Disclaimer: I Don't own Race Bannon or Jessie Bannon the song "Hazzard",
which has been sung by Richard Marx.
Archivers: Like I would ever say no.
Rating: Universal.
Category: A flashback into Bannon's childhood-early twenties.
 
 

::My mother came to Hazzard when I was just seven,::

      My earliest memory of Hazzard was walking into the town hall with
Mama. I remember how everyone turned to look at us. I don't remember being
surprised at that. Mama was a beauitiful lady, with her curly yellow hair,
bright blue eyes and youthful shape. They all turned to look. Most of the
young men gawked at her. but the women were looking at me.

::Even then the folks in the town said with prejudiced eyes, "That boy's not
right."::

   I could see the distrust in their eyes, even then, when I was a little
boy. It would only grow in the years to come.

::Three years ago when I came to know Mary, first time that someone looked
beyond the rumors and lies, and saw the man inside.::

  I remember the summer after my sophomore year. I was basking in the sun in
my lawn, when a car pulled up in the house next door. It was the new
neighbours we'd been expecting for a while. An oldish gentleman stepped out
of the car.
     "Hey, there!" I called.
     He turned, frowned at me, then walked into the house brusquely.  I was
hurt, but not shocked. Maybe it was my longish white-blonde hair and burly
physique that made people think that I was bad. Maybe it was the fact that I
wanted more than to deflower someone's daughter before graduation, unlike
the other boys. I'm not sure. But all the townsfolk thought I was bad news.
They whispered about me, and never let their kids near me. I had never had
any friends.
       Just as I was about to return to my nap, the car's passenger , and
steppdoor openeded out the one girl who's memory is etched so deep in my
heart that nothing short of a cardiac transplant would remove it. Mary.
     I can't remember being so dazzled by anyone. Her light brown hair fell
to her shoulders, and it was so shiny, that it could have been a mirror by
the sun. Her eyes were luminous green pools---large enough to take all of me
in in a glance.  Her skin was lightly tan and without a mark. She was very
slim, but still had enough curves for me to conjure up all sorts of images
in my head.
      I couldn't even wave. After a second, blinked, then choked out,
    "Hi,"
    She rewarded me with a blindingly white smile.
   We became good friends soon. She was a very determined and focussed girl.
Said she hated the idea of spending her whole life in a small town raising a
townie's kids. She wanted to be a model, a star. The best thing about her
was that she didnt give a damn about what the townsfolk thought of me. She
hung with me because I was her friend.

::We used to walk down by the river, she loved to watch the sun go down.
  We used to walk along the river, and dream our way out of this town.::

   I remember the long hours we'd spend, stiitng or strolling by the river.
She confessed her thoughts of running away, and I confided in her my dreams
of leaving this town and making a place for myself in the world.  We would
stare into the sunset everyday. Mary said the sight of the huge sun sinking
into the mammoth reminded her how small and insignificant life was. She was
quite a poet, that girl.
 

::No one understood what I felt for Mary, no one cared until the night she
went walking alone, and never came home.::
 
 

    I remember how Mary too become The Invisible Woman, just because she was
my friend. They all assumed she must be just as "bad". No body cared a fig
about her, not until the night she disappeared.

::Man with a badge came knocking next morning, here was I surrounded by a
thousand fingers suddenly, pointed right at me.::

   I remembr that cold morning, when I was pulled out of bed by Inspector
Kody.
   "What 'ave you done to her, you slimeball?" he demanded in his heavily
accented baritone.
   "What are you talking about?" I managed to sputter.
   "Mary White is missing."
   "What?!"
   "Don't interrupt when I'm talking you little shit!" he bellowed. "What
did you do to her?"
   "What do you mean? I didn't---"
  "Spare me your lies, you godforsaken bastard! Where is she?!!" he shook me
roughly.
  "I don't know! When did she go? What----"
   "Arrest the a$$hole!!
 

        The cuffed my hands behind me and forced me to the polic station.
All the townsfolk were standing by my house.
        "I always said 'he was up ter no good," I heard someone say
        "Well, who'do thought Beetrice's son would be a killer," another
voice spoke.
        "Look at him. What a terror hides behind that innocent face."
        "...murderer..."
         "....killed her so mercilessly..."
       "what has he done to the body..."
      "...said he raped her first..."
      "....who would've thought..."

       The whispers were endless.

::I swear I left her by the river. I swear I left her safe and sound.::

    "Tell me what you did, you creep!"
   I sighed. As patiently as I could, I explained for the fifth time that I
had left Mary by the river as usual. I had to pick up some stuff for home,
and she was not in the mood to walk back with me. I left her there,  staring
into the sunset, with a strange look on her face.
     "Quit the crap, Bannon! You're not getting out of here until you speak
up."
   A second cop came in.
  "On what charge are you holding him, Kody?"
"I'm charging this bastard with the murder of Mary White."
"You can't do that untile Mary's body is found."

Grudgingly, he had released me.

::I need to make it to the river, and leave this old Nebraska town.::
 

I grabbed my car keys, and drove down to the river.
"Where are you, Mary?" I whispered. Where was she? Where had she
disappeared?
  I could not stay to find out. Sooner or later, Kody would arrest me on
some charge.
  He really hated me.

  ::I think about my life gone by, and how it's done me wrong::

  Driving to the highway that would forever take me away from this
beautiful, peaceful hell, I thought about all the years I'd spent here. I
had never harmed anyone, yet I was feared more than the harshest dacoits. I
had never done anything against there code of ethics, except that I'd dared
to dream. And I had dearly paid the price.

::There's no escape for me this time, all my rescues are gone, long gone.::

   I had survived in this town, only because my heart was rooted there. My
mother's love had kept me in Hazzard. She was the one I could run to when I
felt that the people's hate would overwhelm me. And she never let me down.
But then she passed on. But I had had Mary. Mary, who loved me despite what
everyone said. But no Mary was gone too. There was no excuse for my staying
in this little suburban town.
 

   ::I swear I left her by the river, I swear I left her safe and sound::

I repeated this phrase over and over in my head. To reassure myself that
Mary's disappearance was not my fault.

  ::I need to make it to the river and leave this old Nebraska town::

    As I cruised down the long, long road, I passed the river.... the river
where I'd spent so many hours with Mary.

       Sometimes, even now, decades later, I wonder where she went. I wonder
if her hair still shines like a mirror by the sun. I wonder if her eyes
still look like twin goldfish bowls, filled to the brim with the clearest
green waters. I wonder if she smiles in her distinctve way.... the smile
that always took my breath away.
     But most of all, I wonder if she ever strolls by the river....and
thinks of me.
 

The End.