Bo sat watching the sun go down over Hazzard Pond.  He and Luke had just cleared their names, again.  Using one of Luke’s plans, again.  Bo sighed to himself.  He felt so stupid and unneeded.  “I can sure find trouble,” thought Bo, “but damn if I can get myself out of it.”
 Bo thought back to all the times that he and his cousin had trouble with the local law.  Luke or Uncle Jesse always figured a way to shuck and jive their way out of it.  “What have I ever done?”, thought Bo to himself.
 Bo stretched back and closed his eyes.
 “Hey, kid.  Hey, kid, wake up.”  “What do you want?,” asked Bo, looking through half closed lids.  “Oh, come on, Rosco, what are you up to now!”
 “I’m not…oh, I get it.  Hey, kid, I may look like a Rosco but I sure ain’t.”
 “I’m not in the mood for your games, Rosco,” said Bo, shoving past Rosco on his way to the General Lee.
 Bo looked all along the pond.  The General Lee had vanished!
 “Okay, Rosco, what did you do to the General?”
 “I told you, I’m no Rosco, and there is no General Lee.”
 “Rosco!…”  “Hey, kid, this ain’t my game, it’s yours.  You asked for it.”
 Bo looked into Rosco’s eyes, wondering what had happened to the inept sheriff.
 “Okay, kid…,” said the man, “here’s the thing. You were feeling unneeded, helpless, lost.  Am I right?”
 Bo nodded, still wondering what the punchline was.
 “I’m here to show you what life would have been like with no Beauraguard Duke.”
 Bo figured he would play along with Rosco.  At least he would eventually figure out what Rosco was really up to.
 “Okay, tell me the story”
 “I’ll do better than that, I’ll show you.”

 Bo blinked his eyes rapidly.  He was standing in front of an old, broken down shack with ripped, faded curtains blocking the view of the inside.
 “Believe me now?”
 Bo shrugged, not knowing what to think.  “Where…where is this?”
 “This is your cousin’s house.  Daisy lives here with her husband and in-laws.”
 Just then, Bo saw Sledge and Pa Beaudry.  “What’s fer dinner?,” yelled out Pa.
Milo, coming out of the front door, replied, “Whatever the little filly makes, I guess.”
 Bo looked into the doorway to see Daisy preparing a meager meal for the family.  Her hair was unkempt, her clothes dirty, and her eyes downcast.
 “What is this?!,” Bo asked, “Daisy would never have taken up with the likes of Milo, not ever!”
 The figure of Rosco sighed, “Yeah, maybe, but you weren’t here to help save her when Milo took a shine to her.  Look at her eyes.  There wasn’t anyone around to keep her spirits up or tell her she’s worth more.”
 “What about Luke or Jesse?  Why didn’t they help her?”
 “Let’s just see about that.”

 Bo looked around to see an old, abandoned field.  It looked more ready for a rock garden, than for planting crops.  It seemed deserted and very lonely.
 From around the corner of a run-down tractor, an old man appeared.  He was out of breath and his eyes were very distant.
 “Uncle Jesse!,” Bo cried out, worried about the state Jesse was in.
 “He can’t hear or see you, Bo.  Remember, you never existed.”
 “What’s wrong with Uncle Jesse?  Why isn’t he on our farm?  Why is he out here all alone?”, Bo rapidly fired out questions.
 “Bo, Jesse lost the farm years ago.  Jesse just didn’t have the heart to fight Boss.  There was no one there to help him.  Daisy was married and had problems enough of her own.  Jesse had no choice but to do sharecropping to earn his keep.”  ‘Rosco’ shook his head sadly.  “He just can’t keep up at his age.”
 “What about Luke?  What about our friends, they never let us down before?”
 “Luke wasn’t there.  Your friends couldn’t help.”
 “What do you mean, Luke wasn’t there,” Bo shouted, getting angry, “He would never leave Jesse to do all this on his own.”
 ‘Rosco’ shook his head back and forth.  “He just wasn’t here, Bo.  Now come on.  Let’s check in on your friends.”

 Bo found himself in the library.  He wondered which of his friends would be here.  Bo nearly didn’t recognize Enos when he passed by.  Enos was wearing a brown suit and had his hair all slicked back.  Bo could barely contain his laughter-imagine, Enos a nerd!
 “Not quite,” ‘Rosco’ said, reading Bo’s thoughts.  “You see, Enos never found a job he could truly be happy with.  Oh, sure, Enos dreamed of being a peace officer, but no one encouraged him.  So, he hangs out here after work, reading detective novels and dreaming of what might have been.”
 “At least Enos is safe.  Not to mention, away from Boss and you, er..Rosco.”
 “Oh, yea, he’s away from the corruption and not there to stop it either.

 Bo saw the scene fade around him, only to have a jailhouse surround him.
 “Is Luke here?,” Bo asked in a hushed tone.
 “No, Bo, but Cooter Davenport is.”
 “Why!?”
 “No one was there to keep Cooter from his crazy ways,” ‘Rosco’ pointed to his right.  There sat Cooter, looking angry and straight ahead.  He looked tough as nails and just about as nice.  “No one showed Cooter how friendship could be, no one showed him that it just didn’t pay to be crazy 24-7.”
 Bo looked at his feet with a forlorn expression on his face.  “I just don’t understand how I could have made this much of a difference.  Where is Luke?  You seem to be avoiding him, ignoring any time I bring him up, except to say he isn’t here.  Well, where is he?,” Bo asked almost at the point of tears.

Bo was standing in the middle of a foggy field with ‘Rosco’ by his side.  “Are you sure you want to know, kid?  Isn’t it enough to know you were needed?”
 “NO, it ain’t enough!  Every thing would have been okay if Luke was there.  Where is he?”
 “Just remember-you asked.”
 The fog lifted slowly to reveal that they were standing in the middle of an unfamiliar cemetery.  Bo’s whole body began to shake in fear.  “He can’t be here,” Bo said, whispering under his breath.
 ‘Rosco’ turned Bo around to see an unmarked cross lying towards his left hand side.
 “But..but there’s not even a marker.  There’s no name, no dates, nothing.”
 “I’m sorry, Bo, but it is Luke.  You weren’t there.  You were the only person Luke could ever bring himself to talk to.  When Luke came back from overseas, he had no one to talk to, no one to confide in.  Luke ended up leaving the farm, moving from town to town and job to job.  Luke was in such a depression…,” ‘Rosco’ paused to  pull himself together.
 “Bo, look at me,” ‘Rosco’ placed a finger under Bo’s chin and looked into his tear stained eyes, “it’s best to just say Luke couldn’t live without your friendship, so he didn’t.”
 Bo closed his eyes and tried to hold in the tears.  It couldn’t be true, Luke would have been okay, he would have been just fine.  Bo looked up at ‘Rosco’, “This just can’t be real.  Please tell me it’s not real.  My family, my friends, they are okay.”
 “They will be, Bo, they will be.”

 Bo felt a hand on his shoulder and opened his eyes.  Above him stood Luke, his eyes full of concern.  “Are you okay, Bo?  What are you doing out here in the middle of the night.  We’ve been looking everywhere for you?”
 “Is everyone okay?,” Bo tentatively asked.  “Yes, Bo,” answered Luke, quite confused, “everyone’s fine.  How about you?”
 “I’m fine now.  I…I must have fallen asleep, whew, what a dream.”
 “You want to talk about it?”, Luke asked.
 “Maybe another time, cousin.  Right now, I just want to go home.”

 Yep, family and friends make all the difference.  Especially in a place called Hazzard.