CONFUSING AND ERRATIC MEMORIES

SOMEWHERE, IN ATLANTA

Ellen stirred and yawned, she took her cup of coffee and sipped it, thoughtfully, "I was thinking of what you told me last week."

Jo casted her a questioning look.

Ellen kept on talking, "About your husband. Did you call your mother? Did your mother tell you if your husband called her after your leaving?"

Jo sighed and rested her cup of coffee on the kitchen's table, staring at the sunlight reflecting on the spoon while she recollected her thoughts. She nodded, "Yeah, I talked to my mother, and, as expected, my husband called her after my leaving. He went to my mother's town too, in order to check I wasn't there. My mother knows I'm here, but she didn't say anything about it. She told him she doesn't know where I am. I don't know if he believed her or not, but he hasn't found me, yet, and it means he doesn't know I am in Atlanta."

Ellen massaged her temples with her index and middle finger, "It gives me headaches. It's scaring. How can you stand it? Go to the Police Department and report him. I'll come with you, if you want to. In Atlanta for sure we'll find a policewoman to talk to, since you are so uncomfortable about talking to a man. Then, Atlanta Police Department will report it to Hazzard Police Department. Was it so difficult to talk to that deputy? Well, he'll know it through Atlanta Police Department."

Jo shook her head, "I am so ashamed of what I told to that deputy."

Ellen raised her eyebrows.

Jo smiled in discomfort, "When I entered the Police Department, my courage faded. Enos," she glanced at her confused friend, "the deputy, smiled and asked me why I was there. My knees almost bent, my heart raced in my chest and my mouth turned dry. I know that guy since when I moved to Hazzard; he has always been the deputy, except for a couple of years he lived in L.A. He is kind and honest. So, I thought I could talk to him, I thought I could report my husband to him, but when I entered the Police Department, when I finally had the chance to talk to him, face to face, my courage was gone." She had a deep sigh and sipped her coffee, taking a brief pause, "I found an excuse about my being there, common routine at Hazzard Police Department. The deputy wasn't surprised of my excuse, so I reported something totally banal. At that point I burst out crying."

Ellen gently caressed Jo's hand.

"I cried and cried because I was ashamed of my weakness. I don't know how it happened, but I found myself crying with my face buried against his chest while he tried to comfort me." She had a brief and bitter laugh, "what a pitiful situation! And, to complicate things even more, in order to justify my crying, I told him I was so sad 'cause my mother recently died."

Ellen opened her eyes wide, "Did you tell him your mother was dead?"

Jo covered her face with her hand, "It's pitiful, isn't it? And stupid. I know. But it was the only thing I thought in that moment in order to explain my weeping. I told him not to tell anybody about my mother, anyway, 'cause it was too painful to have people asking me about it and I would have talked about it to people when I was ready: another pitiful lie in order to cover the previous lie. I feel ashamed even now. Ashamed for my weakness, ashamed of my lies and ashamed for my mother."

Ellen had a deep sigh and stared at Jo, thoughtfully, "So, if your husband tells everybody you are away from Hazzard because of your mother, and the deputy thinks your mother is dead… maybe…"

"Maybe what?"

Ellen shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe the deputy is goin' to ponder what's the truth, and so trying to understand the real reason of your leaving."

Jo intertwined her fingers and looked at her hands on the table, "That day, the deputy asked me why…" she had a deep breath before to spit out what weighed on her heart, "… my bruises. He noticed some bruises on my arms, and, again, I told him a banal excuse, a new lie. Maybe you're right; maybe he is goin' to wonder about why I left Hazzard. But it doesn't change anything. I'm here, now, and I won't go back to Hazzard, never again. Since when I left Hazzard, I haven't called anybody though I have good friends there. I don't know anything about Hazzard since my leaving, the town could have been swallowed by a big black hole, for what I know now."

HAZZARD

A week passed since someone painted his bloody omen for Enos on the deputy's patrol car, and everything seemed back to normality, though the Dukes and Enos kept their eyes open wide, eyes looking at Hazzard's folks in a new way.

Enos came out the Police Department, smiling and beckoning at people around him, his usual kindness not gone.

"Mrs Marple, let me help you to carry your bag." Enos came closer Mrs Marple and took her heavy bag, "you shouldn't bring something so heavy, Mrs Marple."

"Oh Enos, you are so kind," Mrs Marple walked by Enos' side while they crossed Hazzard's square, happy of his help.

She shook her head and sighed, "I am so worried for Mrs White."

Enos turned to the old woman, "Mrs White?"

Mrs Marple pointed at the near shop, "Mrs White, Josephine's mother. She is ill, again, so Josephine is staying by her side, now. It's why Josephine isn't here."

Enos nodded, "Josephine, yeah. I haven't met her, recently, in effect. It isn't the first time she leaves Hazzard for helping her mother." He suddenly stared at Mrs Marple in confusion, "I thought Josephine's mother died."

Mrs Marple looked surprised, "Died? No! Why do you think Josephine's mother is dead, Enos?"

Enos scratched his nape, "I don't know. Probably I'm getting confused with someone else." In front of Mrs Marple's house, he gave her the bag and smiled, walking away, "Have a nice day, Mrs Marple."

Walking to the Hazzard's Bank, his smile faded. A pesky fog was now forming into his mind, and he started to wonder why he was so sure about the death of Mrs White; he shook his head in order to push away that fog, wondering for how long he was going to live with those false memories and for how long his memory about the months before his injuring was going to be like a blank page with just some lines surfacing on it, from time to time, but confusing and erratic lines.

After the sunset, the Dukes' farm and the cars parked in front of the farm were wrapped in the night's veil, just the light coming out the kitchen's window kept on its battle against the total darkness, pushing it away.

Inside the kitchen, the Dukes' voices interchanged in their updating about every possible new clue, evidence or supposition.

Bo's eyes lingered on his cousins, uncle and Enos, "Today I have finally talked to Emily. Darcy was with her during the night Enos was injured. They planned to get married next month. Emily is Darcy's alibi."

Luke nodded, "Unless Emily is lying. Or unless she didn't hear him leaving for a while during the night."

Daisy shook her head and stared at Luke, "Darcy and Emily are happy. I can't believe you really think –"

Luke interrupted her, "No. Sincerely, Daisy, I don't think so. But I don't know what to think."

Bo stood up and walked to the kitchen's window, stirring, "It isn't easy. I hate to question folks about what they did and where they were the night Enos was injured. No matter how much I try to be tactful, it's a thorny topic for everybody. Even if I manage to make them comfortable about my trying to understand if that night they saw or heard something suspicious, everybody is perfectly aware that the culprit is inside Hazzard, someone who lives in Hazzard. So, everybody is perfectly aware to be a possible suspect."

Luke sighed, "We have talked to any guy Daisy dated in the past, and everybody has an alibi. It was night, and it seems everybody was at home with respective families - wives, children and also mothers and fathers."

Bo turned to Luke, he folded his arms and rested his back against the wall, "Unless someone left during the night, and nobody noticed it, as you said."

Luke rested his elbows on the table and intertwined his fingers, "It's a possibility, but we can't prove it without evidences."

Uncle Jesse nodded, "Right. Beside the guys Daisy dated in the past, we should focus also on everybody who has had a crush on Daisy."

Enos smiled, his first words during the evening, "It means nearly any young man in Hazzard, uncle Jesse."

Daisy turned to Enos, catching his sweet and shy smile, in his voice and features no sign of jealousy for her previous love affair.

Bo came closer Enos, resting his hand on Enos' shoulder, "Enos, what about Mr O' Connor? Did someone buy red paint at his Paint Supply, recently?"

Enos shook his head, "Everybody here buys paint. Red… yellow… white… every color." He looked at his hands on the table, thoughtfully, before to raise his head and stare at uncle Jesse, "Did Mrs White die? I remember Mrs White coming to Hazzard, from time to time, after her daughter Josephine's wedding. She was a kind woman."

Uncle Jesse looked at Enos, opening his eyes in surprise, "Why are you talking of Mrs White, now?" His eyes glanced at his niece and nephews, sharing a same surprise mixed with confusion and some worrisome, then he stared at Enos again, "Time ago Mrs White had some serious health problem, and Josephine stayed by her side for a while, but, for what I know, Mrs White is fine, now."

Enos sighed, "Mrs Marple told me that Josephine is again by her mother's side, so I suppose Mrs White is having a relapse. I don't know why I recall Mrs White died some months ago." He scratched his nape, "Did someone die during the last months? I don't remember very much of the two months before my injuring, so I think it's a false memory."

Uncle Jesse caressed his beard, "Uh… well… Mrs Chapman, Jane's mother, died during the two months before your injuring. She was a old woman."

Enos nodded, whispering, "I guess I confused Jane's mother with Josephine's mother. The more I try to remember, the more things get confused in my mind."

"Enos, don't force yourself to recall what happened before your injuring." Uncle Jesse stood up, "I think it's time to go to sleep."

Late in that night, the fire lighted the total darkness around the farm. The barn was burning; its flames were trying to reach the black sky, turning that black into red, and the pungent smoke was finding its way through the farm's vents.

The fire's crackling mixed with the animals' terrific shouts.

"THE BARN IS BURNING!" Uncle Jesse ran out the farm.

The Dukes and Enos ran toward the barn, their mind still full of their dreams and nightmares while that real nightmare filled their eyes, pierced his mind and reached their heart. They buttoned their shirts in their frenetic dressing while they approached the barn, trying to understand why and how it happened.

"The animals! MAUDINE!" Totally forgetting of the fire, in her ears just the animals' shouts, Daisy ran to the barn and entered it.

Uncle Jesse casted a frantic look at his nephews, "BO! LUKE! WE NEED WATER, AND BUCKETS!"

Enos ran after Daisy, "DAISY! IT'S DANGEROUS!"

Bo and Luke stopped on their way to the farm, forgetting the water and buckets and running back to the barn, "ENOS! DAISY! STAY AWAY!"

Suddenly the barn emitted a terrific crack and collapsed on the animals, and on Enos and Daisy too, while Bo and Luke stopped their run, turning into sort of waxworks.

Shocked by that vision, uncle Jesse, Bo and Luke looked at each other, in their eyes just anguish and pain, their faces pale and their lips livid, then their eyes focused again on what remained of the burning barn.

The voracious fire was painting a reddish nuance on the white walls of the farm; in that nuance, something red stood out, just three letters:

D I E