy too laughed 'bout it, but things changed so much between them that now I feel it as totally natural."

Uncle Jesse raised his right forefinger and smiled, "In effect, things haven't really changed between them but just ripened. Enos and Daisy too grew old. And finally folks are goin' to see the wedding they were waiting for."

Luke nodded, "Right. Folks have always thought Daisy was goin' to marry Enos, some day or another."

Bo burst out laughing, "Do you remember when Daisy was planning to marry Jamie Lee Hogg? People were goin' crazy 'bout it."

Uncle Jesse looked at Bo, his serious eyes on him, "And not just folks."

They had a big sigh of relief.

FLASHBACK

Daisy's yellow car stopped near the black car of the Hazzard County Coroner's Office.

She got out the car and she gave Bo and Luke two big boxes containing their tights.

Bo took the boxes from her hands, "Did you have any problem?"

Daisy smiled, "No, I have no problem, but now all the town thinks I'm marrying Enos," she turned serious and she shook her head, "I sure hope he doesn't find it out."

The idea of marrying Enos was funny: they were close friends and Enos has always had a crush on her, but she couldn't think of him that way. She had a strong affection for him, and she didn't want to hurt him, but he was too much shy and clumsy for her taste; she was attracted by a total different kind of guys: charmers.

01 - 01 - 01 - 01 - 01 - 01 - 01 - 01

Mrs. Macleod's surprise as she shouted from the window of her house, "Daisy Duke is goin' to marry Jamie Lee Hogg."

Mr. Leigh watched up at Mrs. Macleod's window, losing the control of his bicycle and falling into a bush.

Mrs. Macleod's shout echoed throughout many other mouths.

"Daisy Duke is goin' to marry Jamie Lee Hogg!"

The news was spreading like fire in a windy day.

Everybody knew Enos Strate left Hazzard few months before, and he wasn't planning to come back (his leaving Hazzard was a farewell), and Daisy Duke was technically a free woman (she was a free woman even when Enos was still in Hazzard, in effect), but… Jamie Lee HOGG?

It was the most surprising and shocking romance ever, in Hazzard.

Just some years before the idea of becoming Enos' wife was so strange to Daisy, whereas now it was the thing she wanted the most. Things have changed so slowly and silently she wasn't able to understand exactly how it happened, but it happened and she was happy of it.

She was happy of it and she was proud of herself and of how she changed along the years: no more charmers for her. She was more mature and more self-confident.

Thinking of her pain at the end of her love affair with Jamie Lee Hogg and of her attempt to marry him, she had deep sigh of relief.

She smiled at her silhouette reflected in the mirror; her hands slid on her hips, enjoying the chiffon's softness.

It was the second time she was wearing that dress, and she hoped the last time: she was going to become Enos Strate's wife, finally.

The door of the small room opened and Daisy turned round, smiling at her uncle and cousins staring at her with happy and teary eyes.

"I have already told it to you, Daisy: you looks like aunt Lavinia, and you're beautiful."

Daisy bent her head on her right shoulder and smiled, "Thanks uncle Jesse."

Luke folded his arms and grinned, "You are the Hazzard's best bride ever, Daisy."

Bo rested his forearm on Luke's shoulder, "Ol' Enos is a really lucky guy."

"And little Lucy is a really lucky girl," uncle Jesse walked closer Daisy and took her hands in his ones, staring in her eyes, "You know Daisy, when aunt Lavinia and I were young, we wanted a baby so much, but no matter how much we were waiting for it, the baby didn't come. So, we were planning to adopt a child of the orphanage."

Daisy opened her eyes wide, "I didn't know anything about it, uncle Jesse," she glanced at Bo and Luke, her same surprise in their eyes.

Uncle Jesse nodded, Daisy's hands still in his ones, "But… few before we adopted a child, your parents died. So, aunt Lavinia and I decided to take care of you, Bo and Luke. At that time we were the only ones who could receive you; you were just small children, shattered by the grief of losing your parents, and all our energy was driven to you. You became like sons and daughter to aunt Lavinia and me, and we did our best to give you everything we could; it meant we had to renounce to adopt a child of the orphanage: the farm was too small for another child, and we weren't sure to be enough for four children. It was really hard growing up three children," uncle Jesse shook his head and looked at the floor, "Even now I feel like if I betrayed the orphanage; I promised Miss Smith to adopt a child, and then I didn't keep my word."

Daisy held back her tears and squeezed uncle Jesse's hands, "Uncle Jesse, you kept your word, instead, 'cause you somehow adopted the whole orphanage; you have always helped Miss Smith and the orphanage's children, and you taught us to help the children less lucky than us. Stop reproaching you, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

Uncle Jesse looked again into Daisy's eyes, "Miss Smith says the same."

Daisy smiled, "She says the same 'cause it's true."

Uncle Jesse gently kissed Daisy's forehead, "I'm really proud of you and Enos, Daisy. You are keeping my old word, doing what aunt Lavina and I tried to do but didn't. The circle is closing."

Still in their posture, Luke with his arms folded and Bo with his forearm on Luke's shoulder, they stared at the scene with teary eyes.

The familiar and intimate scene was broken by the door opening and by Miss Smith and Lulu Hogg, Daisy's bridesmaids, storming inside, little Lucy and little Eileen with them.

"Children, stop running!" Miss Smith stared at Daisy, smiling, "You're beautiful, darling. Everything is ready, and Enos is waiting for you at the altar."

Lulu clapped her hands, "You're really beautiful, darling. Hope Enos isn't goin' to faint."

Daisy smiled and blushed as her heart raced in her chest, "I'm ready," she looked at the little girls in her pink chiffon dresses, a small basket full of rose petals in her hands, "Are you ready?"

Lucy nodded, "Ready ready", she took a handful of petals and she tossed them up.

"Lucy, not here, but while you walk along the nave!" Miss Smith covered her face with her palm.

Luke laughed, "OK, time to go, or Lucy is goin' to strew all petals here."

Daisy grinned and walked to the door heading to the church's nave, uncle Jesse's by her side, while Bo and Luke, the groomsmen, hurried up to the altar in order to reach Enos.

Lulu, Miss Smith and the little girls preceded Daisy and uncle Jesse along the nave, slowly, while everybody inside the crowded church turned to Daisy, smiling amazed by the best bride ever in Hazzard.

Daisy glanced at Enos and the boys at the end of the nave, Bo and Luke patting Enos' shoulder and Enos scratching his nape. She held back a laugh: for sure Enos didn't take the antihistaminic in order to not being drowsy, so he was now fighting against the hives.

Walking on the rose petals strewed by Lucy and Eileen, she showed all the people her brightest smile.

The flashbacks are from "Money to burn" and "Mrs. Daisy Hogg".

I was planning to write the wedding in a unique chapter, but it seems I need a chapter more (this story is longing more chapters I was planning of... 20 chapters more, to be more precise, until now, LOL). THANKS for following me to this (nearly) final.