Chapter Three
1972, Luke 16, Bo 14:

1. Bo'd just woken up from a long, lonely, miserable night in the ICU. He'd had a bigger asthma attack than he could handle yesterday, and he'd ended up passing out and staying unconscious for quite some time. He slowly dared to open his eyes, praying that Luke, Jesse, or Daisy'd be there with him. Of course, none of them were there: 'hospital' policy', he figured. There was a note laying on his stomach, though:

"The nurse is real pretty so don't you fret none. -Luke"

Bo smiled as he grabbed the note and crumpled it in his fist so's the nurse wouldn't see it. His smile grew even larger when his eyes met the green ones of the pretty brunette who was his nurse.


2. It was Father's Day, and Jesse'd just given Luke his father's pinky ring. Luke's father (Jesse's brother) had told Jesse to give it to Luke when he turned 16. Jesse hadn't the heart to bring up Luke's late father on the boy's birthday so, he just used Father's Day to give it to him.

Anyhow, Luke was sitting on the front porch, trying his best to remember what little he knew about his parents. He was about to let himself cry, when he saw Bo trudging past him and towards his bike. He'd obviously been crying and looked as if he was off to be alone to cry some more. Once Bo took off on his bike, Luke got in Jesse's truck and drove out to where he knew Bo was going: the old Indian caves.

When he arrived, he took a piece of paper that was in the truck and managed to find an old pencil under the seat. On the paper he wrote:

"I knew right where to find you. I've hidden here myself many times. Shoot, we've hidden here together, from school. Anyhow I want you to know that you ain't alone, we's going through the very same thing, and I'll always be here for you if you need to talk. I knew you'd wanna be alone so I left after I wrote you this."

Luke knew he didn't need to bother signing his name, Bo would know that it was from him.

...

An hour before dinner time, Bo came back to the farm on his bike. Luke was sitting on his bed reading a magazine when Bo came in and sat on his own bed, avoiding eye contact.

"Hey, Bo." Luke greeted, keeping his eyes on the car magazine, seeing that Bo didn't want to be looked at.

"Why'd it have to happen, Luke?" Bo asked, obviously prepared to speak without crying, having already done that enough today.

Luke smiled to himself, he knew that Bo'd needed to talk. "I don't reckon we'll ever know, cousin. Least ways not till we get there, too."

"It ain't hardly fair." Bo complained, no longer quite as sad, but seemingly angry now.

"It don't seem like it now, but one day it'll all make sense." Luke offered.

"I can't wait that long, Luke." Bo sighed.

"Well we can wait together." Luke smiled, finally meeting Bo's eyes.

"Okay." Bo smiled back.

"Now what do ya say we do somethin nice fer the father that we do have?" Luke suggested.

"Yeah, Uncle Jesse." Bo smiled even wider.


3. Luke'd come home an hour late from his date, so he snuck through the window of his and Bo's room. When he looked at Bo's bed, he found that Bo was sitting up in it, chuckling to himself.

"Bo... you snitch on me, an-"

"An' what? You ain't never gonna play with me again? That ain't worked since I was five." Bo laughed.

"Just don't do it, alright?" Luke pleaded.

Bo just laughed to himself and burrowed into his blankets.

"Bo?"

Silence.

...

The next morning, Luke got up at 5:30 as usual. He went to throw a pillow at Bo to wake him, but Bo wasn't there. Instead there was a note on his bed:

"I won't... so long as you do my chores this morning."

Luke gritted his teeth, but he couldn't keep them that way, he smiled and laughed to himself: Bo wasn't stupid. But neither was Luke... thinking about it Bo probably wouldn't snitch on him anyway, but you never knew.

So Luke went out into the barn to do his and Bo's chores, but when he got there, he found another note:

"Just kidding. I figured you could use some sleep from... never mind. But anyhow I did your chores."

Luke grabbed the note and quickly pocketed it, laughing and smiling so hard that his mouth almost busted.

"What's so funny?" Daisy asked as she walked up behind him.


4. Luke'd gotten another C- in English, and he wasn't looking forward to telling Uncle Jesse. He was about to face his uncle with the bad news, when a note fell out of his backpack:

"I got another dang F in English... Uncle Jesse ain't gonna be happy with me. Could ya please help me tell him? -Bo"


5. It'd been a bad day for Bo: he'd had three asthma attacks at school, thrown up in front of everyone in the history class, and some senior'd stuck bubble gum in his hair.

"What, ya didn't like blond so ya switched to pink?" Luke chuckled as Bo got into the truck.

"It ain't funny, Luke."

Luke continued to tease Bo about his hair for quite some time along the ride, until Bo'd finally had enough.

"Ya know I had three asthma attacks today? I also threw up in front of the whole history class! So could ya leave me alone?"

"I'm sorry, Bo. I didn't know that. I-"

"It don't matter now. Jus shut up and leave me alone!"

There was no point in continuing to apologize now, Bo was too mad. Luke wished that his class' field trip would've been another day, cause then he could've been there for Bo.

Thankfully it was Bo's turn to clean Maudine's stall so, while he did that, Luke set a note on Bo's bed:

"I'm sorry Bo, I had no idea that you'd had such a bad day. Your hair don't look like cotton candy and I'm sure the gum'll come right out anyhow. I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you, my class was on a field trip."

It only took about an hour for Bo to see the note, because about an hour later Bo came up behind Luke and tapped him on the shoulder. "Ya forgot to take back what ya said about my hair lookin like a clowns hair." he chuckled as he wrapped an arm around Luke's shoulders. "Wanna go fishin before dinner?" he asked.

"Sure, Bo, sure." Luke smiled as they both took off to get the fishing gear.

there we are... 1972 in letters and notes... next is anywhere from 1976-1979