To Lose A Friend To Death
By
It was dark and overcast, a storm moving in from the east. He shivered as he stood there staring down at the grave that was less than two months old. Two months of living hell since he had died when the car he was driving was broadsided by a semi. The surviving Duke boy felt so lost and alone, as if a part of him had died too. He didn't know how to go on without his cousin by his side and he was no longer sure that he even wanted to. It seemed as if every memory he had was a memory that he had shared with his cousin. Everywhere he looked he saw something that reminded him of what they had shared and would never share again. He could feel his mind slipping away and he didn't even care.
He knew that his Uncle Jesse and his cousin, Daisy, were both worried about him and the deep depression he had sunk into since his cousin's tragic death. He hated worrying them, they enough on their minds dealing with their own grief over his loss.
The family was no longer the same without him there. His smile, his laughter, his zest for life had been part of the family bond and now that was missing from all of their lives. It was hard to look at the pictures of him that were still hanging on the wall in the living room. He tried to avoid looking at them as much as he could because it only reminded him of his own pain.
And at night, it was almost impossible for him to sleep in the room that they had shared since childhood. It seemed like all he could do was stare at the empty bed across from his own. He even missed the sound of his cousin's breathing during the night while he slept.He usually ended up lying there, staring into the darkness, until his exhausted body demanded rest and he could no longer avoid sleeping. But sleep was even worse because then he dreamed and his dreams, his cousin was still alive and by his side. Then he'd wake up and be forced to face the harsh reality once more. The reality that he was gone forever and he was never coming back again.
His side of the room was still exactly the way he had left that morning. The bed was neatly made and his clothes were still in his dresser and hanging in the closet that they both shared. There were even a couple of letters he'd gotten in the mail that day lying on the nightstand between the two beds. He wouldn't allow Jesse or Daisy to remove any of his cousin's things from their room. That would have made things too final and he couldn't face that.
Slowly he turned and left the old cemetery on the hill behind the barn. He walked back to the farm house with heavy steps and even heavier heart. The General Lee was still parked in its usual spot near the back door. He hadn't driven it since that day and he doubted if he would ever drive it again. It was just too painful. They had spent too much time together building that car, driving that car, and working on that car together. He knew he could never get behind the wheel because in his mind he would always see the ghost of his cousin sitting in the front seat beside him. But he couldn't get rid of it either. They had both loved that car and he still did even if he couldn't bear to drive it.
He noticed that Jesse's pickup truck was gone when he got back to the house. Then he remembered that he had said something earlier about taking Daisy into town to get some groceries. It was just as well that they were both gone. He had finally made a decision and now he could carry out his plan with worrying about any interference. He knew that what he was about to do would hurt his family terribly but he just couldn't go on living with his own pain and grief. It was just too much to bear any longer.
He went into the house and found the pint jar of moonshine that Jesse kept hidden in the kitchen cabinet. He carried the jar with him up the stairs to their bedroom. Sitting the jar on the nightstand between the two beds, he left the room and went into the bathroom. He rummaged around in the medicine cabinet until he found what he was looking for. The bottle of sedatives that Doc Applebee had given to Jesse after Aunt Martha had died. He had never used them so the bottle was almost full.
He took the bottle back into his room and sat down on the edge of the bed. Opening the jar of shine, he popped the lid off the bottle of pills and poured them out into his hand. Saying a silent prayer to God and asking him to forgive him for what he was about to do, he tossed the pills into his mouth and washed them down with the moonshine. Then he lay back on his bed and waited for the darkness to claim him. After a time his eyes slowly closed and his heartbeat and breathing slowed down until they stopped completely.
Daisy was the one who found his body when she returned from town with Uncle Jesse. Screaming his name when she realized what he had done, she threw herself across his body, crying hysterically. In less than two months, she had lost both of her cousins and half of her family.
Nobody in Hazzard was surprised by what he had done. They all knew how close those two boys had been and when one of them died, they all wondered how long the other one would be able to go on living without the other half of his soul by his side. But it didn't make his passing hurt any less than his cousin's passing had. The Duke family had been totally destroyed by a careless driver who'd too much to drink and then decided to drive his semi anyway. The rain was falling the day they laid him to rest beside the cousin he could not live without. And there wasn't a dry eye to be seen when they came to pay their last respects to Luke Duke.
The End