Present Lives

Later that day around 4pm, Clark was in the barn stacking hay when Luke came out to talk to him.

“Bo’s* asleep, I didn’t tie him, he promised he wouldn’t run,” Luke told Clark.

“And you believe him?” Clark said with a bit of a laugh.

“Bo’s* a good boy, a good man, you two would get along… if things were different,” Luke told him.

Clark stopped stacking the hay and looked at Luke, “why,” Clark asked.

“Why what?” Luke looked at him puzzled.

“Why didn’t she let you call my dad, why didn’t she want my dad to know she had a baby that was his,” Clark said.

“I don’t really know, but I always thought it was about your dad… about letting him decide. He chose to go back to his ma’s, and Sally Mae… I think just didn’t want to make your dad feel like he had to stay with her. She thought she would be trapping him, and telling him would have made him come back, and leave his mom alone,” Luke explained.

“Did you ever try to get her to change her mind,” Clark asked Luke, already knowing from over hearing Bo* that he had tried.

“I did, many times, every time she sat around crying about it, missing your dad, but she kept refusing to contact him. She almost did once…” Luke looked at Clark, “it was a bit before she died. She looked for your dad, and found him here, in love with your mom,” Luke added, “she couldn’t bring herself to rip his life apart with the news she had a son by him.”

“Does Bo* know why she never wanted to let my dad know about him,” Clark asked.

“I don’t know what Bo* really thinks, she would tell him about your dad, we all would. Well they did, I couldn’t… I was angry with your dad, at the same time I missed him,” Luke said.

“Maybe he should know,” Clark told him walking off out of the barn to do more chores.

Luke sighed, and thought about what Clark told him. Bo* should hear what Luke had to say, so he went upstairs and sat down on the computer chair to wait for Bo* to wake up, which didn’t take long. Bo* opened his eyes about 10 minutes after Luke had sat down.

“Uncle Luke,” Bo* said.

“Bo*, I want to talk to you,” Luke looked at him.

“What?” Bo* asked.

“Why do you think your ma never wanted to call your dad,” Luke asked him.

Bo* stiffened up hearing Luke mention the same thing he had been wondering, but didn’t respond.

“It had nothing to do with you, you know that right? You need to know that. She felt if she told him he would run back to Hazzard to be with her, to be with you. But that would mean leaving his mother alone. Do you think your ma would have been ok if one day you had to make the same choice Bo* would have had to make, if he knew? She wouldn’t do that to him. It wasn’t because she thought he wouldn’t come back, but because she knew he would. She didn’t want to make him feel as if he had to come back. But he wouldn’t have felt that way Bo*. He would have came back because he loved your ma, and he would have loved you… he does love you Bo*.”

“Why are you telling me this,” Bo* asked him.

“Because, if you’re acting this way with him, if your hating your dad for something he didn’t do, it’s wrong Bo*. He had no choice in anything that happened. Your punishing him when he didn’t do anything wrong. If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me, your aunt Daisy, your Uncle Jesse, for not going after Bo* and telling him. For not looking for him after your ma died,” Luke said.

“Don’t talk about my mom,” Bo* told him.

“Why? You don’t, and you should,” Luke told him, “you never talk about her, and I think you need to. I think you need to talk about her, and I think you need to give your dad a chance,” Luke said to him.

“I can’t,” Bo* looked at Luke.

“You can Bo*, I know you can,” Luke got up from the chair, “try, if not for me, for you, try for your ma. She wanted more then anything for you to be able to have your dad, she wished more then anything that she could let herself call him, she blamed herself, her pride she said, that kept her from telling him.”

“She wanted to tell him, but wouldn’t let herself?” Bo* asked.

“Pretty much,” Luke said.

“That doesn’t make sense, if a person feels that way why can’t they just do it,” Bo* said.

“The same reason you want to get to know your dad, but wont,” Luke told him, “and don’t try and say you don’t Bo*, I know you do, I know you,” Luke said walking out of the room leaving Bo* to think.

Luke went out to help Clark with the farm work.

Later that evening Luke was taking a nap in Jonathan and Martha’s room, when Bo* woke up. He saw Luke asleep, and decided to go outside for a walk. When he went outside he saw Krypto lying on the porch.

“Thanks for the help earlier,” Bo* told Krypto, the dog got up and walked over to Bo* who was now sitting on the front steps. “You seem like a smart dog, what makes you stay around here?” Bo* laughed slightly. Krypto licked his face, “hey…” Bo* pulled away, “I don’t need dog drool on me thank you,” he wiped his face.

“You getting ready to run, so I can go start a car to chase you with,” Clark said standing behind Bo* in the doorway. Bo* got up quickly and turned around.

“I told my Uncle Luke I wouldn’t run, so I won’t,” Bo* said.

“Well you haven’t been much of a promise keeper have you,” Clark said walking passed him heading to the barn; Bo* followed him.

“I never promised you anything,” Bo* said.

“No, just tried to shoot my dad and me,” Clark said not bothering to turn and look at Bo*; he just kept on towards the barn to finish stacking some hay.

Bo* stopped walking, and just watched Clark continue to walk away. He knew he had done that, that he had come to try and kill Jonathan. That was his intent, but at the same time it wasn’t. He did a lot of things he wished he didn’t. He still didn’t know if he wanted to know Clark and Jonathan or not, but he wasn’t the type of person to try and kill them… not usually.

Bo* started to walk back to the house when he heard Clark, “I bet you never did anything on your Uncle’s farm. I bet they let you get away with anything. You probably can’t even stack hay.”

Bo* turned around and headed back into the barn, “I bet I can stack more hay then you,” Bo* said starting to stack the hay.

“Your hurt, you’ll use that as an excuse when I beat you,” Clark said.

“Try me,” Bo* told him.

So there in the barn, Bo* tried to out stack Clark, whom we all know could stack everything in that barn in a blink of an eye, but let Bo* go along with the stacking.