The woman grasped JR's hand and told him to close his eyes. Again, he managed a few seconds only before his impatience got the better of him. Opening his eyes, he was relieved to find that his surroundings were very familiar to him. "It's Christmas Eve" she informed him. "Look over there."

A good- looking hostess passed them and made her way over to a table in the far corner. "Can I get you anything else, Mr Ewing?" she asked. "A car perhaps?" JR gasped as he realised that the person whom she was speaking to was him, seated at the table, drinking on his own. He glanced at one of the banner decorations hanging over the bar which told him that it was Christmas 1980. Trying to orient himself properly, he stared at his companion. "I don't understand?" he asked. "Look at yourself" she told him.

Turning his head once more in the correct direction, he stared at himself, unnerved by the surrealness of the experience. "Let's get closer" the woman suggested. They moved across the restaurant without difficulty. It was almost as if they could pass through the bodies of the people standing in their way before they reached the table. He watched, wordlessly, as his alter ego downed the remnants of his glass and held it out for the hostess. "One for the road please, darlin?" he asked. "Yes sir, but I will call for a cab for you at the same time. You need your bed" the hostess responded politely. "I'm just fine" he answered, chuckling wryly. "It's Christmas. We could go on somewhere after you've finished your shift?" The woman sighed. "I'm flattered, Mr Ewing, of course, but I'm married, happily married" she replied diplomatically. "Can't blame a fella for trying" he joked. "Now, how's about that drink?"

The hostess took his glass from him and retreated, shaking her head in exasperation when she was out of sight. JR stared carefully at himself and noted that he appeared careworn and somewhat older than his true age at the time. "This is what Christmas looks like for you without Sue Ellen" his companion told him, reading his thoughts. "It seems rather lonely, doesn't it?" JR nodded sadly. "Your mama and daddy are becoming more and more frustrated by what they perceive to be your unwillingness to settle down." He glanced at her questioningly. "The truth is that you haven't come close to meeting anyone that you could ever envisage making a life with. Don't get me wrong, you've had plenty of relationships, well if you can call them that, but they never lead anywhere."

"I want to go now. I've seen enough of this nonsense" he told her. "Let's go somewhere else then?" the woman asked. "Where?" he demanded, annoyed that, thus far, things were not exactly going his way. Before giving an answer, she grabbed his hand tightly, the sensation of which compelled him to close his eyes without resistance. When he opened them again, they were standing in a residential street.

"This is the house where Sue Ellen and Clint live, with their children" the woman told him, pointing to a fairly large, detached house, one in a row of about six or seven, each in their own grounds. It wasn't Southfork but it was a nice house and the area had an air of gentility that smacked of success. "They moved here just a year ago after Clint gained a big promotion" she informed him, pointing then to the figure emerging from the front door.

It was her, Sue Ellen, he noted, although several years older than on her wedding day. Her hair was now worn shorter, bobbed to shoulder- length and curled at the ends and her clothing reflected her obvious status as a middle-class housewife, not the wife of a wealthy oilman. She remained markedly beautiful, despite her circumstances, he told himself.

She smiled widely and his heart palpitated, causing him to feel momentarily unsteady on his feet. His companion took his arm briefly. "Look" she commanded. Following her out of the house were two children, aged, he reckoned, between eight and ten years old. The boy was the older of the two, a tall, dark haired and handsome child whereas the girl was more delicately pretty, fair haired and like her father in appearance, he noted.

As the children came closer into view, JR's stomach lurched. At first sight, the little boy could, for all the world, have been an older John Ross. However, whilst he had many of their son's physical characteristics, he was not John Ross. "That's Clint junior" his companion told her. "He was a honeymoon baby, an unplanned surprise. Their little girl completed their family two years later." JR shook his head regretfully.

"Is she happy?" he asked sadly. "Enough" the woman told him flatly. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked. "She keeps the house and cares for the children, and he works. Clint tends to work most of the time. He's eager to succeed and is in the throes of planning to set up his own company."

"What kind of life is that for Sue Ellen?" "The traditional life that she knew she was marrying into. The early pregnancy was a bit of a shock, though, she'd had her sights set on a career, at least at the start…" JR harrumphed angrily. This wasn't the life that she was meant to have at all. She needed to be with him, at Southfork, not here.

He watched carefully as Sue Ellen bundled her children into the car. She looked up for a second and appeared to make eye contact with him. Instinctively he waved, struck by her beauty, as ever, but noting that her appearance was much less polished than usual. "She can't see you, JR" his mysterious friend commented. "If she could, she wouldn't recognise you, though."

"Did we ever get to meet, if only for a few seconds?" he asked. The woman shook her head. "No, you exchanged smiles at the end of the pageant, and you intended to approach her, but she was surrounded by photographers and interviewers and, in the end, you each went your separate ways." He sighed in frustration. "But that was the same in, in…." "Your alternate universe?" "Yes, if you want to call it that, I still managed to see her and speak to her though! That's how it all started."

"Perhaps you ought to reflect on the vagaries of the decisions you take then, JR? Split second decisions or changes of plan have the capacity to alter the course of so much in life. Just like things might have been different if you'd stayed at home with your wife this evening? Anyway, I have much more to show you yet. The night isn't anywhere nearly over. Take my hand."

Tbc