Maurice & Friends

The commuter plane from Nairobi brought an early morning group to the Masai Mara. It was a very early flight with the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. No one recognized the passenger that slunk off and hailed a taxi. She was disguised in a scarf and dark glasses, despite the darkness. The taxi bearing Chloe Cougar Mountain Lion pulled up to her parent’s home on Leoparde Drive not too far from where her ex-husband, Roy Lee Simba, still slept with his wife, Janice Jaguar Simba, in his arms. At the insistent ringing of the doorbell, her mother, Sylvia Cougar, became slightly alarmed. Sylvia donned a robe and met the door herself. There she saw her daughter.

“Chloe, darling, are you all right? I thought you were happily ensconced in Montana now. Where is Charles?”

Questions followed Chloe to the kitchen where she proceeded to make coffee.

“Okay, Mom, now to answer you,” she laughed, lighting a cigarette with a cup of steaming coffee at her side. “Charles and I fight all the time. I miss Roy Lee. I know I can’t have him back but at least I want my career. He said it was still there for the taking. I also want Shane Simba’s penthouse apartment in Lyon Towers.”

“Chloe, slow down; Shane Simba’s penthouse is rented to Simone Serval – has been for sometime. You can get another apartment there. I think the other penthouse is available. Don’t you want to ask about your children, Chloe?”

“I talked to Lee from Montana. She seems fine. Troy never talks much on the phone. I know they’re okay and the same holds for Tarek and Lucretia, Mom, so don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

Bernard Cougar was coming down the stairs and heard this piece of impertinence. He knew that his least favorite child was home. Shit would hit the fan again. It always did when Chloe was around. Roy Lee Simba had been her ballast. Now she no longer had him. It wasn’t that Bernard didn’t love Chloe. He loved all his children. Let’s just say that father and daughter were akin to oil and water. He had learned to bow out and let his sanguine wife deal with her.

After a long sleep to assuage her jet lag, Chloe dressed and went to the studio. She put on her sexiest outfit, pushed the atomizer on Chanel #5 perfume and examined herself in the full length mirror of her childhood room. She was pleased with what she saw. She went to the studio. There was much bustling around there. Stella Simba Lyon was filming with Micah Mbube. Simone Serval was bartering for her next role. Simone was in the office with Roy Lee and Bertram. Chloe rushed in, placing continental kisses on all but Simone. After some initial chit chat, Chloe got to the point which is her way.

“Simone is there any chance of your vacating Shane’s penthouse? I want it,” purred Chloe.

Roy Lee groaned inwardly. He could barely dissimulate to himself and those around him, how very unhappy he was at her homecoming.

“No, Chloe, I am very contented there. I am engaged to Chris Simba and he will be moving in with me when we marry.”

“Oh, how wonderful,” said Chloe, suppressing a snarl. “I wish you two all the best.”

Bertram, a bit on edge with Chloe and Roy Lee in the same room, eased out. Simone followed for the same reason.

“Chloe, don’t get all bellicose on me. This studio doesn’t need that nor do I.”

“Roy, I need a film role.”

“You walked off leaving the Paradine Case unmade. I will confer with Bertram and Gloria and see what we can do for you. In the meantime, why don’t you go to Christine at the arts center and see if she will let you do a play? You are a big name. Simone has just come off a big hit there.”

“Are you trying to dump me, Roy?” growled Chloe.

“Don’t even go there, Chlo.”

Chloe was sleek and honed from skiing. She pushed her comely abdomen to the bar at the Watering Hole Pub and ordered vodka on the rocks. Sloane Simba happened to be there. Being something of a film buff, Sloane had admired his half-brother’s superstar wife. There was a band of such importance and gut feeling that one could not help but move their feet when in the vicinity. Chloe threw her slims arms over her head and proceeded to undulate to the music. Sloane’s golden eyes narrowed. This was primordial stuff. He felt a boner coming on. Chloe noticed the sexy lion male giving her the eye. Her deep green eyes nailed his. She began to do her bizarre dance with him in mind. He left the bar and gently pushed her toward the dance floor. There the tribal grinds continued. They waxed and waned in distance from each other. At moments their closeness was such that each could gaze into the startling eyes of the other. Three hours passed with the twosome totally engaged in what could only be deemed a fertility dance. Each seemed to announce their fecundity in the wildness of the dance. By the time they left for Sloane’s home on the Mombasa Road, they were wet and ready. They hit his bed running. Neither came up for air until the sun was casting warm rays across the floor.

Sloane and Chloe at the bar in the Watering Hole Pub.....

For Caroline Cheetah, exasperation was the norm. She gave her son a bottle between bouts of trying to raise Sloane Simba on every phone available to him. She slammed down her own phone two hours later. He was out of contact. She was in a bitchy mood and had to attend one of those aggravating Sunday lunches at her parent’s. Dorian and Cynthia were in a good mood. Staci and Sean Simba were in attendance as well as Micah, Christine, her kids and Clint and Chelsea Cougar. Her parents and siblings oohed and aaahed over small Shane, Jr. She thought the morning would never end until she could go home and find the whereabouts of Sloane.

Caitlin Cougar was having a lazy morning of tending her daughter between bouts of nausea. The feeding and routine she was accustomed to – the nausea presented a puzzle. She spoke with Steven who was doing Sunday morning things about his condo. He was to bring steaks later. She was vaguely expecting Sloane to come for Georgy. He was a no show.

This was a Sunday morning that seemed to be occurring in the ballpark of the gods of whimsy. While Sloane and Chloe were trying to get their breaths and assess their situation and Caroline was phoning endlessly; Caitlin was puttering around her home with nausea on her agenda; Betty Simba was assessing the needs of her husband’s suits for dry cleaning. Betty reached in the pocket of a suit that Shane had worn his last trip to California and Las Vegas. There she extracted a note. It was handwritten and asked that the writer be admitted to Shane’s room. She looked closely. She made out the name Cheri. She felt her blood rush through her body at terrible speed. She felt faint and took the note to their bed where she sat and scrutinized further. Shane was at the sporting club playing tennis with Staci and Lewis Lyon. He wouldn’t be back until late afternoon. She felt shaky and tearful. She took two of the valium prescribed by Lachlan Lion. She lay on the bed and eventually drifted in and out of tortured dream filled sleep. She was awakened by one of the maids. She noticed that the room was darkening with imminent evening. She had slept for a very long time.

“President Simba asks for you,” said a maid.

“Tell him I’ll be down shortly, Fatima,” she instructed. The girl left the room.

Betty fell into another stretch of fitful sleep. She awoke suddenly with Shane standing over her. He snapped on the bedside lamp.

“Fifi, are you sick?”

“No, just tired. Did you have a nice game?”

Suddenly, the pent up anguish of the day exploded in sobs. Betty’s slight frame heaved and she put her hands over her face. Shane sat down.

“Betty, what’s wrong?”

She handed him the note. He looked at it for a few seconds, honestly forgetting the incident. Then he remembered the girl in Las Vegas.

“Did you have sex with someone during your last trip to California, Shane?”

“No, Betty. I did not. This is a note thrown at me by a showgirl in Vegas. I put it in my pocket. I never had sex with her, I swear on my mother’s life.”

“I find that hard to believe,” she wept.

“Betty, you can ask my Masai guard who stood outside my hotel door all night. You can ask Maurice. I swear I didn’t screw her.”

“Why is this so difficult for me to believe?” she said, rolling to her side and away from him.

“You don’t because; I have a rather sordid past when it comes to those things, Betty. But I think you might be more inclined to believe me if you know that I hate every minute I’m not with you. I never felt that way about Catherine. But with you, I want you with me all the time. I never tire of you. I can never fuck around anymore with the feelings I have for you, Betty.”

She rolled over to face him.

“Shane, do you mean that?”

“With all my heart, Fifi.”

With Shane Simba, whose fires were not always banked when it came to other females, it was a matter of loving his wife and never wanting to hurt her. This kept him faithful. With Ashley Lyon, it was another matter entirely. He never even looked at other females anymore, despite his history of overt and repetitive adulterous behavior. Leah Simba Lyon, who could dirt bike, surf board, windsail and pilot a plane, was all her husband wanted. It helped matters that she was beautiful, sexy, charming, and assertive - the most popular animal in the Mara. She also ran her house hold like a well tuned top. Leah Lyon was her own little power house and her husband adored her.

Ashley and Leah share a moment at home......

Sloane Simba woke to find Chloe Cougar stomping around his kitchen looking for a coffee maker. He took it from the cabinet and did the honors. She lit a cigarette, putting a lighter to his as well.

“I think I may have hooked up with the wrong Simba in the past,” she purred. “You are some hot papa.”

“Glad you enjoyed it. You are pretty sexy yourself.”

“When can we see each other again?”

“I don’t know. Where are you living?”

“With my parents at the moment but I need a new place. I don’t get along with my dad. He totally disapproves of me.”

She flicked her ashes and looked around his kitchen.

“I’m sure you’ll find something.”

“I want Shane’s place in Lyon Towers but that damn Simone Serval rents it.”

“She’s been there since he bought it. She probably has no intention of leaving. It’s a great flat.”

“How do you know?”

Chloe’s emerald green eyes were glued on Sloane.

“I have done the same thing to Simone that I did to you last night.”

“Oh, a playboy, right?”

“You might say that.”

“You were married to my cousin, Caitlin.”

“Yes, we have a new daughter. In fact, I’ve got to dress and take her out today. I put her in a carrier and take her to Starbucks on Sundays.”

“She drinks coffee?” leered Chloe.

“No, but I do.”

“I’d love to see you again.”

“Write your number. I’ll call you soon.”

Sloane made his painful way to Caitlin’s and picked up his daughter. He had a terrific headache. When he arrived at the Watering Hole Pub’s deck, he spotted Caroline Cheetah with her son.

“Where the hell have you been, Sloane? I tried to call you all day. “

“I got tied up last night,” he mumbled, adjusting Georgy so she could lick her ice cream cone.

“You ran into a dominatrix or what?”

“No, Caroline, I met an old friend at the pub and ended up drinking with them the whole night. I have a bloody awful hangover today.”

“Well never mind the fact that I rented that stupid Georgy Girl movie yesterday. I ended up having to watch it myself. It was terrible. Georgy was fat, redheaded and ugly.”

“I’m sorry about missing the film. If you still have it, maybe we can watch tonight.”

“Was your friend male or female? I’m referring to the one who ‘tied you up’.”

“A guy, Caroline.”

“Sure, and I’m buying the Taj Mahal tomorrow,” she snarled.

Caitlin sat before Dr. Sylly Cougar Lyon. She had made the appointment expecting the doctor to find a stomach ulcer. Instead it was something very different. Caitlin Cougar was pregnant again. Her emotions fluttered between happiness, dismay and shock.

“I thought I couldn’t get pregnant if I still nursed my cub,” she protested.

“There are exceptions to every rule, Caitlin. Not to be nosy but is Sloane the father of this one too?”

“No, his brother is.”

“Okaaaaay, then, do we want to keep it or what are your plans?”

“I adore children and I love Steven Simba. Yes, I do want to keep it.”

Sylly prescribed the usual prenatal vitamins and gave Caitlin another appointment. Later over coffee in the doctor’s break room, she spoke with Dr. Frank Tigeres.

“Those damn Simba males are at it again. Caitlin Cougar is pregnant by her ex-husband’s brother.”

“Oooph!” was Frank’s only response.