Maurice & Friends

The hotel in Ghana.....

Shane Simba was asked to come to Ghana and meet with the president and his ministers on matters of animal conservation and rights. He asked Sloane to go with him as he was the justice minister and was needed. Shane booked a hotel rather than stay with the Ghana president and his family. The two drank heavily on Simba Two as they weren’t due to meet with the ministry of Ghana until the following day. Sloane was still depressed over Caroline, having failed to get in touch with her for days. She didn’t answer her cell phone or apartment phone and was still away from work. Wilda Wildebeest was filling in for Caroline as State House anchor.

. Sloane and Shane made their way to the hotel bar after checking into their suites. The Masai guards stood discreetly to the side so as not to hover over their charge. The half brothers had more Scotch, rendering them even tipsier. Sloane spoke of his fight with Caroline, telling Shane of what he had said about the no-spotted offspring. Shane was rather appalled.

"My God, if I had said that to Cathy, she would have killed me in my sleep. That was pretty harsh. If you love a cheetah you just go with the spots," laughed Shane. "My kids are both gorgeous, I think. The one with Caroline looks like a lion cub."

"Yeah they are, Shane. You think I owe Caroline an apology?"

"Hell yes, I do."

They felt a tap on their backs; they turned to find a very pretty girl just behind them.

"What handsome lions you are," she commented in an exotic accent. "I am from Persia where the lion is the symbol of my country."

They bought her a drink and she introduced herself. Gholeh was her name, meaning flower, she informed them. Shane and Sloane drank more themselves, adding to their collective alcoholic fog. The girl hung on both males, not partial to one over the other. They had given her false names. When Shane made to leave, she pulled him back with a slim hand embellished with long, sculpted ruby nails.

‘I’m both of yours if you want me," she breathed sexily.

"You mean you’re game to take on two male lions?" asked a surprised Sloane.

"Yes, I am."

Shane left first going to Sloane’s room, thoroughly confusing his guards. Sloane went next, accompanied by Gholeh, the Persian flower. The two brothers had more drinks in Sloane’s room before disrobing and giving the girl a painstaking and rousing sexual romp. Shane gave her two hundred dollars and left her to Sloane’s devices. He saluted his guards and went to his room where he dropped in the bed from exhaustion. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Shane and Sloane meet Gholeh at the hotel bar in Ghana.....

Betty tackled the roughed up feelings of Staci and her brother, Sean Simba. They had been at loggerheads the night of her dinner for Mavis and her aunt, Flo. Sean was becoming, as the son of the sitting president, arrogant and full of himself. Although younger than his sister, due to his inheritance from the lion portion of his DNA, he outweighed and was much stronger than his sister. With much talk and bargaining, Betty had convinced Staci and Sean that they loved each other though each was beginning to doubt that fact. The problems usually invading adolescent lives were taking their toll on Staci and her brother, Sean. They had clung together as youngsters having lost their mother at a young age. Their father had held them together, citing the need for unity as a family. Now with their dad much happier and with a new wife they both loved, the two had regained the balance they had lost at the death of Catherine Cheetah Simba. They were back at the game of adversarial posturing that their genders and ages dictated. The fact of their father’s presidency only heightened the crisis.

Caroline Cheetah returned to the State House and her job. She looked even thinner than usual but was also the same efficient anchor that she had always been. Sloane was absent her first day back at work. She helped me pull together an insignificant press conference covering some fripperies involving the Mara’s civic events and structure. The media had gotten wind of a slight feud involving the elected Maude Hyena and the appointed Carolyn Cape Buffalo. Catherine was very adept at helping me lay that piece of mischief to rest.

When the heavy drone of the propellers signaling the arrival of the presidential helicopter sounded across the grounds, Caroline ran for her tiny office. Betty was there to greet her returning husband from his trip to Ghana. Sloane also got off the copter and walked quickly toward the State House. Betty and Shane held each other for a good few minutes, before walking arm and arm to the mansion.

Sloane went immediately to Caroline’s office and stood before her desk. She didn’t look up but continued to write furiously with her gold pen.

"Caroline, I was dead wrong about the cubs and am so sorry. We can get married if you like."

"I got an abortion, Sloane. I don’t want to marry you ever. You are the most insulting animal I’ve ever known and that’s been a few."

She stood up, grabbing her purse and tried to move past him in the crowded and very minute space. He blocked her.

"Caroline, I love you and want to marry you. We’ll have more kids – spottier than ever. Please forgive what I said," he moaned.

"No, Sloane, I will never forget this," she said, and shoved past him and made her way out of the cramped office into open air and to her car. She could hardly see through the tears as she drove home.

Curtis Cheetah invited his sister, Caroline, to a small get together in his new condo. One of the invitees was his dear friend, Leland Leoparde. Jazz was playing on the speaker system as Caroline entered her brother’s home. A small but animated group of animals inhabited his sophisticated dwelling. She made her way to the kitchen where Curtis was making drinks for his friends. He introduced her to Cameron Caracal and Leland Leoparde. It was apparent in Leland’s emerald eyes that he was interested in the soignée Caroline. She proffered a cigarette for him to light and they took drinks to Curtis’ balcony where there was a modicum of privacy.

Sloane spent his first evening home having a light dinner in his abode and an early bed. He tried to call Caroline all the next day which was a Saturday. She didn’t answer. Caroline was busy with Leland Leoparde. She had spent the night with him and had invited him to spend the day with her at her Lyon Towers apartment. Leland and Caroline, along with Shane, Jr. and his nanny, flew in Leland’s small plane to Mombasa where they joined Luke Leoparde at his home there. Caroline unwound in the warm sun on the beach. They partook of Leland’s favorite gin and tonics and kicked back. They had the house to themselves, Luke being on a deep sea fishing jaunt with Ashley and Leah Lyon. Caroline’s son played in the sand. Leland seemed to enjoy him, digging holes with him and building a sand castle.

Leland and Caroline on the beach in Mombasa.....

That same weekend, Leland contacted Monica Cougar (Carson’s wife) and asked to see homes in the area. Caroline went with Leland and saw some breathtaking beach quarters offered by Jackal Realty. On the following Monday, Leland signed a contract on Shane’s Simba’s second beach home he had bought after Catherine’s death.

Betty and Shane took their family and went for the first time to the new house in Mombasa that Shane had bought for Betty’s birthday. Shane went wind surfing with Staci, Sean, Joshua and Jason. His Masai guards stood on the beach watching their charge, worrying about what would happen if he got knocked unconscious in the water. None of them could swim. Betty relaxed on the deck.

Betty enjoys the new house in Mombasa....

One evening Sloane Simba, grieving over his ruptured relationship with Caroline Cheetah, met up with Cameron Caracal in the Watering Hole Pub. He had a heated session with her in his car in the parking lot. The next evening he called Chloe Cougar, wincing at his remembrances of her vapidity. She welcomed him into her home, hearth and bosom. He enjoyed the carnality but rejected the emotional aspects. He realized he envied Shane for his firm family support. He would indulge in day dreams of Caroline during his hours in the bush house.

The first debutante ball occurred on an evening splendiferous with a blazing and long lasting sunset. The setting was the main ballroom in our very state of the art civic center. It resulted in Staci Simba being queen. The evening was lovely. Lachlan made sure he didn’t work late. We attended with Bertram Baboon and Gloria Chimpo. Bertram whispered to me as Roy Lee walked out escorting his daughter, Lee.

"Doesn’t he look magnificent, Maury?" he asked.

I pressed his hand with mine aware of how long he had quietly harbored a deep love for the lion superstar who was his business partner. Shane Simba looked marvelous as he escorted Staci to her throne. Ashley Lyon had ditched his shabby chic for a Versace tux and looked like a million bucks as he escorted daughter, Imani. The evening culminated in an intimate soiree of a few close friends at Shane and Betty’s bush home. Ashley, Leah, Sloane, Bertram, Lachlan, Roy Lee and Janice and I were among those included. Dorian and Cynthia Cheetah came for a brief time, their being the maternal grandparent’s of tonight’s queen – Staci Simba. The State House mansion’s lower floor had been turned over to the young that had been the stars of that evening.

above: Roy Lee Simba with daughter, Lee. Below: Staci Simba, the night's debutante queen of the ball...

When Lachlan had his next session with Shane Simba, the president neglected to tell him of his transgression in Ghana with the Persian hooker. It had meant nothing to him. He had been drunk and fell into the situation was his thinking. Betty had told him of Frank Tigeres option. She could leave in tact the uterus donated by Gloria if she and Shane wanted more children together. He had hugged her tightly and told her it was her choice as long as it wasn’t a threat to her health and life. He would comply with another pregnancy as long as she was fit and able. However, Lachlan was a trained psychiatrist with added talent and an almost uncanny ability to read beneath the hidden layers of his patient’s psyches. Patients seemed to be, to Lachlan, books where he could easily read between the lines. He sensed something that Shane had neglected to relay to him. Since he didn’t seem changed in attitude, Lachlan made a small notation on paper and left if for other times in case Shane should become anxious once more.

On a Sunday evening when he and his wife had an altercation that seemed to melt the last remnants of their dreadfully scorched marriage, Alexander Simba took his clothes and moved in with his brother, Sidney, in his trailer at the Simba Garden Center. That Monday, he resigned from Simba Brothers causing a major upset in that law firm. Sam Simba, already laden with a failing marriage, work overload and burgeoning love affair, was at his wits’ end. Sidney was a little taken aback that his brother had done this thing. His garden center was under the auspices of the Simba Pride Corporation who owned it and paid his salary. He didn’t know how the pride would take to this defection from their prized law firm. It was left up to his mother and Alexander’s, Leander Simba, to take the problem to the nephew she had always thought of as another son – Shane Simba.

Shane Simba invited his aunt for tea in his office and heard her tale of woe about Alexander and his love for gardening and ultimate desertion of the law that he didn’t really take to.

"Aunt Leander, you have too more sons in law school, they should be finished by now. I suppose they need to come home and hop to it," advised Shane. "And tell Steven to leave Lyon & Associates and come back to Simba Brothers. We will cut him a better deal than before. The corporation will pay Alexander to work with Sidney but it won’t be the salary of a lawyer by any means. Sid and Alex will be paid according to the profits they bring in. I know this seems autocratic, Auntie, but the pride has to go on in its current strength. Everything must be about the pride for now. It's the future for us and our offspring."

Roy Lee, the pride member that everyone adored with no exceptions, was once again given the task of informing Steven Simba that he must return to Simba Brothers with a better offer. Since his wife, who was at great odds with him, had returned to Simba Brothers, Steve was hesitant. Roy Lee couldn’t afford the diffidence. As Shane had stated, the pride was the core of the matter. Steven returned to Simba Brothers and was given a greater salary than before and made a manager, just under Sam’s level. That same day, the pregnant Dina Myers Simba returned to Lyon & Associates and was welcomed back. Curtis Cheetah and Leland Leoparde were made co-managers of the firm with a promise of partnership. The following week, the disgruntled Cameron Caracal, formed a club called Females for Equality. Many females, aware of the male chauvinism that still existed in the Mara, joined by the droves.