***** NOTE: We all know things are different in Hazzard County than anywhere else in the world. And everyone should also have heard the phase, 'Sober as a Judge'. Well, Luke's needing takes both those things into consideration. No, I personally have never heard of a Judge doing this, but maybe things could be worked out a lot easier. I personally like Terry Clark's thinking in 'The World Needs a Drink'. Just read this part of the story with an open mind and remember it is a fictional story. I hope you enjoy.
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Chapter 37
Between having to go get Jeb and Bo and not being able to bring Luke home, Jesse Duke hadn't gotten much sleep at all last night. He didn't like for one minute that Luke was hurt and not under his roof. Not being able to sleep, Jesse gave up tossing and turning earlier than normal. He was now on his second cup of coffee when the phone rang. He frowned as he looked at the clock, "Duke Farm."
"Jesse this is Rosco. I just talked to Judge Hardcastle. He will be in at eight and would like to talk to you in his Chambers before seeing Luke." Rosco advised.
Jesse was relieved that Rosco wasn't calling to tell him that Luke was having problems from his ribs but he hadn't expected to be summonsed either. "I'll be there." Jesse replied.
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If Luke had thought his first experience with having broken and bruised ribs, and having to sleep in the recliner after sippin' on some of Jesse's finest was bad, he soon learned that he had been much better off before. Luke found that trying to get comfortable in the cell was impossible. He wasn't able to lay down, setting straight up hadn't worked for long, so the only other option was standing up. The pain from his ribs coupled with the adrenaline from the fight had soon over powered the alcohol Luke had drank and the over the counter Motrin Doc had left wasn't touching the pain. Luke never understood the idea of taping ribs when they were broke. The pain hadn't been anywhere near this bad either time before Doc Applebee taped them. Luke wished Rosco had not told Doc he was hurt, but on the other hand Jesse would have taken one look at him and he would have called Doc himself. Luke had managed to spend most of the night standing to the back of the cell looking out the window. He had hoped to have figured out what exactly happened yesterday evening. Why Ralph had been set to attack him even before he entered the garage but for the life of him, he hadn't been able to figure anything out.
Upstairs Ralph was having his own troubles. His ankle and foot were hurting where Duke had grabbed it after he'd kicked Duke's ribs. Ralph had misjudged how quick Duke could be even while he was in pain. He surely hadn't ever figured on Duke head butting him in the nose. The swelling was still causing him to not be able to breath well. Between the pain from his ankle, nose and everywhere else Luke had managed to get punches in there was no laying down even if he would have been able to breath doing so. Ralph found himself thinking back to the previous evening, he had been so certain that Robin had been at the garage and even now he wasn't entirely sure that he had been wrong, after all it was her car right beside Duke's.
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A few miles out of Hazzard, by the time the chores were done at the Duke farm, morning was just getting started at the McCormick home. Even though he was currently on the afternoon shift Robin's dad was up with coffee made by the time his wife came downstairs. No one had to get up for school and after evening they had been through no one was really in a big hurry to get up today.
Last evening when David saw that not only Ralph and Luke were cuffed, but his brother Mark was a well, David assumed that Mark was arrested along with the others. With that news in mind, he rushed home eager to tell his parents of the trouble that his brother was in. In fact, David had broken all the speed limits in the County going home since all the police were busy in town. He made it home just in time for their scheduled dinner. His father had the evening off and it was obvious that they were expecting company only he knew wasn't going to be able to show. "Hey where is dinner? I'm starved." David had started as soon as he came in the kitchen.
His mother advised, "As you can see we are expecting company, so just be a bit patient. Besides, your brother isn't here yet either."
"I'm not real sure I'd hold dinner on Mark or Ralph's account." David said with a look of the cat that had the family canary's tail feathers sticking out of his mouth.
"They still have a few minutes before they are late. Why shouldn't we wait?" His mother asked.
His sister seen his look and paled. He knew something that he was going to take great pleasure telling, which likely meant that she wasn't going to be happy at all. "You know something. Give NOW."
By this time their father had made his way toward the dinner table and was also curious what his youngest knew.
"Well, ... I've just never heard of anyone ever getting handcuffed and escorted to jail, ... oh an hour ago and then make it home for dinner." David said slow enough to drag the information out.
Robin replied, "What? Why?"
Before David could answer her, his father held up his hand for his daughter to hush, "My turn. Your brother was arrested? Where? When and why?"
David shrugged, "Well, it sure looked that way to me. I stopped at the garage when I seen Robin's car parked BY LUKE DUKE's car, ..." Then something dawned on him, "HEY! WHY is your car there and you are here?"
Robin started to reply but again stopped by her father, "Never mind that. What about Mark?"
"Well, I never made it inside. When I got to the door it looked like Ralph and Luke were really trying to hurt each other. Then the next I knew Mark, Cooter, Bo and their other cousin was into it with them. That's when the Sheriff arrived and took them all in." David said playing up his own innocence as he went.
"Let's eat." Robin's father said as he stopped the protests he knew he'd get from his wife and daughter, "I've told them all that if they want to go getting in trouble with the law, they better have a plan to get out of it on their own."
As dinner was winding down a familiar sound was heard by all. Robin was the first to react to the sound of Luke's car pulling into the driveway. She came out of her seat eyes wide and pulse racing. Everyone at the table saw her reaction as she went to the window where she saw not Luke but his cousins and Mark. Trying to play off the reaction she went to the refrigerator and got a glass of tea, then returned to the table.
Her parents seen her reaction as they too knew the car, but had bigger 'fish' to fry as they heard their oldest come through the door.
Unfortunately for Robin, her parents weren't the only one to see her react to the sound of her EX boyfriends car. Her younger brother saw her reaction too. He 'filed' it back as ammunition for a later time.
Mark had known he was late for dinner and knew that he was in for it when he saw his brother's truck in the yard. He looked at his clothes and noticed that had gotten dirty while trying to break up the fight and noticed his torn jeans. Taking off his boots, Mark heard Jeb back out and head for home. Jesse had given them only ten extra minutes to get him to the house and be behind them at their farm. When Mark stepped into the kitchen things went down hill.
His father looked him up and down and only said, "Well,..."
Though he knew David had been more than helpful to tell everything he thought that he knew, Mark tried, "I took Robin's car to the garage like I said. I was waiting with the guys for Cooter close to give me a ride here. We were setting around talking when," He looked at his sister knowing he was about to start a war. He continued, "When that turnip brain she's dating came charging in and attacked Luke for evidently NO reason. At least none that we know of." He looked at Robin wondering if she may know why Ralph would act like that.
"Hey! What are you giving me that look for?" Robin said a bit louder than she should have.
"Well, I was just wondering if Turnip Brain had a reason to be mad at Luke. You two ain't talking again are you?" Mark asked. He had seen it happen with Luke and Robin more times than he cared to count.
"No! We ain't!" Robin fumed. "I have no idea why, ..." She paused and got even paler, then looked from Mark to David and back to Mark, "Where did you park my car?"
"At the garage!" Mark said back to her sharply.
Robin rolled her eyes, "Where at, AT the garage, Stupid!" She looked up in time to see both her parents shoot her a look.
Mark shrugged, "The end of the lot where I usually park."
"Where was Luke parked?" Robin asked.
Totally baffled by that question, Mark replied, "I don't know. I didn't pay attention. What difference does THAT make."
David was grinning widely.
"What?" Mark asked.
David shrugged, "It sure looked real cozy like with both those cars parked side by side like they were when I rolled up."
Mark looked at David, "Hey why was you there anyway?"
As innocently as he could manage, David replied, "Waiting on Ralph."
"Waiting on Ralph? Meaning exactly WHAT?" Mark jumped on David's last statement as he leaned over the kitchen table toward his brother.
David was leaning way back in his seat trying to avoid his older brother. "See I was just givin' him a ride out here, ..."
"When you just happened to stop at the garage?" Mark asked.
"No, no, it was nothing like that see first, ..." David was cut off.
"You just happened to point out my car, right?" Robin knew her brother too well. She didn't have to wait on the reply. Everything fit now. "Oh great!" Robin nearly yelled at Mark, "YOU started this whole thing. How could you have parked my car by LUKE? ..." Then she turned to David, "And YOU added fuel to an open FLAME!" She turned and stormed to her room.
Mark watched his sister storm off. He was still confused by how he had done anything wrong. "What did I do?"
His father seen the amused look on his youngest son's face. He pointed to David, "I think you can just head up to your room for the evening." Then to his oldest, he replied, "And then we'll figure out just what you did and how you managed to end up handcuffed and taken to the jail."
Mark tried not to shake his head at this turn of events. He should have know David would not have left those details out. He figured he'd spend the rest of the night explaining how he hadn't done anything but try to be helpful all day.
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Jesse arrived at the Courthouse and was shown into the Judge's Chambers where Judge Hardcastle was reading his reports. Jesse spoke when he looked up, "Good morning, Judge Hardcastle."
The Judge looked up at his long time friend, "Jesse. ... " There was a long pause before the Judge continued, "What am I supposed to do with those boys?"
Jesse over at the Judge a bit confused. He hadn't expected that question. "Excuse me?"
Hardcastle sighed, "Jesse we've been friends a long while. I can't let that influence my judgment here, but I've tried to get through to those two. I've locked them up, taken their license, fined them. What's it going to take to keep them from really hurting each other? You saw them. They both were seen by the Doc. I don't want to have to send either or both of them to prison. I know they have had something between them for a long while now. What is at the bottom of this conflict?"
Jesse sighed, "If I knew exactly what happened Milt I'd tell you. Basically, I'd say it boils down to a girl."
Milt had been young once and had to give his friend a slight grin, "A girl? You can't be serious?"
Jesse nodded, "I'm afraid so. Of course it started with football, then there was the racing, but when push comes to shove, there is a girl involved."
Hardcastle couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You know right now I could lock them up for a year easy, more than that if I pushed. I really don't want to do that and it's obvious from their return that the first time I locked them up together it didn't help anything. They haven't been out of here,..." He looked at the clock, "A week yet and they are back here. I know you need your boys to work the farm but I can't ignore what is going on either. Do you have any suggestions at all?"
Jesse thought a long minute before answering the judge, "Milt I've punished my boys. I've whipped them. That one downstairs has ate more meals standing at my mantel than I can count. Don't get me wrong, ..."
Milt nodded. He knew what Jesse was going to say, "I know. He's a good kid. All your kids are. I can't just let this go."
Jesse nodded his understanding. He didn't want to see Luke away from the house one more minute over all this. He had talked to Bo and Jeb after they got home last night and only to Luke briefly. Everything Jesse heard was that Luke was jumped and no one knew why. "All I know from talking to my other two boys who were there when this all went down was that Luke was jumped. No one including Luke when I talked to last night knew why." Jesse held up his hand, "Yes, I know the Green boy also was hurt. Milt I know my boy. I raised him like I was raised. He's not gonna take someone jumping him and not fight back especially if he don't know why. All I can suggest now is for you to just talk to him. I've found talking to him these past couple years has had better results than anything I've tried. I also understand that you have a job to do, but you are right. I do need them boys to be able to keep that old farm going."
Hardcastle nodded as Jesse headed to the door, "Thanks Jesse. I'll do what I can." Once he was alone again in his Chambers the Judge read over each and every statement and the doctors reports very slowly then he read them again. He was at his wits end with these two and more than ready to throw the bookcase at both of the hard headed young men. After considerable thought Hardcastle rang the Sheriff, "Bring Duke up here."
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Luke was standing in his County issued bright orange jumpsuit and flip flops that he had been given after Doc had finished patching him up the night before. He found he could at least breath easier if he was standing up. When he heard steps coming down the stairs, Luke felt relief and dread. Relief that he may soon be going home. Dread because he wasn't at all certain for how long. He knew the Judge would be less than happy to see him back less than a week since he was released for a far too similar charge.
Rosco said, "Alright Luke you know the drill by now. Over here to the bars." Rosco got a set of leg irons and took out his hand cuffs.
Luke's stubborn pride had been known to get him into some deep trouble in his life and he very seldom asked for anything. He felt it showed a sign of weakness and Luke Duke even at this young age was not a weak man by definition. As Luke stepped toward the cell door, he stopped about a foot away. "Sheriff, ... I ain't going no wheres, I know you have your policy to follow and all, but could you put those in the front?"
Rosco sized up the young man in front of him. He knew the young man's injuries. He also saw just how hard it was for the youth to ask for this. Rosco had never seen a Duke show pain or weakness, ever. The request spoke volumes about how much pain the youth must be in to have swallowed his pride enough to ask for an exception. Rosco simply replied, "This time."
"Thanks." Luke waited patiently for the Sheriff to place the handcuffs on his wrists in front of him and the leg irons on, then open the cell door. After opening the gate that lead to the stairs, Rosco said, "Judge wants to see you in his Chambers."
"In his Chambers? Why?" Luke asked.
"That's not up to me." Rosco said as he took Luke to the Judge's door and knocked.
"Come in." Hardcastle said gruffly.
Rosco opened the door and both he and Luke stepped inside the Judge's Chambers.
Judge Hardcastle noticed the young mans calculated movements as he tired to avoid causing himself anymore pain. He knew from the doctors report that the young Duke had several bruised and broken ribs on his left side. "Sheriff you can leave us. Wait outside the door."
Rosco looked shocked by the Judge's request.
The Judge undid his robe and in doing so revealed a shoulder holster, "Sheriff I'm better armed than you are. Besides, Mr. Duke here isn't going anywhere are you son?"
"No, Sir." Luke said.
"Good. Good. Now, since we have that cleared up, Sheriff if you will leave us so that we can have ourselves a nice long talk off the record." Hardcastle stated.
Rosco was still surprised by this but who was he to argue with the Judge.
After Rosco had shut the door, Judge Hardcastle began, "As you know the Sheriff is outside, I'm in here, that window is the only other way out of here."
"Judge, ... I'm not going any, ... where until you, ... tell me to." Luke replied in gasps as he tried unsuccessfully due to the pain from the broken ribs to speak a full sentence.
Judge Hardcastle advised, "Take a seat."
Luke made his way to the Judge's desk and painfully took the offered seat across from the Judge.
Hardcastle had taken his own seat behind his desk. After a couple of minutes of sizing up his friends nephew he began, "What's about to happen here this morning is that we are going to get to know each other a bit. I want you to be as honest with me as you would be in the Courtroom. Anything that goes on in these Chambers between us is confidential and I reserve the right to deny any of it. As I told the Sheriff, this is all totally off the record. At times I do have some unprecedented ways of handling my cases. I think this will be one of those times."
Luke was listening intently as he too was trying to size up the Judge.
Hardcastle reached in his desk draw and took out a small set of keys. He looked at them before saying, "If we are to get to understand each other there has got to be some degree of trust between us." He slid the keys across the desk toward Luke who was setting very upright due to his taped ribs. "I don't think we need those cuffs on, do you?"
Luke was more than surprised, but replied, "No, Sir."
"Good. Good. Just take them off and put them on the desk." Hardcastle said as he opened another drawer of his desk and stopped, "You were drinking the night you were arrested for that fight and for racing weren't you?"
Luke tried to answer clearly, "I had drank a couple beers after the race and before the fight."
"What about last night?" Hardcastle asked.
Luke answered truthfully, "Yes."
"How much had you drank?" Hardcastle asked.
Luke hoped this wasn't a trick question to get him in deeper. "There was five of us there. I wasn't driving of course, so I'd say it was safe to say I'd had more than my share of the case of beer that was there."
"Were you drunk?" The Judge asked.
"Truthfully, I was working on it but no." Luke replied.
Hardcastle asked, "If you based last night on the drunkest you'd ever been, how far gone were you? On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being your worst."
Luke nearly tried to fudge his answer, but thought better of it and replied honestly, "A four, five would be a stretch."
Hardcastle had done the math and knew Luke's share of the case would have been nearly five beers and by his own admission he'd had more than that. "Other than beer and your Uncle's brew, what's your drink of choice?"
Luke's had to try to keep his eyes from bugging out of his head.
Hardcastle said, "Your uncle and I go way back. That may just be why we are having this talk now, but I have a job to do and will do it."
Luke wasn't sure why he was being asked this, but replied, "I usually drink Jim Beam."
"Would you be opposed to Jack Daniels?" The Judge asked.
"No, Sir." Luke replied.
"Good. Good." The Judge reached in his desk drawer and took out two large shot glasses and a decanter of amber liquid, then he reached in the small refrigerator behind him and took out two cans of Coke. From the decanter he poured two rather healthy shots of Jack Daniels, then slide one and a can of Coke toward Luke.
Luke looked from the poured drink to the Judge a couple of times.
Hardcastle took a sip of his drink, then chased it with a drink of Coke, "Now, will you please, tell me what all this is between you and Mr. Green?"
Luke still had not touched his drink, but started his reply, "We were all at Cooter's ..."
Hardcastle held up his hand. "No, son. I'm not asking you yet about last night. What is at the bottom of your all's problem?"
Luke thought back. He knew they had been on opposite sides when they played high school ball together. Sure there was problems out on the field between them that only amplified over the years. As he started to answer, the Judge cut him off.
"The drink is to drink. It's not a test. Frankly, you look like you could use it." Hardcastle advised.
Luke didn't want to admit to anyone right now but if the truth was known he could have used the entire decanter to try to get his pain to back off. Doc had known he'd been drinking earlier therefore, had not left him anything but over the counter Motrin for the pain. "Thanks." He took a controlled drink and chased it with the Coke, "For the drink I mean. ... As for Ralph and me, ... when we played football against each other. It seems to go back to the very first game we played. It always seemed he was out to get try to hurt me to get me out of the game."
"So this is about football?" Hardcastle thought he'd heard it all now.
"No, that is just where it started, then it got complicated." Luke said as he took another drink from his glass. "You see I dated this girl for a long while. So long in fact that we decided one weekend when Hazzard had an open weekend that we'd both go out with out friends not each other. All us guys decided to do a bit of scouting so we went to the Chickasaw game."
The Judge was setting back listening intently as he added, "Should I take it that you all were scouting out more that just Chickasaws team?"
Luke shrugged and gave a slight smile. "I had gotten a phone number from a Placid cheerleader when we played them. Placid just happened to be open too. I had arranged to meet her at the game. What I didn't know until later was that a certain Placid player used to date this cheerleader." Luke paused for another drink before continuing, "That particular player had also managed to arrange to meet 'my girl' there."
"Let clarify this." Judge Hardcastle said, "So you were meeting Green's girl and he was meeting yours?"
Luke nodded, "You got it. Only Ralph was not dating, ummmm, ... ah, ... Carolyn at the time."
"I take it this is where it hit the fan?" Hardcastle thought he was beginning to see the rest of the story but to his surprise Luke had replied, "No." Hardcastle reached for the decanter and said, "What do you mean 'No.'?"
"After that things got better between me and the girl for about the next year, year and a half things were pretty much good. Around Christmas our Senior year I started to notice things weren't 'right' and by Spring break they had went really down hill. She wanted more than I was ready to give. Shortly before prom last year we talked. I had heard that she had been seen with Green, but I hadn't seen them together. She basically told me that if I could promise her that we'd be married in two years that we'd go to the prom and things would be back to normal. I asked her what happened if I couldn't tell her that. She flat out told me that she would go to the prom and marry someone else. When I asked who, ... "
Hardcastle didn't have to ask, "She replied, Green?"
Luke nodded as he took a drink from the second glass the Judge had poured him.
"So what does all this have to do with the last incident you two were involved in?" Hardcastle asked.
"Like I told you before, we raced. I won. He went in the ditch and I helped get his car out. He then called me a cheat. We fought." Luke said briefly. Then took another drink of Jack Daniels this time he didn't bother with the chaser. It was beginning to ease the pain some as long as he was still.
"And this time?" Hardcastle asked.
"Honestly I have no idea." Luke replied.
Hardcastle fished deeper, "Have you talked to the girl? Seen her?"
Luke thought, "Not since last Friday night. She had car problems. I helped her out. I also ran head to head with her younger brother and Green because of it. We settled it. Her younger brother had told him only enough to try to cause problems. But that is over. I ain't even seen her since I seen her at a distance in church on Sunday and I ain't seen Green since he left the Boar's Nest on Friday night."
Judge Hardcastle knew one important bit of information had been left out here, "Who's the girl?"
Luke took as deep a breath as he could manage, before replying, "Robin McCormick."
"Bill's girl?" Hardcastle asked.
Luke replied as he took another drink of Jack Daniels, "Yes, Sir."
"Didn't I see a statement from a McCormick?" The Judge asked as he shuffled papers, "Yes. Here it is. A Mark McCormick."
Luke explained, "That's her older brother."
Hardcastle read the statement again from her brother. "Why was he with you?"
Luke said, "He wasn't really with me. I was at the garage with my cousins. He just showed up and joined us for a beer." Come to think about it with everything going on with Deputy Petticord, Mark had never said why he was there.
"Then what?" Hardcastle asked.
"We were setting around talking and having a beer. I looked up and saw Green coming at me full force. I didn't even have time to get up. He hit me like he would have on a football field. All out. He took me and Mark down when he pounced." Luke said as he took another drink from the glass and this time chased it.
"Who all was in the fight?" Hardcastle asked.
"I went to the floor with Mark. Ralph was on top of us. The others as best I can remember were trying to get him off of us." Luke said.
"If he jumped you, how did his nose get broken?" Hardcastle asked.
Luke emptied his glass, "Judge I had been taken down twice and I'd tried everything else I knew to get him off me. I hit him with my head. His nose got in the way."
To be fair about this Hardcastle asked, "What happened to you to get the broken ribs?"
"Well, when he took me out of the chair and landed on me it didn't help anything. That was the side I landed on. There was some hits and his shoulder rammed me a couple times but I'd say the main cause was when he kicked me with his boot." Luke stated.
"That seemed like a pretty serious fight to not know what it was about." Hardcastle said.
Luke replied, "All I was trying to do was get him off of me He seemed real intent on hurting me and no I still don't know why."
Hardcastle thought for a minute and then said, "I think I'm going to make a phone call." He picked up the phone and asked for the McCormick residence.
Luke could only hear the Judge's side of the call so he was still in the dark.
"Who's speaking?" The judge asked. "Good. This is Judge Milton C. Hardcastle. Could you come to my office within the hour. I have some friends of yours here and I'd actually like to talk to you and see why they keep turning up here."
Luke could not tell exactly who the Judge was talking to at this point.
"By the way, Ms. McCormick, if you can bring your brother Mark with you. I'd also like to speak to him. Thank you. See you then." Hardcastle said as he hung up the phone.
01~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~01
Wonder what's gonna happen once Robin gets to the office? Please review and I'll work a bit faster so you can find out sooner. Thanks - DixieDavenport.