"Micah, I hardly see you anymore."

"I’m starting a new film, Betty. You know that is time consuming. There are fittings and script meetings."

"Yes. But still, I think you have another squeeze. Am I wrong, Micah?"

"I’m seeing Caroline Cheetah too. Does that upset you?"

"Yes. I thought we sort of had a rapprochement going on."

"Betty, you still prefer Shane Simba. If I did begin to feel deeply for you again, he would return to the Mara and I know you have every intention of going after him now that he is widowed. He only needs to return to the Mara for you to be snapping at his heels again."

"Shane would never look at me again, Micah. I hurt Catherine with my book and I know he would never forgive anything that had hurt her."

"Don’t be too sure. I have a feeling that you might click the next time around. That’s why I’m not sticking my neck or heart out again."

    Christine Cheetah had been thinking a great deal about Ashley Lyon since she and Betty had seen him in Tony’s Disco that night. Christine had been slightly enamored of the President’s son when she became his neighbor. Christine felt a greater pull to Shane Simba but didn’t figure to get any action out of him when he returned because of engineering a second literary assault on the Simba pride. Approaching Ashley was a problem because she had really gotten to know him when they spent so much time together during her marriage to Chris. In the social interaction between the two young couples,  Christine had become close to his wife. Leah Simba Lyon had become a great friend and supporter of Christine’s. Although she was Chris Simba’s niece, Leah had accosted her uncle over his atrocious attitude toward the very large litter Christine had borne.

    Christine went for a drink at the Watering Hole Pub one evening. Ashley Lyon happened to be there in a state of initial inebriation. He took note of his attractive neighbor.

"Chrissie, let me buy you a drink," he said, putting an aggressive paw on her rear.

Christine was ready and quite horny. She had engaged in more parenting than sex since her divorce from Chris Simba.

"Where is Leah?" inquired Christine, for good measure.

"She is making a film for her dad. Can you imagine? My Leely, who just loves to be a mother and tool around in the water with me?"

"She’s a beautiful female, Ash. It doesn’t surprise me."

Ashley pushed his body against Christine and pulled her to him. He stuck his tongue down her throat and afterwards led her out the door where they maneuvered to his Land Rover in the parking lot. They sped toward Ashley’s bungalow in his Mara safari club.

    The lights were low and no one present when he unlocked the door. He pulled Christine inside and began removing her clothes. She pushed him away.

"Hello?  No foreplay? I’d like to be treated less like a hooker, Ashley."

"Sorry, Christine," he said, going to the kitchen where he fixed them less than perfect drinks. They returned to the living room and crashed onto the couch with their sloshing glasses. He took her in his arms and kissed her again. This time it took. They stood up and undressed each other, eventually going to his bedroom. They spent several ecstasy filled hours of sexual hubris before Christine looked at her watch.

"I’ve got to get home, Ash. I have to be there when my cubs wake up."

Ashley drove her home at 4:00 am. He then pulled in his drive way, entered his home, went to the connubial bedroom and made love to his wife in an highly charged and erotic early morning session.

Christine and Ashley in his bungalow at the safari club.....

    The Kenyan Post headlines read: SHANE SIMBA ENGAGES IN BATTLE AGAINST TROPHY HUNTING AND POACHING WITH BOTSWANA MINISTERS.

Betty Chimpo sat reading it in her office at the Masai Mara Daily. President Ralph Lyon read it in his office and, once again, discussed the greatness of his protege with me. The entire Mara took note of its most high profile widower.

    Caroline Cheetah was at her parent’s house for Sunday lunch. She idly picked up a framed photograph of her late sister, Catherine, and her husband, Shane Simba. Caroline had not seen her brother-in-law except from a  distance and very briefly. He had stood apart from everyone at Catherine’s burial. She scrutinized the photograph and decided that Shane Simba was quite the hunk.

"Shane is very handsome, Mom," she commented to Cynthia Cheetah.

"Yes, he is, Caroline. He is also a very complicated male."

"What’s he like?"

"Like no other, really. A true anathema. But he was what your sister needed to keep her happy. He’s a devoted father and did love Catherine, despite his playing around."

"He was a player?"

"Yes. But Catherine had her own set of problems. They went well with each other. For some odd reason, it seemed to work."

"Hmmmm!" thought Caroline before she was called to a delicious repast of steak and Boston Butt with gravy laden biscuits.

    Tookie Simba went to Botswana for an extended weekend to join her brother, Shane, and his bereaved family. The time was limited so they stayed at home. Tookie, who is quite the athletic female, swam with the children in the pool and played tennis with Shane and Staci at the newly joined Gamborone Sporting Club. She joined Shane in reading to his children and after putting them to bed, the brother and sister would go to the living room and make drinks.

"Shane, do you feel like opening up about Catherine? If you don’t fine, but if you do, I’m here to listen."

"Not yet, Sis. It’s so painful. I can’t bear the thought of discussing it."

"You and I are both sexy creatures. Do you ever have sex anymore?"

"No. I’m afraid I’ll break down. If it’s not her beneath me, I’ll weep until I can’t stop."

    Betty Chimpo had an assignment for the Masai Mara Daily where she headed the news department. Bob Bushbuck, the publisher, wanted a profile on the highly profitable Mombasa Simba Resort and Marina. She chose to take it, herself. After all, it was Shane Simba’s sister. Tookie had been the least upset about her book, Pride And Fury. She had asked Tookie Simba, the executive manager, to intervene with Sam for some visiting privileges with her sons, Joshua and Jason. It was to no avail and Tookie had emailed her of his rejection.

    Betty decided to take Arlon to her home in Mombasa and spend the weekend where she could do the story at leisure. She walked into Tookie’s office in the Resort on a Friday afternoon. After a warm greeting and the essential gracious chit chat, Betty got down to business. One aspect of the two females, lioness and chimpanzee, that rendered them highly compatible, was their straight forward approach to life.

"Tookie, I need a story on the successes you have had with this resort," announced Betty, lighting a cigarette.

Tookie had her secretary bring some files for Betty to look over.

"Why are you really here, Betty? I seem to sense more than this story behind your visit."

"Is Shane okay?"

"I’ve visited him twice in Botswana. He is all about his children. I happen to know that despite your bad, bad book, you are deeply in love with him, Betty."

Tears began to roll down Betty’s face. She grabbed a tissue from her purse and dabbed at them.

"Yes, Tookie. I am. I suppose that’s why Sam won’t let me see my kids. He will never get past my thing with Shane."

"I imagine that’s the skinny on that problem. You nailed it in a nutshell."

"I hope Shane doesn’t find someone in Botswana. I know that’s so selfish of me. It’s just that I love him so."

"That’s not that likely to happen, Betty, for many reasons. Now let’s get down to business about your interview for the resort. I’ll have my secretary make copies of any files you need that are not confidential. I’m sure you didn’t come here just to ask how Shane is faring."

Betty lit a cigarette and was glad that Tookie didn’t realize that the only reason she took this mundane assignment was to ask about Shane.

    Very quietly and with absolutely no fanfare or hard feelings, President Ralph Lyon granted his mate, Aurora Leopardiaz Lyon, a divorce. They had been only friends for some time. Ralph had set her up in business and she lived with his pride. Now, just as quietly, she married the much younger Nat Cougar in a low key ceremony in his bush house. His parents were present and the Reverend Saul Serval did the honors. Later, in a highly emotional and weepy farewell, she left her bungalow in the Lyon Pride Compound and moved to Nat’s home where they had been wed. She promised the lionesses, their offspring and Dodi Dik Dik Lyon, that she would visit often. Sylly (Cougar) and Junior Lyon staged a quiet dinner the night before the nuptials. Ralph sent flowers to Nat’s home the day of the wedding, wishing the newly weds a long and happy life.  Aurora and Nat boarded the Leoparde family jet for a honeymoon in Paris.

    Lucy Cougar Simba was determined to get pregnant for the third time. She purchased a thermometer at the pharmacy and decided to take her temperature to detect ovulation. She would go to the female’s powder room and take it during a work break at the Masai Mara Daily. One afternoon it spiked, indicating beginning ovulation. Lucy called her husband, Alexander Simba, at his office.

"Alex, can you meet me at home right this minute? I’m leaving the office now. I’m ovulating."

"Lucy, I’ve got a client coming in. I can’t come home at the moment. It will be about two more hours."

"Alex, puleeze. Don’t you want a litter?"

"Of course I do but I can’t just leave my law practice in the early afternoon to go rushing home and perform a perfunctory sex act for reasons of fertilization. Fertility is not your real problem, Lucy. We’ll make love tonight."

"Oh, Alex," she wailed. "You can be so stubborn."

"Tonight, Lucy. I’ll bring a good wine home."

   Leander Simba, Alexander's mother and Sarah Lee's sister......

     Leander Simba was not terribly fond of her young daughter-in-law, Lucy Cougar Simba. She sensed a great deal of spoiled childishness behind the wide eyes of the half cougar, half leopard daughter of Sylvia and Bernard Cougar. Leander certainly didn’t mind that Lucy was a Leoparde family heiress who had already gotten an apartment and gorgeous beach home from her great grandmother, Lucretia Leoparde, whose name she bore. Leander had four more sons and two daughters but Alexander was her favorite. She had spent a weekend with the couple at their Mombasa home. Lucy was kittenish and sexy and obviously adored Alexander but at times he seemed a bit harried by his young wife. Leander sat behind her wreath of cigarette smoke, observing Alexander and Lucy and realized that Lucy was on the demanding side. Alexander was a strong male but rather than endure much of Lucy’s petulant whining, he would give in. But Leander kept her council. This was not her’s to interfere with. She sipped her martinis, smoked her Camel cigarettes and remained pleasant but silent on matters that concerned her.