"Unknown Beginings"
*THE PAST *
A scream echos through an alley of a street in Las Angels C.A.
But no one around seems to hear it and they continue on with there
business. But with in the alley a couple and there 11 year old
son stood in the face of danger. A man holding a gun in his hand
threateningly at them suffled throw the womens purse and demanded
the husbands wallet. The family wasnt weathy, but they werent
broke poor either, but what the teribble killer found was not
enough. He shot the boys father in the head killing him emedity,
then his mother. The boy cried deeply kneeling next to his murdered
parents, the killer still standing there but his gun empty.
"Stupid kid, you saw the hole thing and my face." The
killer said furiously.
Suddenly stricking the boy on the back of the head with the gun
and beating him in the face brecking his jaw. The man kicked and
beat the boy until there was no moevement from his bloody body
and pleased with his work he walked away, never to be seen again.
It was nearly four hours later when a fire cheif on his way to
work early in the morning found the couple dead in the alley.
The fire cheif called the police in a hurry, reporting that he
had found three dead civilians, two adults and one boy. The first
officer on the scene was young and just happened to be in the
area. The fire chief had done the best he could, but as he was
preparing to continue onto work he saw the body of the young boy
twich and shudder. Without thinking of anything but the life of
the boy he scooped the 11 year old up in his arms and ran down
the street until he came to the intersection. The cheif crossed
and went up two blocks to the Emergency Hospital. He didnt relise
that the young cop was running behind him until they were inside
the hospital and running down the hall to the emgency room. Nurses
and doctors appeared keeping as calm and cool as possible, put
the boy on a bed and wheeled him away.
"You alright?" The young cop asked patting the old Fire Cheif
on the back.
The cheif nodded whipping the swet off his face and turning to excit
the hall way with the young cop. He looked over his sholder at the
doors in which the boy had been wheeled through, the child had hardly
been alive. In all his years of fighting fires and rescuing people
the fire cheif had never seen a child in such bad shape unless they
were already deseaced. Shaking his head he left the hospital and continued
onto work despite his bad exsperience.
The doctors were able to stablize the child in a short time, he was
dignost with four broken ribs, a broken jaw and a suveer concussion.
His jaw was wired together, his ribs rapped and he was left to heal.
He awoke late in the night of the day he had been edmitted, a nurse
was changing the IV in his arm.
Harlond looked around the room scared to death, he did not know where
he was or how he had gotten there. The only thing he remembered was
kneeling over his parents, his parents he thought in his head, they
were dead. He began to cry, he wanted his mom and dad and he wanted
to go home. The first time he tried to move his head he cried out in
pain, his jaw hurt so bad that he could only keep it open eough to
breath. The nurse soothed him and told him not to move, she was an
older women with soft old frail hands that proved her many caring years.
In a little more then a week Harlond was out of the hospital bed and
on his way to an orphanage. With absultely no living relitives that
would take him in and take care of him, it was the only thing the hospital
and child well-fair services could do. He still couldnt talk hardly
at all, his jaw would be wired together for the rest of his life and
eventually he would beable to talk again when the muscles grew back
together. But at the orphanage he was picked on badly by bigger and
older boys.
On one ocasion on a trip to a town pool two older boys forced Harlond
into the deep end of the pool, he didnt know how to swim and the boys
nearly drownd him. When he was long since well he bagan to defend himself,
fighting off those who picked on him and teased him. It wasnt unusuall
for a local police officer to vist the orphanage, Harlond admired them
so much and vowed that he would avenge his parents by becoming a cop.
That way he could prevent what happened to him from happening again.
At age 16 he enrolled in the army for two years and then applied to
a DEA job in Las Angels where he was employed until he turned 21.
One week after he turned twenty one he was patroling a rough part of
town with his partner. A man that was edgy and disrespectfull, neither
of them getting along well. They stoped to inspect an ilegally parked
car and write a ticket. A man waving a .45 pistol came hollering drunk
from the house acrossed the street. He was enraged and highly intoxicated,
Harlond drew his weapon and began talking the man into putting his
down.
Harlonds partner and him crept towards the man talking him down as
best as possible, and at last possible moment both officers attempted
to arrest the man. The drunk pounded Harlond in the face with the side
of the gun, the gun exploded shooting Harlonds partner in the throat
and killing him. Momentaryly distracted Harlonds hand was flung from
the drunks wrists and the gun barrel touched the right side of Harlonds
chest exploding in one quick motion. The close range of the gun sent
Harlond spralling to the ground and out cold.
Two hours after the shot rang out through the alleys an old retired man
passed by finding the bloody scene. Harlonds partner had long since
passed, but Harlond himself lay on the black top bleeding to death
slowly. The aged man looked at the scared jaw of Harlond, a scare left
behind from his trecherous child hood. The ground around him a puddle
of his own blood, the elderly man out for his evening walk called the
police and both officers were taken away. The elderly old man slipped
on his jacket to protect himself from the evening chill and followed
the ambulance to the hospital. This elderly man had a fimilar glint
in his eye, he spent 4 hours in the chair next to Harlond's bed until
the young officer awake still grogy with sleep and pain.
"Who are you..?" Harlond groaned aloud talking to the old
man and blinking the sleep and pain from his eyes.
"I found you and your partner lying there on pavement..."
The man paused reaching into his pocket and recovering something he
had possed for many years.
A real silver half dollar with a chain on it so it could be worn around
the neck like a necklace. The large coin was edged in gold and badly
tarneshed.
"It reminded me of another horrid day many years ago, I found
a boy with a broken jaw and he was surrounded by his deceased parents..."
The elderly mans voice trailed off.
Harlond's eyes went wide open and he half sat up in the hospital bed,
although it hurt to move he sat up completely and looked the old man
up and down. Then with his hand that was free from the IV, he touched
the scare on sides of his jaw and chin.
"I never got to meet the person who found me that night, I was
shiped to an orphanage soon as I was well enough. But I was told that
the local Fire Cheif had found me...with my parents." Harlond
said almost unable to bite back the ach in his throat.
The old man nodded and pulled his jacket into his lap to show the patch
on the sholder, the patch of the fire chief. He looked up at Harlond,
wondering how he had survived such a cruel beating and not only suvived
but grown into such a man as he was.
"The officer that was with me when I made my mad dash for the
hospital with you in my arms never thought that you would live, but
there was a fight about you...I just knew." The elderly Fire Chief
handed Harlond the coin, it had belonged to his parents. Then held
out his hand for a long over due introduction.
"Retired Fired Chief Tom Morton." He said and shook Harlonds
hand.
"DEA Officer Micheal Carson." This seemed so unreal to Harlond,
he had to stop and wonder if he was dreaming.
It all passed by as quickly as a dream, the fire cheif returned to
his retirement cottage to live out the rest of his years peacefully
and knowing what he had done for the next generation. Micheal returned
to his DEA job after only two months of recovery, he took up a girl
friend named Pearl Mazada.
A beautiful red head, known all throughout Las Angels as the red-headed-devil
and only because she drove a red Mazda with red hair. It wasnt until
one night when she was returning from her secretary job would her life
change his. Another girls scream echoed through the street that Pearl
was walking through, she never thought anything of it until she turned
the corner at the light. There standing only yards away was a dark
man holding a gun in his hand and a young women falling to the ground.
Pearl took a good look at him and turned and made a mad dash in the
other direction. She would make it back to her apartment where Micheal
awaited already asleep from his long day at work.
The murder had followed her back to the apartment, taking note of her
name and Micheal's on there mail box. It wasnt long until the murder
found that Micheal, an officer of the law knew important codes capable
of getting into the main frames of half the police computers in Las
Angels. The killer left and returned with four of his companions, they
would all wait until Micheal and Pearl left for work in the morning.
They would be sperately kidnapped, Micheal would be the first then
Pearl.
There plan worked perfectly, at 5:30am Micheal stepped out of the apartment
and turned the corner where his old car was parked. He was looking
down at his car keys in his hand, it wasnt until he looked up that
he saw the gun barrel pointed in his face. The attacker droped the
barrel of the gun fast and pulled the trigger, the gun shot was silent
because the gun was rigged. The man shot him in the chest, not a mortal
wound but if not cared for it could become serious. The other men dragged
Micheal off and put him into there car, the young deputy once again
in a terrible jam. His hands cuffed together with his own hand cuffs,
they took him to an empty apartment building and hung him by one arm
to the wall. Micheal sat on the floor, his arm streched far above his
head and his sholder wound bleeding down his chest on the inside of
his jacket.
The murder and his gang left Micheal there and went out to get Pearl,
they returned with her an hour later. Pearl came in screaming and fighting
in her captives arms, Micheal fought against his weakness. He pushed
away the pain and became enraged at them fighting against the cuffs.
But his attempts were futil, it was impossible to breck the steel cuffs
and free himself, he stood on his feet eyes trained on his girl friend.
What were they going to to do her? He asked himself with watery eyes,
she ment the world to him and more.
Micheal pulled himself together quickly and staired blanky at them
and her. They sat her down on the floor forcefully, the elected leader
slapping her acrossed the face for her crying pleas.
"Shut up!" The leader burst out at her. "Were gonna
have our way with you until your boy friend over there tells us the
security codes for the department down town." He spat at her grinning
as he gazed at Micheal with yellowish eyes.
Micheal shook his head in disbleif, he had made a vow when he became
a cop, he couldn't tell them the codes. Being one of the most trusted
of officers in the department he knew codes that not even the officers
of higher status knew. Now what would they do to her, he couldnt tell
them the codes.
"Come on boys this little girl is gonna enjoy us." They swooped
in like voltures, ripping at her clothing and touching her.
Pearl screamed and fought, she hollard for Micheal to help her. He
fought against the cuffs even though her knew it was poinless. Watching
them have there brutal way with her, he broke down inside as the blood
came from her body with there wrape and torture.
"Enough!" The leaders voice echoed over his men. "We
want her alive enough to see her boy friend here suffer."
In truth they wouldnt have let Pearl go when they were done, she had
seen them murder and all along had plans of killing her. Releasing
her to the grasp of one man the rest approached Micheal with grins
of there past pleasure, they could see the anger and hurt they had
brought to him.
"Uncuff him."Again the leader demanded as he pulled a blade
from his jacket and ran it along the edge of Micheals jaw not cutting
the skin but threatening.
"You have quite and women on your hands, tell us our five digits
we want and both of you will live." Micheal knew what the filth
said was untrue but he didnt back down, inraged at what they had done
to Pearl.
He didnt answer but staired deeply at them, angery, his eyebrows low
and his eyes dark. The cuff fell from his wrist and he bolted at the
lead man. One of his men standing by with a club struck Micheal acrossed
the abdomen with it, his ribs creaked and his breath escaped from his
lungs. Stumbling back Micheal found himself grasped in the arms of
his attackers as he gasped for breath and huged his ribs as they ached
in pain.
"You watchin this girly?" The leader chimed grinning at her
as his men pinned Micheal to the wall.
"Give it to him Gordon!" The man holding Pearl said from
behind the lead man.
The leader, Gordon, took his advantage on Micheal and barried his fists
in the young officers abdomen. Again, and again he punched him, Pearl
shouted with her failing energy at them to stop. They hit him in the
face and in the chest again and again until his body rested in the
grasps that Gordons men held onto him.
"Enjoying this little lady? Ha Ha! I thought so." The man
holding Pearl cooed in her ear.
"Watch this your gonna love it." Gordon snarled and grabbed
a hand full of Micheals hair and pulled his head up so that he could
see Pearl through his blurred vision.
Gordon nodded to the man holding Pearl and he bagan the beating again,
alone. Until her body fell limp to the ground.
"Finish it Jackson!" Gordon demanded.
The cruel man holding Pearl pulled his gun from his jacket and fired
three rounds into her limp body. Micheal fought against the cruel grasp
on his hair and Gordon released him, he stumbled to her side. She was
dead, he knew but he pulled her limp body into his arms and hugged
her tight and did everything he could to keep from crying.
Hurt stricken he layed her down on the floor and leaned over her body
so hurt he just shook. The men standing around him laughed, Gordon
went to the poarch of the building and pulled a steal rod out of the
ground. He returned inside and to the room where the scene was going
on, a cruel grin on his face. Gordon raised the rod above his head
and strut up behind Micheal. With both hands on the iron rod he struck
Micheal on the back of the head and neck.
"Good night lover boy!" Gordon said watching Micheal fall
to the ground, blood quickly pouring over the back of the young deputies
head where he had been stricken.
"Throw them in the back of the truck, we'll drop them off in the
boonies of G.A." Gordon said and left the room.
Micheal and Pearl were thrown in the back of a van, Pearl wrapped in
a blanket her clothes thrown in with her. They emptied Micheals pockets,
rubbing his police badge on the concrete until it was practically destroied
they left C.A.
Unconcious Harlond lay in the back of the van, the 6inch gash on his
head wide open and drizzling blood onto his jean jacket. The bullet
would becoming more suveer as the clock ticked by, the gang drove into
G.A. In mid hours of the day. There they threw Pearls body down an
embankment refered to as Razor Back Ridge, they droped Micheal's unconcious
body into a ditch and in a hurry left.
Micheal would lay there until the next mourning when one of Hazzard
Countys finest ladys would pass by. But would she be too late to save
the young deputy from a painfilled death...
***Hazzard County G.A. 7:30am***
It wasnt the niceset of mornings in Hazzard County, it was foggy and
thretening to rain. If it rained it would wash every bit of seed out
of the farms feilds and render them for the rest of the season. On
this morning Daisy Duke was on her way to work at the Boars Nest. She
was earlyer then usuall, hopping to get a jump on the morning's breckfast.
She drove slowly down old Razor Ridge Road, it was one of the roughest
roads in the county and could really put a beating on a vehcal if not
treated right. Out of the corner of her eye while driving Daisy spotted
a red baseball cap on the side of the road. She stopped wondering how
a hat so new and clean could be from anyone near by. As she picked
up the hat and began to check it for a name or indication she just
happened to glimsp up, she did a double take hopping to god that her
eyes were playing tricks on her. But they werent, just the same she
wanted a closer look and crept towards the ditch on the side of the
old rough road still hoping some how that she was dreaming.
Daisy steped down into the ditch and her fears were confirmed by the
body laying there.It was a young man lying in the ditch on his side,
his hole shirt that had once been white now red with his own blood.
The back of his head showed a huge gash wide open from the middle of
his skull to bottom of the back of his neck, down towards the collar
of his shirt. Daisy slowly crept towards him, she couldnt see his face
but by the looks of his hair color and size she guessed that he was
not from Hazzard.
Getting close enough to touch she nudged him with the toe of her boot,
but he didnt stirr or make any movements and if he was breathing it
was too shallow to tell. The young man was dressed in blue jeans smeared
with mud and stained freshly with his own blood, a white sleeveless
shirt that now was stained with blood and torn. A blue jean jacket
that it loose but not too big and matched his jeans.
Bringing her courage together and not feeling threatened Daisy rolled
the man over onto his back. He groaned lightly but made no phyiscal
movements, Daisy looked at his face, it was blood smeared from cuts
and deep laserations. Feeling a little uncomfortable about doing so
she put her hand on his chest and felt slow strained breathing.
"Oh gosh your barely alive." She mumbled to herself with
wide eyes.
Daisy wished that she hadnt found him, but now that she had she had
to call for help and try to save his life like a good Duke would out
of nature, but how he would live was out of her mind. She hurried to
her jeep called "Dixie" and picked up the CB microphone relising
that her own hands were smeared with his blood.
"MADA!!!MADA!!! This is Daisy Duke I need an ambulance on Razor
Back Ridge, I found a guy in bad shape and he needs help fast. Does
anyone read me?." Daisy shouted into the mic for the first time
becoming alittle upset about the hole situation but forcing her self
to stay cool.
"Daisy this is Cooter, I'll call in an ambulance for you. Hang
in there!" Cooter Davenport had been traveling with his toetruck
on Hazzard road and he called in to the Sherriffs office and let them
handle the amubulance. But going in that direction Cooter decided to
lend Daisy a hand until help could arrive.
He arrived there 5 minutes after Daisy had made her call on the radio,
when he arrived she was standing by Dixie whipping her hands on a rag.
"Ya'll right?" Cooter asked approaching her. She nodded and
pointed towards the young man, she had calmed down mostly.
"Lets check his pockets see if we can find out who he is."
Cooter said kneeling down beside the mans still body.
"I aint never seen this boy before, hes not from around here."
Cooter mumbled checking the mans jean pockets as Daisy went through
his jacket pockets.
"Cooter..." Daisy's voice trailed as she pulled something
from the mans inside jacket pocket on the left.
Cooter looked up to see what Daisy held in her hand, his mouth droped
wide open. It was a officers badge, covered with blood and badly damaged
to where the numbers and any kind of letters that were on it were unreadable.
"Oh lordy...that complicates things." Cooter said whipping
the new swet from his face.
"His pockets are empty, no wallet or anything." Cooter shook
his head, this boy was a dieing cop.
Cooter looked the man over again, taking notice that the left side
of his jacket in the upper chest area was soaked in blood and it suddenly
didnt make sence. The young man had cuts on his face that were bleeding
but not enough to soak his jacket like that, Cooter opened the left
side of the cops jacket to reveal and gun shot wound pooring fresh
blood. Cooter retrieved a rag from his pocket and pressed it firmly
over the wound bringing a cry from the young cop.
The young cop breathed in a yelp, exhauling with a small squeek of
pain as Cooter tried to slow the bleeding. Cooter shook his head, things
looked even worse for the young fella and he could sence him slipping
away quickly.
Daisy looked at a piece of crumbled paper that had been in the pocket
with the cops badge. The paper was blood stained and some of the letters
written ink were washed out from getting wet by the blood. The paper
was a coffee add, the readable letters put together spelled "Harlond".
Daisy wondered for a minute then put it out of her mind as an ambulance
pulled up and the medics jumped out. It only took them minutes to cut
the officers blood soaked shirt off and pack him into the vehical.
"Cooter stop by and tell Bo and Luke that I'm going the hospital,
I'll be home when I can." She said and got into Dixie.
"Tell them whats going on Cooter. Thank You." She said and
started the ol' jeep.
Cooter looked into her eyes deeply and nodded to what she said, he
could tell that this was emotionally getting to her. He watched her
drive away behind the ambulance, Cooter couldnt help but wonder if
the young cop would make it. Cooter got inot his toe struck and drove
away, the officers badge still him his hand, he wrapped it in his reg
hanker-cheif and put it into his pocket and drove away.
Daisy followed the medics into the hospital as far as she could, she
was questioned by everyone around her what his name was and where he
came from. Daisy looked at them with a sorry frown.
"I dont know who he is, we found him." Daisy said and took
a seat in the waiting room until word came of the officers condition.
The doctor that had taken in the officer came out to the waiting room
and asked for the gal that had brought the nameless man in. Daisy rose
to her feet, purse in hand with alittle bit of a shy and worried look
on her face. The doctor asked her to follow him and she did alittle
caustiously until they came to a room door and he stoped in the hallway.
"Where did you find this unfortunet young man?" The doctor
asked looking at her intensely.
"I found him in a ditch on Razor back ridge about 3 miles from
the end." She answered looking at the doctor with much worry.
"Hes lucky to be alive, he lost alot of blood." The doctor
paused. "And I have to tell you Miss, the hit he took to the head
did some damage. He doesnt know who he is or where he is, and has no
idea where he came from. He is consicous and he will survive."
The doctor pointed her into the room and disapeared down the hallway.
Daisy slowly steped into his room approching his bed, she could hear
him breathing in and out with perfect rythmn to the race of her own
heart with fear. She took a seat next to his bed, the chair ceaking
aloud when she sat down. The young deputy had been dozing and opened
his eyes when he herd the chair squeek. Daisy looked at him, forcing
herself to relax in the hard wooden chair and let her eyes stair into
his deep brown eyes as he looked at her with his head turned in the
bed.
"I owe you my life..." His deep but clear voice lingered,
it came out softly and alittle hesitant.
He layed his head back and staired up at the ceiling, knowing that
he would forever be indoubt to her.
"What is you name..." He paused and gazed down at her hands
that rested on the arms of the chair. "Miss?" His light brown
hair glinted in the late afternoon sun light as he turned and looked
at her once again.
"Daisy...Daisy Duke." She shook his right hand, it was free
of IV's and wires that monitered him.
The deputies eyes fell low, he did not know his own name or where he
had come from but he had a good idea how old he was. About 21, some
how that just seemed right to him or so it felt right. He suddenly
felt her hand gentally squeeze his arm and he looked up at her from
his deep thoughts.
"Its alright...I know the shoes that your about to walk in arent
gonna be hardly thick enough for the road your now forced to take.
But I found a piece of paper with your badge, your an officer of the
law, we know that for fact."
Daisy paused from her statement and retrieved the badge from her pocket
and the now dried piece of paper that was eledgable except for a few
numerious letters. She placed the badge in his hand and he brought
it up closer so that he could see it, it occured to him that it was
gonna be useless.
"The readable letters on this piece of paper I found in your pocket
spell out a name, but the rest of it is as elegable as the badge in
your hand. I think it would be suitable, with your aprovale of coarse,
that I and whoever else you converse with call you by that name sugar."
Daisy looked at him, handing him the paper at the same time.
"H..A..R..L..O..N..D.." He mumbled out the letters as he
looked at them on the paper. "Harlond?"
"Yes, Harlond. The name is not listed in a dictionary, or in the
listed in the book of names. I havent been able to find it anywhere,
you'd be a one of a kind person." Daisy smiled widely and awaited
his answer.
He nodded at first, it did sound like the proper thing to do. "I
like it, and the idea." He said and shook her hand with confidence.
"Alright, Harlond. Its gret to meet you." Daisy nodded.
About four days later Daisy walked with her new friend out of the hospital,
he limped and labored to walk but in no time at all the pain would
leave him and his body would fully heal. The nameless deputy would
fully recover, left with a constant wonder of the world he was forced
to leave behind and maybe someday redescover. Until then he would enjoy
his time in Hazzard county and become a deputy of the law there, called
by all who met him Harlond.
THE END...9/18/2003(finished*)
(*Note from author*:
The name Harlond was actually a misunderstanding, thats how it came
to be. The name was suposed to be Harlan, but I miss pronouced it and
obvisiouly misunderstood it. It suddenly occured to me one day when
I was working on the novel that Harlond originated from that I had
created a hole other name and I left it. For those of my friends and
fellow readers and writters who wondered how the name came about it
was quit by accident. P.S. The novel was never finsihed and has long
since been lost.
~Harlond's author: D.W.*)