Dallas, Texas
Pacing around his office, Bobby looked at his watch again and sighed, it had only been half an hour, but that was half an hour too long for him. He was frustrated by the secrecy surrounding the meeting that was happening in his father's office, because anything that involved two lawyers, his father and brother had to be important and he was jealous and annoyed that apparently he wasn't important enough to be invited to or even informed of the meeting. He was just as much a Ewing as his father or JR and although he wasn't the president or the vice president of Ewing Oil, he was still technically third in charge within the hierarchical management of the company, so when he wasn't included in important Ewing Oil business, he was confused and frankly, a little offended. His father had seemed interested in his proposal to expand their fuel exploration to include natural gas, but he'd also said that he couldn't commit to anything until he and JR discussed it, a comment Bobby found rather annoying; he wasn't stupid, he knew what he was doing and to him, it was a good idea, he didn't need JR's approval. He'd always known that he was his father's favourite son at home, but at the office, it was clear that JR had a little edge on him in category related to reliability and importance. He wasn't the naïve, inexperienced college graduate that he had been two years ago when he started working for Ewing Oil full time, he was more knowledgeable and experienced now and he believed that he deserved to have his ideas considered for what they were, not nodded at and passed on to JR for approval. The combination of being put in his place and excluded from a business meeting had him frustrated and annoyed today and he wasn't really sure what to do with himself right now. He had no real work to do in Dallas, his position involved him going out on the road to promote Ewing Oil, but he'd returned from his latest trip earlier in the week and hadn't been given any further instructions yet, so right now, he was alone in his office, just thinking, obsessing over the secret meeting down the hall.
Signing the papers and handing them to his father to sign, JR grinned to himself as he mentally calculated the potential amount of time before he owned fifty one percent of Ewing Oil. His father was sixty-three years of age, the social security retirement age was sixty-five and if anything his father had been saying over the last few years was true, he didn't plan on staying president forever. It wasn't as if his father needed the government provided retirement benefits, he was a millionaire in his own right, however, despite his enormous personal wealth, his pride would stand in the way of him taking an early retirement. JR knew his father considered it weak and silly for an able-bodied man to stop working just because he felt like it, but once he was considered eligible for retirement by a higher authority, it was ok to relax, at least a little bit. His father's beliefs regarding work were very close to his own, so he knew he wouldn't have a problem coming up with comments to encourage and further his decision; it was for his father's benefit and his own, because he wanted to see his father happy, but he also wanted Ewing Oil and he wanted it as soon as possible. Having both of their lawyers present was really only a formality, JR and Jock had already agreed on the terms and had both read and understood JR's new contract and the wording in Jock's will, however, the meeting was still no less significant in JR's life. His father may have always intended on passing Ewing Oil down to his eldest son, but it was guaranteed now, there would be no surprises in the, hopefully distant, future when his father did die and the control of the company was a legal matter; to know that it would be all his made JR very happy.
Signing the documents, Jock had mixed feelings; on one hand, he was pleased that JR was finally getting his life together and acting like a good husband and father, but on the other hand, it slightly annoyed him that the presidency and ownership of Ewing Oil had been the thing to push him into behaving that way. In some ways, he blamed himself for JR's thoughts and actions, because he had raised his eldest son to believe that life was a competition and to think of Ewing Oil first in all of his decisions, no matter what the collateral damage was. However, in doing that, he'd obviously neglected to teach him where to draw the line and stop with his destructive actions, because even though power and money were important and enjoyable, there was so much more to life than just those two things. JR could be the richest man in the world, but it wouldn't be much fun when he was retired and had no family to share his wealth or his life experiences with. The positive side of JR's change in attitude was the point in time where it had happened; luckily for him, he was still young and he was in an excellent life position, a much better position than a lot of men his age. He was thirty three years of age, he had a wife who adored him, a child on the way and he was completely financially stable; he had the power to use those things to his advantage and be a real man, a family man, but unfortunately, up until recently, he hadn't really understood how important or enjoyable that role was. Jock hoped that his change in attitude and behaviour was permanent though, because despite being hard on his eldest son, he always wanted him to succeed and that success included his personal happiness and the happiness of his wife and child. If giving his son the one thing he wanted was going to make him a better man, then it was worth it, because he'd seen the alternative and he didn't like it very much.
Eavesdropping on the conversation in the foyer, Bobby found himself jealous of the chumminess that his father and brother had with each other and their lawyers, he wanted to be included in things like that, but for some reason, he wasn't. "Thank you gentlemen", JR and Jock shook Harv and Brooks' hands and showed them out of the office to the elevator doors, JR grinning as the lawyers left to file the paperwork and Jock not far behind him in terms of how happy he was. In a way, everyone had gotten what they wanted, or so Jock thought; noticing Bobby in the doorway of his office as he walked back down the hall to his own office, Jock realised that there was a loser in the new order of things, his youngest son. Gary wasn't interested in Ewing Oil and he'd moved on from thinking that his middle son would ever change, but Bobby was a different story; he had never promised or led Bobby to believe that Ewing Oil would be his, but that didn't mean that Bobby didn't have a certain level of expectation about his place in the family business. In all the thoughts he'd had about JR's proposal, he hadn't even considered what would happen to his youngest son; Bobby was a capable young man, but JR was really the brains behind a lot of Ewing Oil's recent success and combined with his status as the eldest son, it only made sense to leave the company to him. Unfortunately, in not considering Bobby, he had possibly made the mistake of signing his dismissal papers; his sons weren't exactly best friends and JR could be ruthless at times and he knew that although it would probably start out ok, it probably wouldn't take long for JR to use his new power. Luckily for both Bobby and himself, he didn't plan on retiring and giving JR too much power just yet, so he still had a few years to figure out exactly how to deal with his oversight.
To be continued…