Maurice & Friends

Shane was back in the office and gaining strength. He walked in one morning and asked his secretary to call the travel agent.

“I need to take Betty on a trip. I’ve given her grief recently,” he told me when the doting baboon had left our presence.

I suppose I raised my brow and he, who misses nothing, caught it and laughed.

“Maurice, you seemed to react to that. Did I see a brow rise?”

I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t know Shane all that well really, but I couldn’t resist.

“It just puts me in mind of Ralph Lyon’s music boxes,” I giggled.

“His music boxes?”

“Yes, every time he would mess up up a bit, he would present Mildred with a music box which he would have me choose and purchase.”

Shane threw his head back and roared with unabashed laughter.

“And I do trips, eh, Maurice?” queried Shane with a sheepish expression.

“Yes, and I would suppose a good trip is better than a music box. I know Mildred got very tired of receiving them.”

“Maurice, you should write your own very personal history of the Kenya of today.”

President Shane Simba in his office.....

Two sudden and unannounced marriages occurred in the Mara. One was Sidney Simba who married Cary Caracal in a sodden ceremony. Seldom has there ever been such a glaring example of the halt leading the blind than those two stoned and troubled animals. The next was much more controversial and created a bit of history. Steven Simba, shut out of any real role in the life of his son with Caitlin Cougar, married Dina Myers. Now Dina, if you recall, had made her own variety of history by shagging President Shane Simba. Now she scored again by being the first woman to marry a male lion in Kenya. Lion males had dallied with humans ever since Ralph Lyon (before his presidency) stuck his nose up the dresses of the comely tourists that came to the Mara. He followed that act, after his presidency, by dallying with the bathing beauties on the Rio beaches. The Simba males carried the tradition on to epic proportions. Now there was a real marriage. It bounced some balls off the walls which reverberated in several arenas. Steven Simba, who was the new head of Lyon & Associates law firm, wanted his wife to join his firm. Dina Myers Simba, who had been with Simba Brothers, left there and joined her new husband; Cameron Caracal, in a fit of pique over losing Steven to Dina, resigned from Lyon & Associates and went to Simba Brothers. The biggest explosion, however, rested within the bosom of the Simba pride. Tookie Simba had a low profile marriage to her human yacht captain and was pregnant. In addition, her mother Sarah Lee Simba barely spoke to her. However, a male lion marrying a human female seemed more disquieting to the general populace. Steven is Leander’s son and not as prey to fatuous ideas from his mother. Leander has a slightly more urbane aspect to her than her sister, Sarah Lee. This could be due to the martinis she imbibes all day. I may have confused polish with tipsy. Those in that condition are usually more easily dealt with. The least effected by it seemed to be Shane who had recently had a blazing affair with the girl. This simply bears out what Lachlan says about him. If Betty will ride out these episodes, his sexual attention span is short. He’ll return to hearth and home. One affected was Sloane, who with his heady ambitions, believes in keeping one’s sex life low profile, non productive and out of the headlines.

Dina and Steven on their wedding day...

Betty was not enthusiastic about a trip abroad. In her mind, she and her husband would be making enough of those officially. When Shane asked her where she preferred to vacation as her choice of place she told him it was their newly built bush home that held her heart. She seemed amazed that Shane didn’t seem to give a damn that his recent squeeze, who he had seemed willing to risk everything for, had married his half-brother. She went with him to Nairobi for a major speech. They went from the airport to the parliament building in an open convertible. The crowds lined the streets and cheered the couple.

Betty continued to see Lachlan in his office. She was working with him on funding a new wing of the Mental Health Center for AIDS and HIV patients. She would get counseling while in the guise of this project.

“Shane doesn’t seem to give a shit that Dina married, Lachlan,” she told him during the course of that session.

“Betty, his attention span is miniscule when it comes to his sexual liaisons. I have said this to you. Just hang in there. He always comes home. In fact he doesn’t even leave it. He gets enchanted, fucks her and loses interest. If you can live with that, then you can live with him.”

“I think you may be right, Lachlan.”

Dr. Lachlan Lion, director of the Mental Health Center.....

Shane also continued his sessions with the psychiatrist. Lachlan would openly come to Shane’s office on his lunch break. Shane would have a lunch tray of fine food for the lion shrink when he arrived. Lachlan was just tucking into his bread pudding, almost to the culinary finish line.

“I’d like to hypnotize you, Shane. Do you have any objections?”

“Just make sure you snap me out of it if there’s a national emergency,” he laughed.

Lachlan proceeded to put Shane in a state of hypnosis. He went through the routine questions that one does professionally to make sure the subject is under. He took him deep into his life as a small cub. At one point in Shane’s recollection or reliving of an incident, he began to cry. It was a particularly telling situation where his mother had scolded him by shaking him in her mouth. His father had then approached and mauled him. Lachlan was shocked at the brutality exhibited by Shane’s late father. He brought Shane out of his trance and didn’t remind him of the incident which probably wouldn’t be remembered out of hypnosis. However, he did make a mental note to himself that much of Shane’s acting out was part and parcel of a decided lack of love from his parents. He had alluded to being a favorite of his Aunt Leander. He seemed to have been close to her in his youth, retreating to her side at times when his mother scolded him. He had even suckled his aunt who was nursing a litter at the same time. Lachlan left that particular session with a better bead on his subject.

Two females were shocked and horrified at Steven Simba’s marriage to Dina Myers. One was Cameron Caracal who had played games with him, not realizing that she had loved him. The other was Caitlin Cougar, the mother of his only cub. Both females had played games and lost their boy. On top of her sadness at losing Steven, Cameron was dealing with a new job at Simba Brothers. The dynamics had changed in that law firm with the leaving of Sloane and the re-emergence of Sam Simba as the head. Sam seemed to have accepted Tawny Tigeres as his right paw in court. They worked cases well together. Tawny charmed Judge Bo Bonobo easily and efficiently. Bo Bonobo was an ongoing patient of her father, Dr. Frank Tigeres. Cameron was edgy. The one Simba brother who could be counted on for guidance in her first weeks there was Alexander. The two quickly became lovers. The unhappy husband of Lucy Cougar Simba was ripe for the picking. Cameron no longer desired playing her feigned disinterest games. With Alexander, she was wide open and totally receptive.

Sidney Simba and his new bride, Cary Caracal, had been ejected from the Mental Health Center for bringing in drugs. They had married on their weekend furlough. Now, they were out on their collective asses, put in the street by Lachlan, who had quite enough of them. Taking up space in his domain was an abomination for Lachlan. There were so many that sought help and needed it to provide rooms for those for whom it was a joke. The couple made their sad way to the ramshackle trailer in the Simba pride territory where they had lived in slapdash style before. Leander Simba opened her slightly heavy lidded eyes of a morning and realized her son and his wife were back. Leander was suffering from a mild form of hangover and decided not to rock the boat and get her sister, Sarah Lee, on a roll.

Betty Simba made a critical sacrifice for her husband’s health. She gave up smoking so he would do the same. She began working out one morning a week with Gerald Giraffe. Their sessions were very early in the morning. Gerald, after multiple black coffees, finally woke up. Gerald was a devotee of the night life at Montecore’s Disco. He was a hard taskmaster, though, and Betty began to see results. Shane had never been the chain smoker his wife was. He gave it up too. With cigarettes out of the way, the doctors allowed two Scotches with water per night. Betty had little spare time as the wife of the sitting president of Kenya but she went to the tennis pro at the sporting club and asked for tennis lessons. She had decided to take a page from the book of Leah Simba Lyon. If you have a potentially playful husband, share in the things he loves most and you have a chance to tamp down his extra marital activities. Leah had tamed Ashley Lyon by literally sharing everything with him. The pro advised Betty that she was leaning the game at a late date. He didn’t reckon on the grit and determination of the made over chimpanzee female. Betty surprised him.

Betty takes tennis lessons....

Sloane Simba danced easily to the music blaring from speakers in the Watering Hole Pub. He hadn’t decided on who he was taking home that evening. He had several females he was interacting with. There was Tawny Tigeres, Chloe Cougar, and Alexander’s new squeeze, Cameron Caracal. Alexander had to leave, being a family guy and all that good stuff. Sloane had them on the dance floor, making sleek and sensuous moves toward each. He was having a great time of it. He was not too tipsy but pleasantly so. He knew his mane was rivaled by none other. He had washed it, blown it dry and sprayed it with Givenchy. He had on a totally posh outfit. He was aware of the fact that he was the coolest dude in the pub this evening. He noticed the female eyes follow him. He decided that he was so absolutely in the cat bird seat. Now, to pick his bed partner for the night. He gazed across the room with smoky eyes. His eyes lit on Amy Chui, the former leopardess secretary of the director at the arts center. She is now under contract to Baboon-Simba Studios but has never made a film nor are there any in the offing. He stopped dancing and went to the table that Amy shared with some female friends. He was about to ask her to dance when Tawny Tigeres stood between Amy and him. Tawny’s green eyes were filled, as usual, with merriment.

“”No way, big boy, are you dropping us like hot cakes and finding another partner,” she laughed. “You are mine for the night.”

Sloane was astounded at this bit of chutzpah. He was about to protest when Tawny leaned down and grabbed both legs. She slung Sloane across her shoulders and carried him from the pub. She opened the door of her Mercedes and shoved him inside. They drove to her bungalow in the Tigeres compound. Once in her bedroom, she removed his clothes and shoved him on the bed.

“I have some new tricks tonight, sweetie. I learned them from the Kama Sutra,” she purred loudly.

He started to protest but they petered out as he began to enjoy the machinations of Tawny’s new moves. They screwed for hours. The sun was coming through the curtains before they finally achieved the point of saturation. He was about to drift off to sleep when she leaped from the bed and brought back a pair of Speedos for him to don.

“What the hell are these for, Tawny?”

“The Tigeres clan always begins the day with a dip.”

“Oh no you don’t. I don’t actually like to get in any water but my shower,” he protested.

However, protestations were lost on the determined and statuesque tigress. She yanked him from the bed and handed him the bathing suit. Knowing that as long as he was on her turf, it was useless to protest, he put them on. He followed her down the path that led to an enclosed Olympic size pool. There were several tigers, young and old. already splashing there. She introduced Sloane to them, just before she pushed him in. Great giggles of glee ran through the cubs and they began to pounce on Sloane. They pummeled, pushed him underwater and generally attempted to see if they could drown him. All in good fun, mind you. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, they emerged from the pool. Sloane got dressed in her bungalow and Tawny drove him to the pub’s parking lot to get his car. He kicked several beer cans aside as he got in his car and headed out. He went straight for Caroline Cheetah’s flat in Lyon Towers. She opened the door to him.

“What the fuck hit you? You look like something – pardon the pun - that the cat drug in,” she giggled.

“Don’t even ask but if you must, Tawny Tigeres abducted me from the pub last night.”

Caroline sank on her sofa in gales of giggles.

“What’s so damn funny? She almost killed me.”

“I think it is hilarious that you have met your match size wise,” she said, lighting a cigarette.

“Aren’t you jealous, Caroline?”

"No!" she exclaimed, exhaling a stream smoke toward the ceiling.

“Why not?”

“I know better,” she laughed and went to her bedroom.

He followed her and shoved her on the bed.

“What if I want you to be?” he asked, removing her shirt.

“Tough shit.”

He made love to her four times before he was totally spent. He then fell asleep and didn’t wake until Sunday night.

Sloane Simba.......