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- September 12, 2001 (poster formerly known as Pam's Twin Sister)
@Karin Schill, there we go with the "re-run" of Season 2 of "Ewing Empire".
Tonight, Episode 7 of the show, and Season Premiere of the season: "My Best Enemy´s Wedding" (Part 3: Funeral March)
Gary and Bill were waiting in the street, still dressed in their wedding tuxedoes, but they had put their ties and jackets off. When the corpse was being moved into the ambulance, Bill walked down the corner and began to vomit. He was James´s best friend and personal mechanic, and the experience was turning out traumatic to him. A wedding had been planned but somebody had been murdered instead. Gary looked up inside the house, looking for his younger brother Bobby. As he could not see him, tried to get into the place again.
- We´ve already told you to keep away, never mind you are a Ewing. It´s not a family reunion... – said one of the policemen rather abruptly. Bobby heard his brother´s complaints and joined them outside.
- Take it easy, nobody else is needed in there – he said quietly. Gary stared at him and asked him what he had longed to know for half an hour impatiently. From the moment they arrived at James Beaumont´s apartment in Dallas - What´d happened in there? Who´s been murdered?
Bob looked him back sadly.
- James´s mother, Vanessa. Somebody killed her.
Meanwhile, in the gardens around the Southfork House, the guests were beginning to get nervous. Pamela and Valene were just trying to calm them down, until Bob finally called and gave them the answer to their questions.
- Honey, I need your help. A tragedy happened: James´s mother is dead. His apartament is upside-down, as if destroyed by crazy people...and nobody knows where James and Cally are.
- Oh mine Bobby... – Pam said, keeping her emotions inside - I´ll tell the guests that the wedding is post-poned and they´ll be informed about it.
- Pamela: tomorrow it will be on the papers. You´d better tell our friends what happened, you and family. We´ll be right back. Love you.
- Me too... – he hang up and Pam looked around. At Sue Ellen, Valene and, a bit further, the boys. Sue Ellen walked on to her and put her hands onto Pam´s shoulders.
- Please Pam...tell us what happened – Sue Ellen begged her impatiently. They all looked at each other and John Ross asked:
- My brother, isn´t it? Something´s wrong with him...
- No John Ross. The police found Vanessa dead in James´s apartment…and he and Cally gone...
Outside the house, Madeleine, Clayton and Lucy were chatting ignoring what had happened.
- What an odd thing! I would ever be late for my wedding in a scene like this! – Madeleine assured.
- Darling, probably something happened with the limo and Bob and the boys are driving them here.
- It seems that the Southfork weddings´ jinx still lives...Just hope it isn´t anything irreparable, as Cally being stuck at the aisle or somewhatever...
- I don´t see you glad about this marriage, maybe you´d like to take the bride´s place? – Madeleine maliciously remarked.
- Gotta believe me: I could be married with someone better and more mature than James. Besides he´s half my cousin...I´d never sleep with a guy of my own family... – Lucy said, sure of one thing: nobody around knew her former passionate relationship with Ray Krebbs in the past...
- Here come the girls, and for the way they look, I´d say there´s bad news... – Clayton noticed as he stood up.
Half an hour later all the guests were gone except Alan Beam, who found Lucy in the living-room, alone.
- Hello Lucy – he kindly said.
- Oh hi – she answered, with her third gin tonic in her hand. – Why are you still here?
- I just wanted to set up a meeting with your father for tomorrow and we couldn´t talk yet. Sorry what happened...though I didn´t know the lady.
- Thanks – Lucy said coldly, as she finished her drink up. – You can bet she was a real lady...
- You too Lucy. You have become an attractive, independent, mature lady. And a good mother for your son Peter.
- Why every time we talk my son´s gotta be mentioned? You tell me and end this now...
- All right. But not now, it´s not the best moment. – Alan looked away at the room´s door and expressed what he was thinking. – You do know I am your son´s father.
After that, Alan left the room and looked for Gary. Suddenly came in a shocked Valene.
- Lucy...is that true? Is Alan Beam your son´s father?
Lucy just couldn´t hear anything. She was curled up in the couch and whispered senseless words. The combination of champagne and gin had worked out...
At her Turtle Creek home in Dallas, Sue Ellen and John Ross were making themselves comfortable. The young man was obviously worried about his older brother missing after his mother´s death: she had stood by James all the way.
- Do you wanna talk about it honey? – Sue Ellen asked as she put her elegant black high-heeled shoes off.
- No why should I. Sure James and Cally are okay, getting married in a tacky chappel in Vegas. – John Ross tried to play the hard guy, though actually he was afraid about his brother´s life...and because they had become apart since his engagement was announced. Remorse, panic and the obligation to look strong, all these things were turning his logical worries into an unreachable coldness. – Don´t worry any more.
- I always wanted to meet Vanessa Beaumont, even before to know she existed - John Ross´s look obliged her to continue – All those years married to your dad, I had the feeling that there had been one woman, the woman, who´d ultimately made him the man he always was. A heartbreak in J.R. Ewing´s life, unbelievable but true: our relationship had been worsening but not because of me, because he´d already decided nobody would ever break his heart again...
- Why are you telling me all this mother? – Sue Ellen twinked: so far her son had been calling her “mum”.
- Let´s not look for guilty ones. We left him make us the way we are. Just the way he wanted us to be. But you rebelled against him and that sank your marriage. I understand now but I did not then. Dad was like a God to me. Remember the first time he took me to an oil rig, in a village called Pride, still married with Cally... – John Ross´s voice sounded lower and lower, until it silenced. He only added: Night mum. Once alone, Sue Ellen smiled and closed her eyes... J.R. always ended up being the talk subject when something was wrong. Some way or another, it always was her, her son and J.R.
Back at Southfork, Bob gathered all the family except John Ross. On one side were Clayton, Madeleine, Lucy and Barbara. On the other Gary, Valene, Pam and Christopher. Bobby was standing up explaining his talk with the detective of the Dallas Police Department...
- I´ll let out the nasty details, so this is what happened in James´s house, upon the police. The first thing I knew was that Vanessa fell to death, surely as tried to skip a shot. She instantly died. The person responsible hasn´t been identified by her clues yet but everything seems to accuse Michelle Stevens, though it can be hard to believe.
- That whore who stalked James years ago? – Lucy rudely said, still on her hangover.
Bob looked at Pam and Val, who were missing those years – Michelle was not a whore, but my wife April´s sister. She was a very ambitious passionate girl who didn´t overcome his sister´s death and killed the woman responsible for it. She was in love with James and eventually sentenced to several years of prison for her crime.
- Do you mean that Michelle was out of jail and none of us knew it? – Christopher asked.
- Yes. At that time Pam and I were up in Toronto and the rest of you were trying hard to start over here at Southfork. A few months ago Michelle was mistaken for dead when a woman who looked alike her was picked up on the street, on drugs: a completely hopeless case. This woman had James and Michelle´s marriage license and a photo of James´s on...Then the police thought the case was easy: a homeless woman dies overdosed in a no way out street. But that was not Michelle. Michelle is still alive...
(Fade out)
The Southfork living-room was deadly quiet. Suddenly Barbara began to feel curious about it:
- Do you mean she faked her death to accomplish some sort of revenge?
- That´s the police´s opinion: before going to jail, James visited her and, don´t know what he told her, but she promised to revenge and kill him someday.
- And what a better day for her than his wedding to another woman... – Bob nodded.
- Anyway I think James outta have suspected something. He´d talked with the detective who was at charge of the case and knew that the dead girl was not Michelle at all. They also found out through a prison informant that both women had planned to murder him when out... – Valene put her hand over her stomach – Sorry Val. If you wanna go out of the room, please do. I don´t wanna see you still more upset – Madeleine, Valene and Pam went to the kitchen to get something hot to drink.
Bobby resumed his story:
- But something went wrong since their relationship turned out to be closer than it seemed to. They used to defend each other in prison...but once out, something went different and Michelle injected a lethal overdose to the other girl, whose name allegedly was Sheree. She made her drink huge amounts of alcohol and also gave her synthetic drugs: that was her last drop... – Bob breathed in and continued - As I was saying, I think James outta be suspecting something since the ad published in the Dallas press specified that James was going to be driven in the limo and not Cally. Obviously they made last minute´s changes...
- Are you hinting that they might have got married elsewhere and be enjoying their honeymoon after all, ignoring everything?
- Clayton, that´s what the police thinks. In fact that´s what they even suggested him to...
Clayton put his right hand on his eyes as Lucy tried to transmit him that she was on her side in spite of everything...and still loved him.
- There´s something I don´t get from all this mess. As you told us, the apartament was really upside-down, as if someone had gone crazy, right?
- Yeah – Bob assured – they even torn apart some of Cally´s paintings hung around.
- Therefore, what stopped somebody crazy from kidnap two people who maybe saw her to committ a murder, and then kill and get rid of them?
Bob shook his head as he was thinking it was time to join his wife and rest after such a moving day...or at least try to.
A quarter an hour after that, Bob was coming just out of the shower and drying out his body and proceeding to get into bed. A sad-looking Pam was cleaning her make-up off...
- Maybe Lucy was right all those years... – she said.
- About what?
- About the Southfork weddings´ curse...It seems that all the couples married here get somehow jinxed...
- Nonsense, just watch us.
- Should I remind you that our last wedding was celebrated at the Dallas town hall, in case you´re losing your memory...Besides, the only time we married here at the ranch, everything worsened from that day on...Jenna carrying your child, the loss of Ewing Oil, my accident...
Bob kept quiet as if remembering something or somebody he hadn´t thought about for a long time...
- You still think of him, don´t you? – when she saw her husband´s fakely innocent look, she added: - Lucas, I mean...
Lucas was the son that Bob had had with late Jenna Wade, not long after that second Southfork wedding. He had been given in adoption, as his mother had stipulated in her last will, though that was against the wishes of his natural dad Bob as well as his adoptive dad Ray´s.
- From times to times. But Christopher and you are my real family. Who sometimes worries me is Charlie, she wasn´t too centered the last time I saw her...I wonder where she must be now...
- I hope James and Cally are alive and well, and especially far away from Michelle...
Bob silently devoted a few minutes to his son Lucas. Ray would soon be returning from Australia and might know how to contact Lucas´s adoptive parents...
The next morning, John Ross and Barbara went to ride at the East Southfork lands...John Ross´s horse seemed to be putting resistance to the pace of his rider and Barbara realized that...They kept on riding fast until Barbara checked out the hurt left side of his second cousin´s horse. She asked John Ross to stop by and so he did.
- My God darling...Look what you´ve done him with your spurs... – the horse´s side was bleeding, to John Ross´s surprise.
- I didn´t think I was pushing so tight...He seemed to be out of control and going through the wrong way...
- John Ross, my mama´s daddy used to say that the horse always is right...not the rider.
The young man sat down on the ground after leaving his horse´s reins tied up to a nearby fence. He looked angry and sweaty...
- Your dad surely bought you this horse about fifteen years ago, when still riding a pony, and made the best wrestler of Texas train him for you. He´s a thoroughbred and a winner...just like you.
John Ross smiled and said: “My pony was easier to ride...”
- But the problem is not horses, right?
- No it´s not – John Ross´s look was lost into Southfork´s horizon. – It´s our first field: we should´ve found crude by now and there´s no signs of it yet...and now James disappears.
- My dear second cousin John Ross Ewing III – Barbara joked while surrounded his back with her arm – Beginnings never are easy to anyone. You gotta try, you gotta make a mistake and you gotta start over. It´s like this with everything: you have to feel pleasure with whatever you do: drilling a field, riding your favorite horse or trying to seduce a girl. That process is a part of the pleasure, not just a way to it. If your dad didn´t have your horse trained, today he´d have kicked you off in your ass...and you´d have gone out flying...
Both of them laughed out loudly...
- I think I caught the message, auntie Barb.
- And don´t worry about your brother James. Something´s telling me that he´s much better than us...
- I wanna ask you one thing: remember the videotape J.R. you gave me not long ago?
- Sure. How was it? Did you watch it already?
- No, I felt a sort of panic every time I took it out of the box. But I think it´s time to watch it now...
Pamela arrived at the Turtle Creek manor where she had an appointment with Sue Ellen for lunch. She had begged her to come and help her with an urgent issue...
- You don´t look good Pam – she sincerely remarked as they sat down at the table.
- Yes, I´m not feeling alright lately, I don´t know if it´s due to what happened yesterday or just the wedding´s stress...So what´s that urgent issue? I´m intrigued about it...
- Compared with yesterday´s tragedy, it´s nothing. But it´s about my business. Specifically a small publishing company I acquired a couple of years ago. We edited a country-wide women´s magazine that had an amazing welcome. Its editor Deborah is about to birth a child and asked me off for one year. The truth is that I don´t rely on anyone else for the job, I´ve got too many investments to control and thought about you: since you worked in fashions for so long and then in business with Cliff, you´d be the right person to replace her.
- Oh... – a surprised Pam smiled – I´m really flattered Sue Ellen. Since we came back from Toronto I haven´t been working but now I was thinking about something here in Dallas.
- I must warn you Pam: it´s not an easy job: it takes a lot of travelling several times per year around Europe, following the most reknowned fashion showings. Besides I´d like to change the focus and fit it better to 21st Century. You´re totally free to make changes and hire a new staff.
- Sounds interesting...but, why don´t you run it yourself since the publishing company is placed here in Dallas?
- My first priority is helping John Ross at Ewing Oil, even if I have to sell all my companies out. Hope I won´t but failure is out of his plans...and mine. James will be very useful, he´s got a lot of energy and they are very close. What´s more he started in oil business with master J.R. Ewing.
Pamela laughed as she got the irony in this Sue Ellen that almost had nothing to do with the one she met 22 years before, at the old Southfork Ranch.
- I´ll give you an answer tomorrow. I´d like to comment it with Bobby and...with my couch too.
- That´s what I expected to hear...Think about all that we could do with a new focus: there´s a lot of women out there who still think that men like J.R. are what they call “a good chance”...
Both women laughed out loudly again as they began to eat...
In his room in the same house, John Ross was ready to watch the video her aunt Barbara had given to him. He put the tape into the VTR and pushed the “play” button. The label on the tape side had called his attention. In the bottom of the box he found a note signed by his dad.
“Dear son – said the note – It´s time for you to watch closely this videotape. As you can see, its title is “The J.R. Ewing Story”. At the end of the movie, you´ll see the name of the person and only responsible for it, credited as “executive producer”. I want you to study it and get your own conclusions. What kind of person could ever do anything so cruel to your daddy? The answer is at the end of the movie.”
John Ross saw the first images with some cowboys driving cattle and made himself comfortable in his bed...
(Fade out)
Tonight, Episode 7 of the show, and Season Premiere of the season: "My Best Enemy´s Wedding" (Part 3: Funeral March)
Gary and Bill were waiting in the street, still dressed in their wedding tuxedoes, but they had put their ties and jackets off. When the corpse was being moved into the ambulance, Bill walked down the corner and began to vomit. He was James´s best friend and personal mechanic, and the experience was turning out traumatic to him. A wedding had been planned but somebody had been murdered instead. Gary looked up inside the house, looking for his younger brother Bobby. As he could not see him, tried to get into the place again.
- We´ve already told you to keep away, never mind you are a Ewing. It´s not a family reunion... – said one of the policemen rather abruptly. Bobby heard his brother´s complaints and joined them outside.
- Take it easy, nobody else is needed in there – he said quietly. Gary stared at him and asked him what he had longed to know for half an hour impatiently. From the moment they arrived at James Beaumont´s apartment in Dallas - What´d happened in there? Who´s been murdered?
Bob looked him back sadly.
- James´s mother, Vanessa. Somebody killed her.
Meanwhile, in the gardens around the Southfork House, the guests were beginning to get nervous. Pamela and Valene were just trying to calm them down, until Bob finally called and gave them the answer to their questions.
- Honey, I need your help. A tragedy happened: James´s mother is dead. His apartament is upside-down, as if destroyed by crazy people...and nobody knows where James and Cally are.
- Oh mine Bobby... – Pam said, keeping her emotions inside - I´ll tell the guests that the wedding is post-poned and they´ll be informed about it.
- Pamela: tomorrow it will be on the papers. You´d better tell our friends what happened, you and family. We´ll be right back. Love you.
- Me too... – he hang up and Pam looked around. At Sue Ellen, Valene and, a bit further, the boys. Sue Ellen walked on to her and put her hands onto Pam´s shoulders.
- Please Pam...tell us what happened – Sue Ellen begged her impatiently. They all looked at each other and John Ross asked:
- My brother, isn´t it? Something´s wrong with him...
- No John Ross. The police found Vanessa dead in James´s apartment…and he and Cally gone...
Outside the house, Madeleine, Clayton and Lucy were chatting ignoring what had happened.
- What an odd thing! I would ever be late for my wedding in a scene like this! – Madeleine assured.
- Darling, probably something happened with the limo and Bob and the boys are driving them here.
- It seems that the Southfork weddings´ jinx still lives...Just hope it isn´t anything irreparable, as Cally being stuck at the aisle or somewhatever...
- I don´t see you glad about this marriage, maybe you´d like to take the bride´s place? – Madeleine maliciously remarked.
- Gotta believe me: I could be married with someone better and more mature than James. Besides he´s half my cousin...I´d never sleep with a guy of my own family... – Lucy said, sure of one thing: nobody around knew her former passionate relationship with Ray Krebbs in the past...
- Here come the girls, and for the way they look, I´d say there´s bad news... – Clayton noticed as he stood up.
Half an hour later all the guests were gone except Alan Beam, who found Lucy in the living-room, alone.
- Hello Lucy – he kindly said.
- Oh hi – she answered, with her third gin tonic in her hand. – Why are you still here?
- I just wanted to set up a meeting with your father for tomorrow and we couldn´t talk yet. Sorry what happened...though I didn´t know the lady.
- Thanks – Lucy said coldly, as she finished her drink up. – You can bet she was a real lady...
- You too Lucy. You have become an attractive, independent, mature lady. And a good mother for your son Peter.
- Why every time we talk my son´s gotta be mentioned? You tell me and end this now...
- All right. But not now, it´s not the best moment. – Alan looked away at the room´s door and expressed what he was thinking. – You do know I am your son´s father.
After that, Alan left the room and looked for Gary. Suddenly came in a shocked Valene.
- Lucy...is that true? Is Alan Beam your son´s father?
Lucy just couldn´t hear anything. She was curled up in the couch and whispered senseless words. The combination of champagne and gin had worked out...
At her Turtle Creek home in Dallas, Sue Ellen and John Ross were making themselves comfortable. The young man was obviously worried about his older brother missing after his mother´s death: she had stood by James all the way.
- Do you wanna talk about it honey? – Sue Ellen asked as she put her elegant black high-heeled shoes off.
- No why should I. Sure James and Cally are okay, getting married in a tacky chappel in Vegas. – John Ross tried to play the hard guy, though actually he was afraid about his brother´s life...and because they had become apart since his engagement was announced. Remorse, panic and the obligation to look strong, all these things were turning his logical worries into an unreachable coldness. – Don´t worry any more.
- I always wanted to meet Vanessa Beaumont, even before to know she existed - John Ross´s look obliged her to continue – All those years married to your dad, I had the feeling that there had been one woman, the woman, who´d ultimately made him the man he always was. A heartbreak in J.R. Ewing´s life, unbelievable but true: our relationship had been worsening but not because of me, because he´d already decided nobody would ever break his heart again...
- Why are you telling me all this mother? – Sue Ellen twinked: so far her son had been calling her “mum”.
- Let´s not look for guilty ones. We left him make us the way we are. Just the way he wanted us to be. But you rebelled against him and that sank your marriage. I understand now but I did not then. Dad was like a God to me. Remember the first time he took me to an oil rig, in a village called Pride, still married with Cally... – John Ross´s voice sounded lower and lower, until it silenced. He only added: Night mum. Once alone, Sue Ellen smiled and closed her eyes... J.R. always ended up being the talk subject when something was wrong. Some way or another, it always was her, her son and J.R.
Back at Southfork, Bob gathered all the family except John Ross. On one side were Clayton, Madeleine, Lucy and Barbara. On the other Gary, Valene, Pam and Christopher. Bobby was standing up explaining his talk with the detective of the Dallas Police Department...
- I´ll let out the nasty details, so this is what happened in James´s house, upon the police. The first thing I knew was that Vanessa fell to death, surely as tried to skip a shot. She instantly died. The person responsible hasn´t been identified by her clues yet but everything seems to accuse Michelle Stevens, though it can be hard to believe.
- That whore who stalked James years ago? – Lucy rudely said, still on her hangover.
Bob looked at Pam and Val, who were missing those years – Michelle was not a whore, but my wife April´s sister. She was a very ambitious passionate girl who didn´t overcome his sister´s death and killed the woman responsible for it. She was in love with James and eventually sentenced to several years of prison for her crime.
- Do you mean that Michelle was out of jail and none of us knew it? – Christopher asked.
- Yes. At that time Pam and I were up in Toronto and the rest of you were trying hard to start over here at Southfork. A few months ago Michelle was mistaken for dead when a woman who looked alike her was picked up on the street, on drugs: a completely hopeless case. This woman had James and Michelle´s marriage license and a photo of James´s on...Then the police thought the case was easy: a homeless woman dies overdosed in a no way out street. But that was not Michelle. Michelle is still alive...
(Fade out)
The Southfork living-room was deadly quiet. Suddenly Barbara began to feel curious about it:
- Do you mean she faked her death to accomplish some sort of revenge?
- That´s the police´s opinion: before going to jail, James visited her and, don´t know what he told her, but she promised to revenge and kill him someday.
- And what a better day for her than his wedding to another woman... – Bob nodded.
- Anyway I think James outta have suspected something. He´d talked with the detective who was at charge of the case and knew that the dead girl was not Michelle at all. They also found out through a prison informant that both women had planned to murder him when out... – Valene put her hand over her stomach – Sorry Val. If you wanna go out of the room, please do. I don´t wanna see you still more upset – Madeleine, Valene and Pam went to the kitchen to get something hot to drink.
Bobby resumed his story:
- But something went wrong since their relationship turned out to be closer than it seemed to. They used to defend each other in prison...but once out, something went different and Michelle injected a lethal overdose to the other girl, whose name allegedly was Sheree. She made her drink huge amounts of alcohol and also gave her synthetic drugs: that was her last drop... – Bob breathed in and continued - As I was saying, I think James outta be suspecting something since the ad published in the Dallas press specified that James was going to be driven in the limo and not Cally. Obviously they made last minute´s changes...
- Are you hinting that they might have got married elsewhere and be enjoying their honeymoon after all, ignoring everything?
- Clayton, that´s what the police thinks. In fact that´s what they even suggested him to...
Clayton put his right hand on his eyes as Lucy tried to transmit him that she was on her side in spite of everything...and still loved him.
- There´s something I don´t get from all this mess. As you told us, the apartament was really upside-down, as if someone had gone crazy, right?
- Yeah – Bob assured – they even torn apart some of Cally´s paintings hung around.
- Therefore, what stopped somebody crazy from kidnap two people who maybe saw her to committ a murder, and then kill and get rid of them?
Bob shook his head as he was thinking it was time to join his wife and rest after such a moving day...or at least try to.
A quarter an hour after that, Bob was coming just out of the shower and drying out his body and proceeding to get into bed. A sad-looking Pam was cleaning her make-up off...
- Maybe Lucy was right all those years... – she said.
- About what?
- About the Southfork weddings´ curse...It seems that all the couples married here get somehow jinxed...
- Nonsense, just watch us.
- Should I remind you that our last wedding was celebrated at the Dallas town hall, in case you´re losing your memory...Besides, the only time we married here at the ranch, everything worsened from that day on...Jenna carrying your child, the loss of Ewing Oil, my accident...
Bob kept quiet as if remembering something or somebody he hadn´t thought about for a long time...
- You still think of him, don´t you? – when she saw her husband´s fakely innocent look, she added: - Lucas, I mean...
Lucas was the son that Bob had had with late Jenna Wade, not long after that second Southfork wedding. He had been given in adoption, as his mother had stipulated in her last will, though that was against the wishes of his natural dad Bob as well as his adoptive dad Ray´s.
- From times to times. But Christopher and you are my real family. Who sometimes worries me is Charlie, she wasn´t too centered the last time I saw her...I wonder where she must be now...
- I hope James and Cally are alive and well, and especially far away from Michelle...
Bob silently devoted a few minutes to his son Lucas. Ray would soon be returning from Australia and might know how to contact Lucas´s adoptive parents...
The next morning, John Ross and Barbara went to ride at the East Southfork lands...John Ross´s horse seemed to be putting resistance to the pace of his rider and Barbara realized that...They kept on riding fast until Barbara checked out the hurt left side of his second cousin´s horse. She asked John Ross to stop by and so he did.
- My God darling...Look what you´ve done him with your spurs... – the horse´s side was bleeding, to John Ross´s surprise.
- I didn´t think I was pushing so tight...He seemed to be out of control and going through the wrong way...
- John Ross, my mama´s daddy used to say that the horse always is right...not the rider.
The young man sat down on the ground after leaving his horse´s reins tied up to a nearby fence. He looked angry and sweaty...
- Your dad surely bought you this horse about fifteen years ago, when still riding a pony, and made the best wrestler of Texas train him for you. He´s a thoroughbred and a winner...just like you.
John Ross smiled and said: “My pony was easier to ride...”
- But the problem is not horses, right?
- No it´s not – John Ross´s look was lost into Southfork´s horizon. – It´s our first field: we should´ve found crude by now and there´s no signs of it yet...and now James disappears.
- My dear second cousin John Ross Ewing III – Barbara joked while surrounded his back with her arm – Beginnings never are easy to anyone. You gotta try, you gotta make a mistake and you gotta start over. It´s like this with everything: you have to feel pleasure with whatever you do: drilling a field, riding your favorite horse or trying to seduce a girl. That process is a part of the pleasure, not just a way to it. If your dad didn´t have your horse trained, today he´d have kicked you off in your ass...and you´d have gone out flying...
Both of them laughed out loudly...
- I think I caught the message, auntie Barb.
- And don´t worry about your brother James. Something´s telling me that he´s much better than us...
- I wanna ask you one thing: remember the videotape J.R. you gave me not long ago?
- Sure. How was it? Did you watch it already?
- No, I felt a sort of panic every time I took it out of the box. But I think it´s time to watch it now...
Pamela arrived at the Turtle Creek manor where she had an appointment with Sue Ellen for lunch. She had begged her to come and help her with an urgent issue...
- You don´t look good Pam – she sincerely remarked as they sat down at the table.
- Yes, I´m not feeling alright lately, I don´t know if it´s due to what happened yesterday or just the wedding´s stress...So what´s that urgent issue? I´m intrigued about it...
- Compared with yesterday´s tragedy, it´s nothing. But it´s about my business. Specifically a small publishing company I acquired a couple of years ago. We edited a country-wide women´s magazine that had an amazing welcome. Its editor Deborah is about to birth a child and asked me off for one year. The truth is that I don´t rely on anyone else for the job, I´ve got too many investments to control and thought about you: since you worked in fashions for so long and then in business with Cliff, you´d be the right person to replace her.
- Oh... – a surprised Pam smiled – I´m really flattered Sue Ellen. Since we came back from Toronto I haven´t been working but now I was thinking about something here in Dallas.
- I must warn you Pam: it´s not an easy job: it takes a lot of travelling several times per year around Europe, following the most reknowned fashion showings. Besides I´d like to change the focus and fit it better to 21st Century. You´re totally free to make changes and hire a new staff.
- Sounds interesting...but, why don´t you run it yourself since the publishing company is placed here in Dallas?
- My first priority is helping John Ross at Ewing Oil, even if I have to sell all my companies out. Hope I won´t but failure is out of his plans...and mine. James will be very useful, he´s got a lot of energy and they are very close. What´s more he started in oil business with master J.R. Ewing.
Pamela laughed as she got the irony in this Sue Ellen that almost had nothing to do with the one she met 22 years before, at the old Southfork Ranch.
- I´ll give you an answer tomorrow. I´d like to comment it with Bobby and...with my couch too.
- That´s what I expected to hear...Think about all that we could do with a new focus: there´s a lot of women out there who still think that men like J.R. are what they call “a good chance”...
Both women laughed out loudly again as they began to eat...
In his room in the same house, John Ross was ready to watch the video her aunt Barbara had given to him. He put the tape into the VTR and pushed the “play” button. The label on the tape side had called his attention. In the bottom of the box he found a note signed by his dad.
“Dear son – said the note – It´s time for you to watch closely this videotape. As you can see, its title is “The J.R. Ewing Story”. At the end of the movie, you´ll see the name of the person and only responsible for it, credited as “executive producer”. I want you to study it and get your own conclusions. What kind of person could ever do anything so cruel to your daddy? The answer is at the end of the movie.”
John Ross saw the first images with some cowboys driving cattle and made himself comfortable in his bed...
(Fade out)
