Chapter 10
Daisy stopped off in the kitchen long enough to wash Luke's tea glass before she too went to her room. She changed into a summer gown, crawled into bed, hugged her own pillow and began to sob, not for herself but for Luke. She shed the tears that she knew Luke wouldn't let fall. She had never gotten more than three licks from Jesse and currently the two she had gotten were more than plenty, but Luke had taken fourteen. Though it may not seem possible but the two he'd taken for her hurt her more than the two she had taken her own self. Her two may have warmed her backside, but the two Luke took broke her heart.
Jesse set in his rocker slowly rocking as he listened to the back door, the foot steps, the refrigerator door, the water in the kitchen sink and finally Daisy's light foot steps down the hall to her room. He looked heavenward at the stars and beyond. He quietly said, "I know, Lavinia, if you would have been here today you'd be ready to take me to the woodshed myself about now. We both knew this day would come and I wish you were here to have helped with Bo and Daisy. You could talked them two in to staying here. I knew Luke would be a challenge. I've seen him testing me. But I figured it would be him to buck me first instead of Bo. Of course, Daisy only did when she's been doing since she could barely crawl, she followed the boys and, yes, I know Bo only did the same following Luke but, ... he sassed me and I've never taken that from anyone but you." Jesse rocked in silence several minutes before saying, "I miss you, Darlin', you are still the love of my life." Jesse felt a gentle breeze kick up out of no where and would have sworn he'd got a breath of Lavinia's perfume.
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Sunday morning was the one day a week that the Duke farm slept in, getting up usually about an hour and a half later than normal. Jesse got up and as usual didn't even knock on the boys door. He knew the coffee and bacon would get their attention soon enough.
Not being used to sleeping on his stomach and going to bed with the chickens, it was no surprise that Luke was the first of the 'kids' awake. In those first moments of waking up Luke felt unusually stiff and sore. He began to stretch his body. In mid stretch he regretted that and began to roll to his side to get up, only to also regret that. It may be a Sunday morning but the thoughts crossing Luke's mind were far from saintly. He decided to push himself up to his knees then stand up without setting up first. He knew there was chores to do so he reached for his clothes from the night before. Once Luke was dressed he went to the bottom of Bo's bed and tapped his foot, "Bo."
Bo grumbled but began to stir.
Luke left the room heading for the kitchen and coffee. As Luke came in the kitchen his eyes met his Uncle's, "Morning Uncle Jesse." He said like normal as he reached for a coffee cup.
"Mornin' Luke." Jesse said.
NARRATOR: Folks this may be like any other morning greeting between them two, but I feel the tension all the way here.
Luke stood at the kitchen sink drinking his coffee while he looked across the farm as he often did while waiting on Bo to make his appearance.
Bo turned on his side as Luke left the room and regretted it. He made sure to find a pair of jeans a looser than the ones he'd worn the day before, but they offered little comfort this morning. Bo knew Luke would be back for him if he didn't get a move on. He finished dressing and went to the kitchen where he barely voiced as if pouting, "Mornin'."
Jesse and Luke had both seen him act like this since he had been in this world, "Morning Bo." They both replied.
Daisy came in the kitchen in a cautiously, "Morning ya'll." She hadn't picked up on the men's moods yet but she was nearly certain that the events of yesterday were not forgotten by any of them.
Luke handed Bo his coffee and reached for another cup as they greeted Daisy.
Bo went to his chair at the table still not completely awake and set down rather hard only to grimace and quickly change position.
Daisy made it to her chair but wisely sat down rather gently.
Trying to act casually, Bo got up and went to the refrigerator and got out the cream, added some to his coffee, then joined Luke by the sink. He hoped no one remembered the fact that he seldom used cream in his coffee.
Jesse hadn't missed a thing as he silently watched the three.
Luke finished his coffee a couple minutes later and said to Bo, "You about ready?"
Bo wasn't ready. In fact he was ready to go back to bed for at least the next couple days. He knew by his attempt to set at the table that most anything he did today would not be pleasant. He was smart enough to know that he'd never get away with that option, so he gulped the last drink of coffee and said, "May as well be."
Luke put his cup on the counter to use again at breakfast then headed to the door.
Once a safe distance from the house Bo grumbled, "Luke I can't imagine how you are this morning. You should be hurting far worse than me this morning, yet you act like you are fine."
"Look, Bo, what good would it do? We BOTH put ourselves in the situation we did yesterday. Jesse was only trying to see that we don't do it again. Believe me I'm not anymore happy about bein' out here than you are, but it's got to get done and grumblin' and poutin' ain't gonna change that, so the sooner we get done the sooner we can go eat." Luke reminded his younger cousin who was always hungry.
"Sorry Luke. I'm not poutin'." Bo said as an after thought.
"Are to." Luke said.
"Am not." Bo replied.
Luke sighed, "Bo you are. ... And you need to 'get out of it'."
Bo glared and headed off to start his chores as Luke went to his.
01~~~~~~~~~~01
Chores were finished, breakfast was cooked. Bo and Luke washed up, filled their plates. They both stood at their chairs until after grace was said, then as if they were being punished as children, promptly took their plates to the mantel of the fire place. Jesse watched them go. Both 'boys' knew they were not being punished further, but both decided on the 'self imposed' punishment of eating at the mantel opposed to setting down at the table. Jesse didn't say a word. Least wise until breakfast was done and dishes stacked. Jesse poured a cup of coffee, stood up and before heading to the porch reminded, "Be ready to leave for church in one hour."
The three cousins watched him go without saying a word.
Luke was already dreading this morning before Jesse reminded them it was Sunday.
Bo grumbled, "I don't want to go to church. I would rather stay home today, them pews are hard enough without already havin' problems settin' down." He saw Daisy and Luke give him a 'look'.
Finally, Luke said, "If I were you, I'd just get ready to go. Trust me, if you have problems setting now, another whippin' today will not help and will hurt far worse than yesterday."
"Shoot." Bo said as he headed to the shower.
Exactly one hour later all the Dukes headed to the cars. Jesse to the pick up. Daisy would be riding with him. Luke looked at the damages to his Torino as he approached it. He swore under his breath. Somehow in the darkness the cars damages looked far lesser than they did in the early morning Hazzard hours. He tossed Bo the keys and opened the passenger side door. Luke knew he still could have drove to church. Jesse hadn't told him that he couldn't have and he still had his license, but he hoped he would be more comfortable on the passenger side of his car.
Bo gently set down in the drives seat. "Owe."
Luke was still standing at the passenger door, "I don't want to hear it." Luke took his seat and tried to find a position to lessen his discomfort.
At the church the boys waited to the last possible moment to take their places with Jesse and Daisy. As was the custom since they were small children, Bo set beside Jesse and Luke furthest away beside Daisy. Jesse and Levinia had found these positions worked best for all concerned when the boys were small and the custom had not changed as they grew up.
Several times during the sermon Jesse elbowed Bo to stop fidgeting and even had to tap Luke on the shoulder a few times.
No position the boys found was comfortable or found any relief on the hard church pews. The sermon seemed to go on much longer than normal at least for the boys. Daisy was even searching for a position to make her tender behind stop burning from it's paddling the night before. She didn't want to think about how bad the boys felt, as she had only received two of the licks. She especially felt bad for Luke who had receive nearly double the licks her and Bo had together, yet he moved the least. As the sermon closed, everyone filed outside. Daisy was with Jesse as he talked to Parson Brown. She saw Luke being approached by one of the many 'single' females of Hazzard who had likely heard about him and Robin no longer dating. Luke smiled politely, listened, turned down the 'offer', then turned toward his car alone. Both Daisy and Bo held their breath as they watched Robin intercept him at the car.
Trying to maintain a pleasant look for all that watched her, Robin said through gritted teeth, "What is the meaning of getting Ralph put in jail?"
Luke smiled at her, "Seems you have your information all wrong. Rosco got a call about racing and came up. He found me and Ralph in a fight, only because I was swung on after helping get him out of the ditch. You have seen me race. I like my paint, even if it is just primer. Take a look at what was done to MY paint when he tried to stick me in the ditch and lost control. Then he found the need to admit that we had been racin' to Rosco. So tell me how you blame that on me?"
Robin looked Luke in the eyes, then looked his car over, finally looked back at him saying, "Sorry, guess I was out of line." She knew Luke well enough to know when he was lying. This was not one of those times. That only meant Ralph had lied to her, she concluded as she walked toward her car.
Luke leaned against the car watching her walk away as he waited on Bo.
Bo had been stopped by Linda Sue. They had talked at the party on Friday. It had been a class end of the year party that everyone convinced Bo to go to instead of 'following Luke'. Bo knew in hind sight, had he went with Luke, the charges would likely have been worse against his cousin, as he too would have likely been drinking too.
Linda Sue knew the Dukes always had a big dinner on Sundays and usually invited the Davenports and others over. She had stopped Bo in hopes of being invited today. Linda Sue had no idea of the trouble that had brewed since she last seen Bo at the party.
Bo was glad for the attention as well as the distraction from his current state, so he talked the talk as if nothing was a mist at the Duke farm right up until he was cornered.
Linda Sue said, "I'm free all afternoon."
Bo grimaced. 'Free' would not describe his current state. "Yeah, well, I only wished I was."
Linda Sue replied, "You aren't?" She feared the worse that he had decided to date someone else.
"No, but not for the reasons you may be thinking." Bo replied.
Linda Sue waited.
"Ya see, Luke got into some trouble the other night. I sorta let my mouth dig a hole for myself. I'm sorry and any other time I'd love to do something." Bo half way explained.
"You would? Really?" Linda Sue asked.
"Really." Bo replied.
"OK, I'll hold ya to it." Linda Sue said as let her hand wander to his backside and gently gave him a slight pinch.
It may have been a slight pinch and any other time Bo would have welcomed it, but at this moment in time it down right hurt.
Bo tensed without thinking and moved away from Linda Sue saying only, "I've got to get going. I'll call ya when I can."
Linda Sue only nodded as Bo went to the car where Luke waited on him.
The boys found the vinyl of the car seats much harder on the trip home than it had been on the way to town after setting so long on the hard church pews. Bo asked, "So what did Robin want?"
Luke replied, "Just drive Bo. We'll talk about it at the farm." Luke knew if they started a conversation that Bo's foot had a tendency to get a bit light on the gas.
01~~~~~~~~~~~01
After a late lunch, due to the sermon going longer than normal, the dishes were done and left overs put away. Jesse took his paper and tea to the rocker on the porch.
On a normal Sunday, Cooter would have been over and the three boys would have hung out on the farm a spell, then headed out to meet or chase girls. Bo looked at Luke, "Any ideas about today?"
Luke had hoped to maybe head to the stream that bordered the back side of the Duke property with the excuse of doing some fishing. Jesse had told him he needed to ask to leave the farm and the stream was on the farm, but something told Luke he needed to clarify before heading out, "Let me check something."
Bo and Daisy listened as Luke went to the porch where Jesse sat reading.
Luke tried to act causal as he leaned against the porch rail. He hadn't had to do this in sometime and felt about three doing it now, "Uncle Jesse, ... What are our boundaries today?"
Jesse folded his paper, took a drink of tea, and looked at his oldest nephew. He knew Luke had been the voice of the three for years in situations like this, unless they sent Daisy to try to butter him up. Jesse hadn't had to give answers like this in sometime but decided to leave no room for misunderstandings, "No piling up in bed until bedtime; no out going calls; if you answer the phone and its for you or the others explain that you can't talk; no television; no working today."
Luke thought 'so far so good' as for going fishing. He put his tongue in check and asked, "Geographic boundaries?"
Jesse knew the farm was sizable and didn't plan to spend the day checking to make sure the three was doing as told. He looked Luke in the eye and replied, "Farm yard."
It had been a good thing that Luke had put his tongue in check because he nearly swore. Wisely he only nodded and went back in the house to find Daisy and Bo standing just inside the door. After trying to count 'ten' Luke said, "You heard?"
Daisy said, "Yeah, no phone."
Bo frowned deeper, "No watchin' the race."
Luke nodded that they both had the idea. He knew setting anywhere to do anything was out for him so he headed to the barn gathered some tools and headed toward the Torino. He began taking the door apart to get to the inside to start beating out the damage that had been caused.
Bo soon found him, "Luke, Jesse said no working."
"Look if there is work to do we can't 'piddle' with the cars, right?" Luke said.
Bo nodded slowly thinking that he seen where Luke was going with this.
"So, I'm not working on it. I'm piddling." Luke said with a bit of a grin and a raised eyebrow.
01~~~~~~~~~~~~~~01
Sorry, not much action in this chapter but more of a bridge to get on into the good stuff.