FORGIVENESS

Chapter 2

            The screaming of brakes made his blood chill; startled he whipped his head around and saw his cousin lying face down in the middle of the street. The car that had hit him was parked in the street, the front grill smashed in and windshield shattered. The driver was standing beside the car looking at the scene before them with a stunned look on their face. Screaming his name, he ran to his fallen cousin and knelt down beside him not even noticing that he was kneeling in a pool of blood. “CALL AN AMBULANCE!” he yelled to no on in particular, as he gently cradled his cousin’s head in his lap.

            A crowd was quickly gathering around them, attracted by the sound of the accident and his screams for help. Cooter pushed his way through the horde of bystanders so he could reach his friends. He took in the sight before him at glance, knowing immediately that the Duke boy lying on the ground was severely injured. Gently, he reached out to touch his younger friend’s shoulder and said comfortingly, “He’ gonna be okay….I know he’s gonna be okay. Do you want me to call Uncle Jesse and tell him what happened?”

            The young man nodded his head, all of his concentration focused on the injured man in his arms. He barely noticed the noise and activity around him. It was his fault. All his fault. If his cousin died he had nobody to blame but himself. All because of a stupid fight over a dang girl that he didn’t really care about anyway. “Come on, cuz…” he whispered desperately “Hang in there…..don’t you dare die on me!” Tears glistened in his eyes as he raised his eyes towards heaven and said a silent prayer for his cousin’s life.

He knew you weren’t suppose to make bargains with God but he’d sell his soul to the devil if it meant saving his cousin’s life. He didn’t even notice as Cooter ran back to the garage to get Uncle Jesse on the CB and tell him about the accident.

            “All right! What in tarnation is going on here?” Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane’s voice carried through the air, as he pushed his way through the crowd “What are you Duke boys up to now?” He skidded to a stop when he saw the young man lying on the ground surrounded by a pool of blood with his distraught cousin kneeling by his side and rocking him gently in his arms. The damage to the vehicle that had had hit the young man bore mute evidence to the kind of injuries he had probably sustained. The driver, obviously an out of towner, since Rosco didn’t recgonize  was a white as a sheet and looked ready to collapse himself. In spite of his run-ins with the Duke boys, Rosco secretly liked the two young men and didn’t want to see either one of them hurt.  “Has anybody called an ambulance?” Rosco demanded loudly, looking around at the faces of the town folks in the crowd.

            “Yes, sir.” Someone said “They’re on the way.”

            “Uncle Jesse and Daisy are too.” Cooter said as he came up behind Rosco and looked at his two best friends with a worried look on his face. Since Hazzard County didn’t have a hospital of its own, the closest ambulance had to come from Tri-County Medical Center in Cedar City which was almost half an hour away.  Rosco wasn’t sure if the young man lying on the ground would make it that long. It sure didn’t look very good to him. And it looked like his uninjured cousin was close to losing it too. All Rosco could do was stand helplessly by and wait for the ambulance to arrive.

            In the distance the sound of a siren could be heard rapidly approaching. A few minutes later, the ambulance pulled up at the accident scene and two paramedics jumped out, pushing their way through the crowd to get to the victim. But the young man holding the victim in his arms, refused to let them get too close to the injured man. “DON’T TOUCH HIM!” He yelled “HE’S HURT BAD ENOUGH!”

            “Come on now, Buddyroe….” Cooter said, gently reaching out to touch his friend’s shoulder “You gotta let ‘em take care of him now….they need to get him to the hospital….” He could feel the other man trembling violently before he jerked away from the mechanic’s touch and turned to glare at him, his blue eyes blazing with rage and pain.

Cooter had seen that look before and he knew that nobody was going to force him to let go of his cousin without a fight.

            “Let me through! Them’s my boys!” a gruff voice said. Cooter breathed a sigh of relief as Uncle Jesse pushed his way through the crowd. The elder Duke knelt beside the two young men, ignoring the pain in his knees. Gently he reached out and put a soothing hand on his nephew’s arm “It’s okay, boy….let ‘em put him in the ambulance so they can get him to hospital. We’ll be right behind them all the way.” The young man looked at his Uncle, his eyes filled with tears of pain and fear. With a strangled sob that caught in his throat, he released his grip on his cousin and leaned against his Uncle for support as the paramedics began tending to him.

            With Cooter’s help, Jesse helped him to his feet. At first he resisted, still reluctant to leave his cousin’s side even for a moment, but then he turned away. Reluctantly, he allowed his Uncle and Cooter to lead him back through the crowd and across the street where Daisy sat behind the wheel of her jeep waiting for them. They got him settled into the back seat and Daisy pulled out behind the ambulance for the drive to Tri County Medical Center. He sat in the back seat, silently staring at his cousin’s blood that still stained his clothes and his hands. He found himself thinking that if his cousin died, his blood was literally on his hands. Jesse glanced at his nephew worriedly as they sped along the highway behind the ambulance. He seemed to be in a daze, not completely comprehending what was going on around him. Jesse easily recognized the signs of shock but there was nothing he could do to help the young man right now. If he didn’t snap out of it when they got to the hospital, he would ask one of the doctors to take a look at him just to be on the safe side.

            They pulled into the driveway in front of the emergency entrance to the hospital right behind the ambulance. The three Dukes climbed out of the jeep and hurried inside the building. A nurse stopped them from going past the registration desk.

            “That’s my nephew they’re bring in right now!” Jesse told her “He got hit by a car!”

            “I’m sorry, sir but you’re all going to have take a seat in the waiting area. A doctor will be out as soon as possible to advise you of your nephew’s condition.” The nurse told them in a gentle but firm voice.

            With no other choice but do as she said, the three Dukes walked over to the waiting area. Daisy and Jesse sat down on one of the uncomfortable plastic covered sofas while the younger Duke started pacing the floor anxiously, ignoring the strange glances from other people in the waiting room who couldn’t help staring at the blood that stained his shirt and his jeans. But he didn’t care, all he cared about was his cousin who was somewhere beyond those doors that separated the waiting room from the emergency room fighting for his life. He could feel the tears that kept stinging at his eyes, tears he refused to let fall even though he had never been more terrified in his life.