Summer time in 1968. Luke is 12, Daisy 11, and Bo 10. Lavinia Duke is alive.

"Bo, you okay?" Luke asked his younger cousin, Bo, who'd just bent over coughing.

"Yeah." Bo caught his breath and trotted to catch up with Luke.

"Maybe we'd best head in so you don't have an asthma attack." Luke suggested.

"I'm okay, Luke." Bo protested.

"We're pretty far from the house. I think we'd best-"

"I told you, I'm okay." Bo interrupted.

"Okay, okay." Luke put his hands up.

This was the fourth time that a similar exchange to this one had transpired that day.

Thirty minutes later...

Luke trotted to the kitchen from outside, carrying Bo.

"Aunt Lavinia?" He called.

"In the kitchen!" She replied.

"Aunt Lavinia, ya gotta do something!" Luke urged and set his load down on the floor.

"What happened?" She asked. She wondered what her crazy boys had gotten into this time.

"I think it was his asthma." Luke replied.

"Go get your uncle Jesse." Lavinia instructed, and Luke ran out to the barn.

"Bo, can you hear me, honey?" Lavinia knelt on the floor and took his sweaty head in her lap.

"Help, Luke..." Bo chocked.

"You're gonna be okay, Bo." Lavinia pushed the sweaty hair out of his eyes and pulled an inhaler from a kitchen drawer.

Bo coughed against it for a while, but he eventually got some of the medicine.

Luke returned with Jesse.

"How's he doin'?" Jesse bent down next to his wife and youngest nephew.

"I think he's overheated. Get some cool rags, Jesse." Lavinia suggested. "Luke, you're not in trouble, please tell me what happened."

"We was out playin' in the woods. He'd been coughing all day and eventually he dropped to his knees wheezing. I tried to help him, but he couldn't take any of the inhaler: he was coughing too much. I gave up on that an' carried him back to the house." Luke told her.

"Alright." Lavinia smiled at Luke, and then returned to caring for Bo.

"Aunt Lavinia?" Bo wheezed.

"What is it, honey?"

"I'm cold." Bo complained.

"Jesse, hurry up!" Lavinia called.

"How can he be cold if he's overheating?" Luke asked.

"His body can't regulate his temperature so, he's getting the chills." Lavinia explained.

Jesse rushed back in the some wet towels and put one on Bo's face. Then he removed his shirt and started putting them on his chest, stomach, and wrists.

"I'm too cold..." Bo protested.

"Hang on for a minute, you'll be alright." Jesse promised.

Once it was evident that Bo was indeed going to be alright, Jesse wanted to get to the bottom of the original problem:

"I told you boys to be careful today, on account of the fire in Choctaw county's got smoke in the air." Jesse reprimanded, mainly Luke, since he wasn't laying half-conscious on the kitchen floor.

"I'm sorry, uncle Jesse." Luke mumbled.

"It ain't Luke's fault. He tried to get me to come inside." Bo admitted, perking up a bit.

"Bo, you don't have to-"

"Yes, I do. You were trying to look out for me and I ignored you." Bo sat up a little. "I'm sorry, Luke."

"At least you're telling us the truth." Jesse sighed.

After a little while longer, Bo got up of the floor and went to take a cold shower.

"Thank you for being so dang responsible, Luke." Jesse smiled.

"You've taught me everythin' I know. If I'm responsible, it's cause of you an' aunt Lavinia." Luke smiled at his father figure.

Jesse ruffled Luke's hair. "You make sure Bo doesn't go back outside today."

"Yes sir."

I know this chapter was kinda short, but it's only bc I'm working on another story right now. Thanks so much to Steven St Peter Jr for the idea for that story. It is like the first time I've been able to write a story other than this one that isn't just a oneshot!

also, the part where Lavinia says 'you're not in trouble, but what happened' is inspired by my childhood. My mom would say that very thing whenever something was the matter with one of my siblings. of course nowadays she says 'what did u do to so and so!' she loves the babies much more than she loves the teens. unfair!