Episode 12: “THE STEPFATHER”



ALSO STARRING:


JARED MARTIN
as
DUSTY FARLOW


MOLLY HAGAN
as
CARRIE FARLOW


SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY:


JESSICA LANGE
as
BARBARA BAXTER




Silence could be cut off when Bob began to talk. Ray kissed Donna, Cally held James even stronger, Barbara, Lucy and Val were watching the couple and Sue Ellen and Pam finally stood up, unable to wait any longer. Both women had felt a bad foresight...
Bob hang up. With tears in his eyes, he informed the family...
“It was Dusty, calling from Southern Cross...He has been reported from Switzerland, that Clayton has had a skiing accident...He had a fatal heart attack...He´s dead.”
Everyone there was speechless. Finally Pam asked:
- But who was on the phone Bobby? What happened, exactly?
- It was...Madeleine´s personal secretary, calling from Zurich. Yesterday it seems she had to leave Clayton alone in a ski resort and he was found unconscious...He died of a heart attack...

Sue Ellen stepped forward and looked at Bobby, then at Pam with complicity, and then back at Bobby.
- Oh my God, I can´t believe it...
- I´m gonna bring Gary – said Valene, suggesting Beth with a gesture to accompany her, but she gave her an excuse.
- He said that he´d call again in about an hour to concrete the details...
Ray and Donna came closer to Bobby and, very interested, asked to him:
- Is there anything we can do to help ya Bob?
He looked outside as the children were playing by the pool, and answered:
- No, I think you´d better go home with Maggie, and you Lucy should go get Peter...I promise you I´ll keep you all informed...



Barbara held Lucy´s arm and said:
- Yeah, I´m goin´ with you. Come on babe...
Lucy was mute, without knowing what to say or what to do...

Meanwhile, Gary was walking towards the stables, looking for his son...
- Bobby! Are you there? – he cried. He kept on walking through the main entrance. He heard a neigh and turned on the left. He called out his son again and then he changed of direction.
- Father? – it sounded like the young man´s voice.
- Yep! Where the hell are you?
- I´m here! – he said – I´ve come to see if my horse was feeling better, you know that the vet was here yesterday and took a look at his wound...
- Ah yeah, course... – Gary stared at his son and then looked at the horse... – But that is not your horse...
Bobby smiled and started to laugh. – I know father. It´s Asfaloth, Maggie´s horse. When I was leaving, she has beginning to neigh...she must have been jealous of my horse, and just thought that she could calm down if I brushed her back carefully...
Gary smiled at his son and held his arm.
- Barbara wanted to talk to us of something important, let´s go to the main house...
- All right...What a barbecue ah?
- Yes indeed...Our little Knots Landing barbecues weren´t so agitated as the Southfork ones, were they?
Father and son walked away as, at the upper ground of the stable house, Will Monahan was silently watching them. Will breathed out relieved and took his hat off to dry the sweat on his forehead with his scarf. He got quite a surprise when he checked his hat and realized that, inadvertently, he had exchanged his cowboy hat with Bobby...now wearing his hat...

Lucy and Barbara were sitting at the table by the pool, while watching over Peter, Ellie and Jimmy.
- Tell me we weren´t too late to stop it Barb...- whispered Lucy.
- We were not. Whatever happened to Clayton is not our fault. But let me tell you something: if that Madeleine has had anything to do with his death, we´re gonna make her pay...
Lucy shaked her head as she remembered another barbecue, celebrated twenty years before...
- I´ve got a strange feeling of “déjà vu”...
- Whatcha mean?
- I met Clayton at one Southfork barbecue, about twenty years ago...It was made to welcome back my grampa Jock, but he did´t...return. We were told by phone that he had disappeared in South America...
Barbara stood up and embraced Lucy, who started to cry...
- Honey, let yourself go...Cry as much as you like... – The children suddenly shut up to see Lucy cry.
- No, I must not cry...Peter needs me now – Barbara looked surprised when Lucy took her child and got into the house.
At that moment, came Bobby and Gary, who got shocked when saw a crying Lucy walk inside with Peter, ignoring both of them. Gary noticed Barbara and she walked onto them, looking serious...



That evening, Bob phoned John Ross at his mother´s in Dallas. He was worried about Christopher, who had vanished during the barbecue.
- O.k. John Ross. But promise me that you´ll call me as soon as you hear of him, right?
Bob hang up and turned around to Pam, who had just put her night gown.
- Any news from Chris? – Bob denied with his head – This is very odd. He wouldn´t let us worry about him like this...Something must´ve happened to him.
- I´m sure there´s a reasonable explanation for all this...What I just can´t understand is...that about Clayton...He had had two heart crisis and I didn´t even know that he could ski. Nor did Sue Ellen neither, and she lived at his ranch for a long time.
- Are you hinting anything about Madeleine?
- No, I´m not – he said as he put his shirt off. – Maybe Clayton didn´t dare to talk to her about his health condition...he could be a very proud man sometimes...
- I can´t believe he´s dead, it´s so nightmarish... – Pam hold onto Bob as she felt a chill. – I remember the first time I saw him, he was inside his limo with Dusty. They and Sue Ellen had gone to pick up John Ross at the motel where O had taken him...
- Yeah, bad times for us – Bob realized that Pam had never spoken of those times until then: that was the time she almost lost her sanity because of her breakdown...
- ...I saw him when they were leaving and he waved me through the car window, I just could read in his lips “thank you”...
Bob kept on holding Pam, while he remembered another moment he had shared with Clayton, more recently...


Eight years ago, at the former Southfork Ranch, Bob came home from town after finishing some legal business. His mother Ellie had been deceased for two weeks and they were still mourning for her loss. Bob had been watching how Clayton was getting isolated from the other members of the family, including the children, and he had been thinking over that matter.



- Hello Clayton – said Bob as he walked onto him. The old man smiled, and said hello to him too. –I gotta talk to you...
The two men sat down by the pool. It was windy but the sun was not down yet.
- Clayton, I´ve got an offer for you...I´ve been talking with Ray and Gary about it and they agree with me. I want you to be co-owner of the ranch and Southfork to be split between all the family, including your son Dusty.
Clayton looked surprised. He looked away at the horizon, searching for a familiar face he would never see again...
- Bobby, you own Southfork yourself, your mother wished so. Remember when I came back to change the deed just by your mother´s will?
- Of course I do, and also what J.R.´s feeling like before he died. He told me that he had lost everything, including his home. I don´t want any of my brothers to have ever that feeling. Nor you too. I wanna share the Southworth land with you, Gary and Ray, with Lucy and also with Dusty. You´re family, and our kids represent our family´s future.
- Does it...has to do with them or just with the fact of me thinking of leaving the ranch for awhile?
- We don´t wanna keep you here against your will – Bob smiled sympathetically. – Besides, that would be a kidnap, and we´d end up in jail...! – Clayton laughed out: though he was almost fifty, Bobby still kept his side most tender and childish. He would be missing that naïvety if he´d leave the ranch...
- That´s relieved me... – Clayton openly smiled – Then he looked away again while he confessed: - Even if I were at the other half of the world, I´d never forget this place, or you all...especially your mother... – The old man remembered for an instant the two women he had loved: his first wife Amy and untamed Miss Ellie Southworth... – You´ll have me around for a lot of time, Bobby James Ewing...
Bobby smiled as he clapped his arm...

Back to the present, the youngest of the Ewing brothers felt the same way than his wife, unable to believe that he would never see the man who was his stepfather for many years...

(fade out)



The next morning, Dusty and his wife Carrie arrived at Southfork on the Farlows´ limo. Bob, Pam and Barbara welcomed them very warmly.
Once they made comfortable themselves at the house where the Farlows used to stay, the couple reunited with the others. On the way to the main house, Dusty and Carrie began to argue.
- Please don´t make trouble and don´t mention the divorce, at least by now...- he said.
- For your information, my mother already knows – Carrie smoothed her hair down, without looking up to her husband, visibly offended.
- Thankfully you think of everything, darling. It´s the last thing we need now: more bad news...If you really respected my dad, please keep your mouth shut up...
Carrie stopped, furious, but then accompanied her husband until the house. They entered the living-room and joined Bob, Pam and Barbara, who was staring at them. They put them a drink and began to speak of the arrangements to bring Clayton´s body.
- I really appreciate you took care of everything, Bob. It means a lot to me.
- You still belong to this family and care about you, Dusty – he answered. Deeply in his mind, Bob was thinking that he still belonged to his family, yes, although he had given away his share of the ranch to Clayton, a few years before. – Stay here as long as you like.
Barbara, holding a glass of ice tea in her hand, kept watching her daughter Carrie. At the end, she felt bothered and caught her mother´s intentions: she wanted her to let them alone, the four of them...but Carrie did not intend to let that happen.
- Sweetheart – said Barbara to her daughter – why don´t you ask Teresa help you to do unpack your things?
- Unpacking can wait mother – she answered. Pam noticed that something strange was going on between the two women...Suddenly she thought she knew what and said to Carrie:
- Why don´t you come with me to the kitchen and have a cup of coffee?
- Thanks, Pamela, but caffeine makes me nervous...besides, we´re tired and will leave soon...- Pam nodded and sat down at one of the sofas.
- There´s something I wanted to tell you Bob... – Dusty hesitated... – It´s about Madeleine. As you know, she and Clayton called on us a few months ago. They had been some days here and my dad felt like introducing his new wife to us.
Barbara payed all her attention on what she was listening to...
- The truth is...that woman was inspecting around the ranch with my dad and making plans to re-construct it. On a given moment, I bluntly told her that nobody was gonna make any changes in Southern Cross: it had been my idea to get it back and I had invested on it all my time since I quit the rodeo circuit...
- What did she answer? – anxiously asked Barbara.
- She started an argument with his dad...- intervened Carrie, to surprise of Bob´s and Pam´s – they eventually left that same day, instead of staying for one week, as planned.
Bob watched Dusty´s complexion, which suddenly looked somber...What ever happened between father and son?


At that moment, inside one of the next mansions, Gary and Val were resting on their bed looking sad.
- Are you o.k. Gary? – she asked.
- Yeah. I just...I feel as if I´d been missing from here during my whole life...and I guess I have.
- You say it because you hardly knew Clayton?
- Yes, my mother´s second husband...These last years, since she died, we hardly talked either, everyone was in a different place, just like if mama had not existed...
- How can you say that?

Meanwhile Lucy and Will were talking on the phone about the same subject:
- Say what?
- That you let Clayton down. You are raising a child alone and established as a business woman...
- Will, you don´t get it. Clayton didn´t walk in one day saying that he had married my grandmother, as did Madeleine...
- So, is it about Madeleine?
- Yes and no. Clayton helped all of us much before he married my grandma. He was a friend for Sue Ellen, a granddaddy for the kids, a protector for my grandma. But I never knew exactly what kind of relationship I had with him. We had some trouble...
- Let go the trouble from the past. You have enough reasons to go ahead and remember him with love.
- Yeah, I know, but I feel so selfish...

- You selfish, Gary? – answered Val as she got out of the bed and sat down by her husband.
- Yep...when mama married him, I was glad for her: I was sure that Clayton wouldn´t be as wild as my dad used to be. Bobby had talked to me about Clayton and I felt o.k. about it. But we never came on to see him until J.R. died...
- And you didn´t meet him in person until then...
- Yeah, and mama was already sick.
- What´s really wrong with you Gary?

- Nothing honey – Lucy answered to the identical question from his friend Will – I guess I´m like always. But I wanna more: I wanna give financial stability to my son and enjoy my family´s company, get to know my parents better, and especially my brother and sister. I hardly know what they´re like...
Will smiled, as he looked at a picture of Bobby´s he had given to him.
- They´re grown-up, though your parents can´t see them that way...
- Hum, I´m sure they don´t. My mama still calls them “sweetie”, “honey” and things like that...Bobby gets pissed off and Betsy pulls my mother´s leg shamelessly ...
- I can´t remember my dad. But I do remember Cliff´s and Pam´s, uncle Digger. He was always kicking up a row at some bar at the outskirts...
- Yeah, poor old Digger...I met him too. I hope that Clayton didn´t suffer...

Back to the Ewing Ranch, Bobby and Betsy were switching off the television before to go to bed. They had been chatting too.
- Do you think the old man suffered...?
- No. But our dear sister Lucy and her partner in crime Barbara seem to know something we don´t know – said Betsy suspiciously.
- Don´t start with your conspiracy theories, sis...It´s too late to listen stories...
- If this were a daytime soap, Madeleine would´ve poisoned Clayton and he´d had a fatal accident...
And probably, Madeleine would have stood up watching him die arm-crossed, right? You´re unique, Betsy: you´ve watched too many Bette Davis´ goldies...

- I got that old feeling again... – said Gary at that moment, upstairs – The feeling that I´m doing something I don´t really care about.
- You mean the Westfork Industries? – asked Val.
- Yep. That obsession about making a big business, Jock Ewing style, or J.R.-like, is consuming me. I don´t wanna devote more and more time to the company, but you three.
- I love that idea, if you are...absolutely sure. – Val caressed his husband´s grayish hair. – Why don´t we go on a vacation all together? So you could get disconnected, change of scene and have a good time with us...What about a cruise on the Nile, for example?
Gary smiled from ear to ear.
- You know something: I think it´s a great idea... – He stood up, took her in his arms and put her tenderly on her side of the bed, as he kissed her with passion. – We´ll get the tickets tomorrow...

Meanwhile, at the town of Dallas, Sue Ellen was resting in her bedroom. John Ross knocked on her door.
- Mama? – he said, showing his head. – Are you alright?
- Come in darling. – The woman sat up and reached for his son´s arm. He responded by holding her hand in his own hands.
- Are you thinking of Clayton?
- Yeah – she passed her right hand on her cheeks. She had been crying but didn´t care for her son to know. – You don´t know but, the first time I divorced your father, he and Dusty helped me to bring you back to me...
- Do you mean...they kidnapped me?
The woman smiled, at his son´s naivety. – No, not actually. I asked Pam to take you away from Southfork, since your dad had forbidden me to trespass... – Sue Ellen´s mind returned to 1981, to the red and white Ranch of the Farlows, Southern Cross...

J.R. was arriving by car along with the sheriff of San Remo.
- I want you to bring me my son to take him away from here. – J.R. said.
- I´m sorry, but you can´t take him away – answered Clayton, as he blocked the entrance to the house...
- What do you mean with that? If you don´t give him to me right now, I´ll make the sheriff arrest you and your son Steve Farlow for kidnap.
At that moment, Dusty, walking with crutches, got closer to the group from the house inside...
- Are you still looking to make trouble Mr. Ewing?
- I can handle this... – Clayton calmed his son.
- You're that rodeo rider, made a pass at my wife? – said J.R. sarcastically. Dusty nodded – I don´t care, I want my son...
- Not this time J.R. – said Sue Ellen as she came out of the main house. – This time John Ross stays with me. I'm suing you for divorce...

Back to present, John Ross embraced his mother while he said to her:
- Don´t you worry: we´re still together and now, I´ll be the one who will fight to give you strength...
Sue Ellen felt proud of her son and held him still tighter...


(fade out)

Click here to continue