Thanks for coming back! This chapter is a combined effort and mentions lots of characters I didn't create. Most of the racers in the bike races were actually mentioned in other stories by JadedPhoenixBurning. In an attempt to keep most things consistant I have used the same names and have consulted her about who she thought would win when going up against varies racers. The sections with Kira and Ben, who are also her characters, were largelly written by JadedPhoenixBurning and only small tweaks were made or lines added to make fit into my story where it was needed. This is a look at Kira and Jeb between her stories "A Life of Hazards" and "My Imaginary Sister". Neither has to be read in order to read this one, but if you have read them you will recognize these characters. If you have not read them and like this glimpse of these characters please move on to her stories and let her know I pointed you her way! Thanks for reading!
Chapter 77
Up in Tennessee, Cooter pulled his Camero up to the office of a local motel. In the office he found that renting the room by the month would be a hundred and fifty dollars but paying by the night would have been well over two hundred.
After paying the Justice of the Peace, Cooter's four hundred dollars had now went to two hundred seventy-five dollars. Cooter knew he would be starting work on Monday but payday would still be a way off so he paid the hundred and fifty dollars to make sure that they had a roof over their head at least for the next month. He figured by that time they may be able to find a small house or a room at a boarding house to rent.
With the key to their room in hand and a hundred and twenty-five dollars in his wallet, Cooter pulled down to the end of a row of rooms. Outside room fifteen he parked and cut the engine. "Ready?"
Beverly had been trying to calm her nerves since leaving the Justice of the Peace's office, so far she was having no luck. She timidly replied with a shy smile, "Yes."
Handing her the key, Cooter said, "You go unlock the door and wait right there. I'll get your bag." After getting Beverly's bag, he'd worry about his later, Cooter met her at the door. He picked her up and carried her across the threshold of the motel room. Without letting her down, Cooter shut and locked the door, then pulled the drapes as he kissed his wife gently.
Curled up together several hours later Cooter was woke up to the sound of a his wife's stomach making a very unladylike sound as it loudly growled.
"I knew I forgot something." Cooter mumbled to himself.
"What?" Beverly asked sleepily.
"I knew I forgot something." He untangled himself from his wife and looked outside to see it just getting dusk, "We need to get dressed and find someplace to eat before everything closes."
Beverly would have liked to have stayed right where she was, but in truth it had been awhile since breakfast and it would be longer until breakfast in the morning. Pulling her long blond hair back and grabbing a pony tail holder, "Give me ten minutes."
Cooter nodded as he grabbed his jeans.
At the diner on Main Street Cooter and Beverly took an open booth at the rather crowded dinner.
An older lady came over with menus, "Are you all in town for the fireworks?"
"Fireworks?" Cooter replied.
"Yes, they always let them off just after dark on the Fourth. You can see them real good from the little park across the street, that's why we are so crowded." The waitress replied.
Cooter said, "We actually didn't know anything about them, but thanks. Can you give us a minute? We're not from around here."
"Sure thing Honey." She replied as she went to refill the others coffee cups.
As the waitress walked away, Cooter scanned the menu. There was nothing really expensive on it so he said, "Tonight it's whatever you want, ... tomorrow we got to start going cheap at least until I get paid." Cooter figured to set the example by ordering a medium priced steak dinner. "I think I'll have the eight ounce porterhouse and baked potato."
Beverly ordered a smaller slightly less priced steak with a salad. She had come from a house where money had not been an object, but she took her husband's subtle hint that they needed to conserve what money they had with them until he got paid.
After their wedding night dinner, the young newlyweds made it across the street in time to find a place to watch the fireworks.
Once the fireworks were over and they were headed back to the motel Cooter said, "Wasn't it nice that they went to all the trouble of having fireworks for us on our wedding night?"
Beverly couldn't help but to laugh as she tried not to blush at her husband's comment.
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Even with the Tri-Counties jail being a way out of town the loud booms could still be heard from the events at the fairgrounds. This made several of the younger prisoners remember just what they were missing tonight as several of them had previously made plans to be there.
Dean kicked himself as he heard the sounds from the fireworks and remembered that today was the Fourth of July. He also remembered his plans to have raced there this weekend. He swore out loud.
Danny asked, "What's wrong?
"Nothing, just thinking of the money I could have maybe won today out at the fair grounds." Dean stated.
From his bunk Ralph heard their conversation, "I wouldn't even have had to have won any money, I'd just been happy to have been there and ran Duke's car right in the ground."
John had been sitting at the table and up until now had kept his opinion to himself, but he wasn't the type to sit back and listen to someone run his kin's name in the dirt. He was sure that his oldest nephew would not have wanted him to say that he had not be able to race due to the injuries he'd gotten from Green, himself. "Well, from what I hear, Luke is pretty good with that car of his, so I just don't think that it would have been that easy." John remembered when Jeb, Bo and Luke visited him and Karen earlier that day they had said that it was actually Bo who would be racing this weekend. That seemed like a mute point for now so John kept that information to himself.
Dean agreed, "I've seen him race Green. He's more than just good and that Ford is fast."
It seemed that he was out numbered even in this bunch. Green grumbled to himself. Then said before he turned over, "Yeah, well, we'll just have to see about that sometime."
Much later that night, John strained the now ready hooch and everyone in the cell, except Ralph, managed to have a bit of Fourth of July cheer and a good nights sleep.
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Upstairs in the female cell the girls too were thinking of all the fun they had missed this weekend.
Sharon wondered if Mark had come over to Placid to race and if so how he'd done. She also wondered just who he'd be spending his weekend with since it surely wasn't going to be her.
Karen still was wondering about Danny. 'Would he really have tried to get me drunk just to take advantage of me? And what if, ...' no she didn't want to think about what 'if' right now. She knew it was still to early to know if she could be pregnant. As Karen layed on the hard steel bunk for the second night in jail, because she had let herself be talked into a lot of things she had known not to do, she tried to figure out when she should start her period. By her calculations she should know something around July eleventh, today was only the fourth, well now technically it was the fifth.
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The next morning found Pauline and Daisy tending the twins while starting breakfast for the group. Just as the boys entered the kitchen they heard Daisy say, "I've got breakfast Aunt Pauline. There is no need you pushing yourself in your condition."
Pauline flushed beet red as she asked, "And what condition is that, Dear?"
All three guys, but most of all Jeb, wished they could crawl in the woodwork and hide about now.
Daisy looked from her aunt to her male cousins for help, getting none she finally answered, "With your being pregnant again, Aunt Pauline. It's alright, we all already know."
Pauline sized up her niece, then her own son, and finally her two nephews. "Pregnant? What gives any of you the idea that I'm pregnant?"
Daisy now wanted to slink out of the room but knew not answering her aunt would mean trouble, "Well, Karen told us awhile back that you were."
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Even with John partaking of some of the hooch he had made for the holiday, he was up bright and early even though he'd went to bed far later than was his normal. They had all wanted to make sure that Green was asleep before they got the stuff out because they all knew that he would likely give all them away. When John heard the coffee cart he once again got up and made his bunk before heading for the coffee.
This morning he decided to give the younger guys an extra few minutes as he sat alone drinking his coffee. He'd wait at least until breakfast was brought around to wake the others that usually got up this early. John couldn't help but wonder how Bo had made out at the races yesterday and if he moved on to today's competition. None of the three boys had let on to John at all about the fact that his son was also racing this weekend but not in a car. John thought back to his days of racing and running moonshine on a regular basis and wondered how long it would take for Jeb to get interested in cars. Sure he'd helped John on the vehicles at the farm, but he'd shown no interest at all in wanting his own car or truck, which was down right unnatural for any Duke teen. John's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the breakfast cart entering the cell block.
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"Karen did, did she?" Pauline answered.
The four teens in Pauline's kitchen this morning were very glad that their name was not Karen Duke. The three males were even gladder that they would soon be leaving for the track, but couldn't help but to feel a bit sorry for Daisy who would be spending the day with an obviously agitated Pauline Duke.
"Well, I'd sure like to know where she is getting her information. I certainly am NOT pregnant!" Pauline huffed. "Now you just move yourself right out of my way and let me get breakfast started."
Daisy didn't have to be asked to move out of her aunt's way more than once as the four teens watched Pauline Duke set about making breakfast like she was on a mission.
Pauline would have loved to have been able to get her hands on her oldest child right about now. It was bad enough that everyone knew of her pregnancy with the twins only months ago and now it seemed that half her family now thought she was pregnant again. Since she could not rant at her daughter, Pauline didn't want to rant at the other kids, so she managed to rant and fume under her breath the entire time that she was getting breakfast ready.
Once breakfast was over, the boys were more than ready to head out to the track. Bo asked, "So Daisy are you going to come out and watch me win today?"
Luke gave him a look, "Don't get so confident there cousin."
Looking from her cousins to her aunt, Daisy replied, "I don't know fellas, I came here to help Aunt Pauline."
"Don't be silly. I've taken care of the girls alone often. I do appreciate the help and not having to do everything for them and the house all alone for the entire time that Karen and John are away, but they are my children and I'll be fine alone with them. You go ahead and have a good time Daisy." Pauline replied.
Daisy replied, "Thanks Aunt Pauline, but the finals don't even get started until this afternoon, I'll come out after lunch and catch up to you all then."
Jeb was wanting to go over 'his' bike before the races started and so with that settled he said, "Ok, great see ya then. Bo we better be going." Jeb said hoping Bo would follow his lead since Jeb needed to be there a bit earlier than Bo did.
"Uumm, yeah, right. Luke we do need to get a move on." Bo said.
"Bo Duke in a hurry this early in the morning. Aunt Pauline you might want to check him for a fever." Luke said as the three hurried out the door.
Daisy and Pauline laughed as the three headed for Luke's car and was gone in a cloud of dust.
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Once at the track, off to the side lines, Jebb caught the sight of a girl that he'd not seen around the area before. Being a Duke, he couldn't just walk by her without at least giving her a smile. Usually that was all it took to bring a girl over to talk. That wasn't the case today. The girl wearing a ball cap just turned and walked away; leaving him to check his bike out instead of flirting liked he'd hoped he could be doing right now.
"Ouch," Luke chuckled as he walked up to his cousin after seeing him getting the brush off. "Guess you ain't her type."
Jeb shrugged, she was pretty enough and he'd like to talk to her but right now he had a race to win. "I reckon not." Jeb then tried to change the subject fast so his cousin wouldn't rub in the fact that he'd gotten shot down without a single word being said, "I still can't believe you are letting Bo drive your car this weekend. You may be creating a monster."
Luke looked to where Bo was eating up attention from a group of young girls who likely didn't have a clue what that third petal on the far left was even for, much less anything about racing. Then, he thought back to the pocket full of phone numbers Bo had in his pocket last night.
Jeb seen the look on Luke's face as he watched Bo. "So where's what's her name?"
Luke replied with a shrug, "Amber. It's still early yet, she said she'd be here."
The announcer came over the loud speaker for the bikes to line up at the drag strip.
Jeb finished getting his racing suit on and moved his bike to the starting line. As he put on his helmet he saw Matt Kinnison lining up right across from him. He'd heard several of the guys talking and knew the other racer wasn't at all popular with any of his racing friends. Jeb knew he had to be on his toes and fully concentrate on the race at hand.
Matt glanced over to the new comer, he'd likely gotten this far by pure luck. 'This is going to be a walk in the park.' Matt thought as he put his helmet on.
Both riders signaled they were ready, when the light turned green Jeb popped his clutch and leapt forward.
Matt waited for the light to turn green, popped the clutch and nothing! It took only a split second for Matt to realize two things: Jeb was speeding forward, he was sitting still. He tried the clutch again and this time the bike began to move forward, but Matt knew there was no way to catch Duke now. By the time he got to the end of the track all he could think about was that someone had messed with his bike.
Jeb wasn't sure what had happened to Matt, but he knew he was more than a half a track ahead of Matt when he crossed the finish line.
At the starting line Kevin Windham and Blake Horton were getting set up to run their race. Of the two, Kevin was older and far more experienced. Blake Horton was good, no two ways about it, but he was also on a new bike with a lot of horsepower.
Kevin said to his younger friend, "You just make real sure you keep that monster machine over there in your lane."
Blake nodded, "I plan to do just that Buddy. Just remember in a straight out run experience isn't always the key." He said as he patted his new bike for good measure.
"That may be, but I promise you'll know I'm in the race." Kevin said as he put his face shield down.
Blake closed his face shield and prepared to race. The light turned green and he saw Kevin beat him off the line and pull away. Blake up shifted and began to close the distance between the two bikes.
Kevin got Blake off the line and pulled ahead, but he knew the race was far from being over as he saw Blake coming up fast. He was giving his and his bikes all but Blake's new machine just had far more power than Kevin's older bike.
Jeb was still at the end of the track waiting to see who he'd race in the next round. When he seen it was his good friend Blake he was both happy that his buddy won and concerned to have to race him in the next heat later in the day. Jeb went over to congratulate Blake. He had no more than shook his hand before being grabbed by the back of his racing suit. Jeb felt his feet leave the ground just before he hit the temporary wall at the side of the track.
Matt was now in his face. "I don't know HOW or WHEN, DUKE but you screwed with my bike!" Matt had already drawn back and was in full swing.
Jeb didn't have time to process what was going on around him. The next thing he knew, he felt pain in his cheek where Matt had sucker punched him. As Matt reared back to prepare to hit him again, Jeb just reacted. He blocked Matt's next punch and backed him up against the wall as his own right was connecting with a face before he even registered just who had grabbed him.
As Jeb began to lay into Matt instinctively, he felt himself being pulled backwards. Jeb caught sight of more than one white set of coveralls worn by the race officials that were between him and the person who had grabbed him and started this entire mess.
Everything seemed to happen far too quickly, the next thing Jeb knew there was a race official in his face talking about fines and disqualification.
From where Kira and Ben were seated in the stands, Kira had been watching the races. Well, alright she may have started out watching the bikes. She found their speed intrigued her as well as the crowd cheering the riders on. She could tell by the crowd that some were more well known or liked that some of the others. As she watched the last race for the bikes for the morning, she couldn't help but notice two of the racers from the previous race going at it just before the race officials got there to break them up. Once the racers were separated each was taken opposite directions for a one on one talk with a racing official. Kira couldn't help but wonder if she'd see either or both them in any later races today.
Bo was in putting on his racing suit to be ready to race as he watched Mike Faykus lining up against Mark McCormick. Bo knew that Mike Faykus's family had sunk a bundle in his car. Mark was known to be at the lake most every weekend with Luke and the others racing in races of this type so he wasn't new to racing, but Faykus always had a top notched car and was used to official races.
As the light turned green Mark left the line a split second ahead of Faykus. Half way down the track Mark was only inches away from Faykus, but that was as close as he'd be as Mike Faykus pulled off and left the Firebird.
Bo was already in the car as the announcer had declared Faykus the winner. Luke said, "Faykus. They said Faykus won." Luke was friends with Mark so he had been pulling for him. He had seen Mark race far more races than he had Faykus. Luke wished Bo would be going up against McCormick instead of Faykus, because then he could have given him some tips about the McCormick's racing skills, but with it being Faykus, Bo would just have to do his best.
Just as Bo was ready to line up, Jeb walked up to where Luke was making sure that Bo was buckled up. "Good luck Bo." Jeb said still wearing his helmet from where he'd brought his bike back up from the finish line end of the track.
Luke frowned seeing Jeb still wearing the helmet, "Ain't it kind of hot to wear that thing around when your not riding?"
Jeb let out a sigh. He knew he could only hide what had happened for so long as he took off his helmet.
Seeing the start of a right good shiner, and having been in enough fights since he could walk to know the signs, Luke simply asked. "Who was it? And what happened?"
That got Bo's attention as he looked a bit closer at his slightly younger cousin.
Jeb like Bo and Luke came from a house where fighting was against the rules and it didn't matter why, so he suddenly found his toes as he began to say what he'd rehearsed ever since he left the racing official's side. "I was just shaking Blake's hand when the next thing I knew, ..."
Luke stopped him, "Jeb, I'm not Uncle Jesse or Uncle John. Tell me what happened."
Feeling a bit more at ease, Jeb said, "Kinnison. He must have had trouble with his bike in that last race. He decided I had something to do with it."
Bo jumped in, "Who won?"
"The race officials." Jeb said frankly and before he could explain further the announcement was made for Bo and Faykus to line up.
Faykus and Bo lined up and signaled they were ready.
Luke knew that Faykus had more racing experience, though Bo was a natural driver. As the light turned green both left the line together. Bo was holding his own at the half way point. Then Faykus must have been tired of the game as he pulled away from Bo like he was sitting still.
Bo would move to the Loser's bracket and be back to race a bit later, for now they would take a brake to go over their cars while the bikes raced at the round track.
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