The official Rolls Royce with the Kenyan emblem of State on the doors was parked in front of Betty Chimpo Simba’s Leoparde Drive residence.  A meeting was being held indoors.  Shane had finally agreed to visit and speak with Betty about the children and their official separation.  He stood with a drink in the middle of the library. 

 

“I never want to keep my children from their mother, Betty.  You should already know that about me.  In the divorce agreement, I will give you joint custody of Solly, Tarek and Jalil.”

 

Betty’s heart took a tumble toward her feet causing her to drop into a nearby chair. 

 

“Divorce?  Divorce?” she cried.  “I thought this was to just be a separation, Shane.”

 

“Betty, it’s time this charade was over.  We, as a married couple, are just not working out.”

 

“Oh no, Shane,” she cried, covering her face with her hands. 

 

“Betty, I’m sorry but it’s just over.  Decide which properties you want and I will be generous with the alimony and of course take care of all our children’s expenses.  But we are no more.”

 

He leaned over her, giving a kiss to the top of her head, before making his way out.  She heard the door close and then his car engine start.  His words had held a finality that was unbearable.  She gave a loud scream and Babs, running to attend her employer, found Betty on the floor in front of the chair, sobbing helplessly.  She got her to the bedroom and called The Exotic Animal Clinic.  Dr. Ted Tigeres came and administered a sedative which finally quieted the agonized Betty.     

---

            I, along with press secretary, Amy Chui, fielded a press conference on the lawn of the State House.  There I announced President Shane Simba’s impending divorce from First Lady, Betty Chimpo Simba.  The questions flew hot and heavy.  I had to admit that Amy, for all her blond fluff, was an excellent replacement for Caroline Cheetah Simba.  Amy was cool, collected and very much with the ticket as she handled the voracious media hounds.

            We sat back and awaited the reaction, but it was obvious that Kenyan citizens, both animal and human, take turbulent sex and  

capricious conjugal lives for granted in male lions.  As with former President Ralph Lyon, they paid no real heed to his interspecies dalliances and subsequent marriages and they would continue that trend with Shane Simba.  All that mattered to Kenyans was the fact that Shane was an excellent leader and was pulling our country into the 21^st century and among nations that make a difference.  Added to this was the fact that Betty had failed to endear herself as first lady.  Unlike Mildred Lyon, she had few official projects of interest to the Kenyans and failed to carry out those that were of use.  She had dabbled in tasks where the citizens of Kenya were in need of real commitment in the things she attempted. 

            The announcement of his coming divorce from Betty made an initial splash and sunk, without further flap, beneath the surface. 

             Jane Leoparde had sent a reporter from the Masai Mara Daily to cover the press conference at the State House.  Hearing the content, she sat back in her office and wondered why Shane hadn’t contacted her before he held a press conference announcing his pending divorce from Betty.  As a couple, they seemed to be nonexistent these days.  He had not shared with her the problems of his life in ages nor phoned any longer.  The cell phone he had given her lay silent in her purse or desk top.  She had seen little of him and had turned to her husband, Luke, who was saddened by Staci Simba’s defection to Juma Mnyama.  They had returned to sleeping in one room and bed.  As a result, Jane was pregnant with Luke’s litter.  She was not displeased with this condition and decided to turn her full attentions to her husband. 

             Betty placed an emergency call to me when it came out in Animal Enquirer that Shane was seeing his old flame Johanna Delacroix.  The paparazzi had stationed themselves in a tree outside of Johanna’s walled home and caught the President entering her house. 

“Please beg Lachlan to take my case again,” she wept.  “Cate Leoparde can’t deal with this problem.”

Lachlan did take pity and called Betty for a session in his office at the mental health center.  She sat before him, lighting one cigarette from another, her tear stain faced in a rictus of despair. 

“What can I do about this, Lachlan?  I cannot live without Shane Simba,” she moaned.

“Betty, you made a bad mistake in not taking your children with you when you left but even in the face of that fact, I think you and Shane were on shaky ground anyway.  You lived without him before and you can do it again.”

“Noooo, Lachlan, I simply cannot.”

“You will probably have to this time, Betty.  I’ll take your case again.  I am prescribing, only temporarily, tranquilizers and sleeping medication.  I will have Babs come for the pills and guard them carefully should you get any ridiculous notions of suicide.”

“He is back with that Johanna monster,” she wailed. 

“That’s irrelevant now, Betty.  You need to look to the future – not the past with Shane Simba.”

Shane and Johanna in Mombasa for the benefit....

            Shane, once more highly infatuated with Johanna Delacroix, took her to a major fundraiser in Mombasa.  It was to benefit the historical restoration and existing Moorish architecture in the old section of the city.  Glenda Gorilla, freed from concern about her friend Jane’s involvement, freelanced an article under an assumed name for the Animal Enquirer, exposing the underbelly of the Shane Simba/Johanna Delacroix/ Betty Simba triangle. 

             Staci Simba was supportive of her father in all of this brouhaha.  She had seen Betty neglecting her siblings and she remembered how wonderful her father was in the case of her pregnancy.  Her loyalties were completely with him in the matter of the divorce.  She remembered when, as a very young cub, her mother had cried over a woman named Johanna, but if that was what her dad wanted now, it was okay with Staci.  After all he was her beloved father and wonderful to his children.  They all owed him allegiance. 

            Shane called Jane on a bright and beautiful morning.  He was on his cell phone and asked her if she could come meet him under the fever tree on his pride territory.  It was a Sunday and Luke wasn’t coming in till later that evening from a day safari.  She drove toward their old trysting spot.  He was standing, casually dressed in khakis and a linen shirt, smoking a cigarette under the tree.  She left the car and made her way toward him. 

“Janie, I don’t know what to say to you.  I have been remiss in not telling you of all this before you heard it from other sources.”

“Yes, you have, Shane.  I would have thought we had more than that together, for you not to tell me a long time ago about what was going on in your life.  You just dropped out of mine.”

It was not said in anger but in lucid and unemotional terms.  Nevertheless, if one looked in the lioness’s amber eyes, great hurt could be seen there. 

“How have you and the cubs been faring?”

“We’re fine.  When you sort of fell by the wayside, I went back to Luke’s bed.  We are now expecting a litter together.”

“Well, that’s a shocker in its own right, Janie.  Not that I can blame you.  Are you happy about this?”

“Luke is a wonderful male.  I am lucky to have him in my life.  As for you, Shane, I have loved you like no other.”

“He dropped his cigarette, stubbing it out with his shoe and stepped forward to hold her in his arms.  She didn’t resist.

“Janie, I don’t ever want to lose you in my life.  You have meant more to me than anyone else I have ever known.”

“I suppose for now we have no choice but I will always remain your friend.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me about Joanna?” he asked, releasing her. 

“No, Shane.  I don’t want to know about her.  It would be too awful right now.”

She stumbled to her car, tears blinding her temporarily.  She started the engine and swiftly drove off.  He stood for a bit and then slumped, sitting under the tree.  He wept so that the Masai guards became alarmed and ran toward him. 

             Jane had taken the cubs for an afternoon walk, and managing to pull herself together, was in the kitchen when Luke merrily entered the house, home from his safari flight.  His sons by Simone were in the kitchen also, exclaiming over the stew Jane was stirring for supper.  She ran out to greet her husband.  When they were having drinks on the veranda facing the watering hole where elephants were gathering for an evening drink and bath, she told Luke of her meeting with Shane Simba.  Luke’s sons had gone out for the evening and Catherine and Andrew were in bed. 

“I guess you and I should just plan to be together then Janie.  I can’t say I don’t like that idea.  I think we make a very good couple, don’t you?”

“You know, Luke, I do too.  As much as I love Shane and know that you love Staci, I also think we can be very happy together.”

“We will be just fine, my girl,” said Luke, getting up to bring them another beer from the Teak cooler. 

             Ashley Lyon, out of concern for his ex-wife and mother of his oldest offspring, went to pay Betty a call at her home on Leoparde Drive.  They had remained firm and supportive friends.  He found Betty sitting in a miserable heap on the couch in her television room.  It was evening and she was watching the newscast which showed a fleeting glimpse of Shane and Johanna entering the benefit dinner in Mombasa.  He flipped off the television and sat beside Betty. 

“Betts, it doesn’t do you any good to see things about Shane’s new squeeze any more than it does me to dwell on Leely and her guy.  Anyway, I fucked that Johanna quite a while back.  She is an empty headed bitch and he’ll probably break off with her again soon.”

“Get yourself a drink, Ash, and talk to me,” said Betty, wearily. 

They spoke for a bit, mainly concerning their miseries.  Then as many divorced couples who have remained friends and are unhappy in their current existence, they attempted a renewal of their sex life.  Moreover, as in most cases, it failed miserably, leaving them both frustrated and even more depressed.  Ashley saw Betty to sleep, dispensing the sleeping pill handed him by Babs and quietly left the house.  He repaired to Luke and Jane’s home where he was welcomed with open arms by a couple who seemed on top of the world. 

             When Ralph Lyon arrived at his house after having paid calls on several of his other lionesses, he found Mildred sitting with their granddaughter, Imani Lyon.  Mildred was tearful, and continually dabbing her cheeks with a hankie.   

“Ralph, Imani tells me that our Ash has taken to the bottle again.  This is so distressing,” moaned Mildred. 

“You don’t say,” intoned Ralph, casting a jaundiced eye at Imani who sat primly on the sofa looking very sanctimonious. 

“Yes, Grandpa Lyon.  I am trying to maintain a household for him,” said Imani, adjusting her skirt over her knees. 

“How special of you, Imani,” said Ralph, only slightly regretting the sarcasm in his voice. 

After conversing further with her grandmother and extracting fifty guineas for ‘looking after your daddy so wonderfully’, Imani made her way out the door. 

“She seems so concerned,” said Mildred after Imani’s departure. 

“I think it is more priggish ‘see me do good works’ than genuine concern,” answered Ralph.  

             Arlon Lyon spent the remaining weeks of his school break at his mother’s house.  He was growing into a fine young lion and felt the need to be as close as possible to his troubled mom. 

“Mom, the mansion called and said the cubs want to see you,” he dutifully reported to the bedridden Betty. 

“I can’t see them now, Arlon.  They remind me too much of Shane.”

Arlon Lyon.....