Maurice & Friends

Tawny Tigeres filled her place in Sam Simba’s hearth and home as easily as a polished stone skipped across the surface of a pond and gently making its way to the floor. He never ceased being amazed at her wonderfully integrated personality and abundance of affection, bubbling good humor and just plain love. With his children from both Allison and Betty she was an instant hit. Despite her pregnancy, she played wildly with them causing them to fall into peals of merry giggles and laughter. He would sit of a late afternoon, drink in paw and watch her as she interacted with his cubs. As a result, Joshua and Jason, his sons by Betty Chimpo Simba, requested that they be allowed to visit every weekend instead of every other. Their mother seldom saw them so busy was she with her newest literary project. When asked by Sam as to why they wanted to increase their weekends, the bookish Joshua reported that Betty seldom came from her office. Only in the evening did she take baby Solly to the family room to meet his father when he arrived at the mansion. Sam was saddened by this. He knew all too well the erratic qualities of his ex-wife, Betty.

Miss B, the baboon nanny that Shane Simba had hired during his marriage to the late Catherine, had endured quite enough of the negligence of the First Lady toward her youngest son, Solomon Figan Simba. She made note of the quick pulling together of his mother in order to greet his father at the elevator, holding the small cub. Her loyalty lay with Shane and his children which included his nephews who also happened to be his stepsons. She had liked Betty in the beginning but was beginning to dislike her as she laid waste to her maternal role. She decided to take matters in hand. She called the State House and made an appointment with the President. He put her request on the front burner, knowing her for the devoted no-nonsense animal she was. When she arrived at his office, he offered her tea and sat her down in front of his desk. There he heard the sad tale of his wife who wrote all day, showered dressed and had Solly at the elevator when he arrived from the office in the evening. He thanked Miss B profusely, assuring her that her report would be held in the strictest confidence.

Solomon Figan Simba plays on the floor of his nursery and bush house garden....

Betty was hunched over her computer keyboard, typing speedily when her office door opened.

“You can put the sandwich on the table, Babs. I’ll eat it in a bit,” she said, on the assumption that it was her lunch.

She had not turned to the door and was shocked when with great force she was pulled from her chair to look into the green eyes of her enraged husband.

“Have you seen Solly today, Betty? Or have you been writing and waiting for the appropriate time for me to arrive so you can make like the good mom for my benefit?”

“Oh, darling, you’re hurting my arm. I was doing some extra writing today to get this book completed and to the printer so it can reap some funds for the anti-poaching army.”

“Don’t feed me that line of horse shit, Betty. You do this every day. You don’t even see our son. You wait until I come off the elevator so you can make a good show of your maternal instincts. I should have seen the handwriting on the wall when Josh and Jason requested every weekend with Sam. You might as well give up that uterus your sister gave you. You will never have another child by me. Moreover, if you ignore Solly any longer I will kick you from my home, presidential brouhaha be damned. I will not have him suffer from maternal neglect as I did. The price is too great.”

He shoved her into her chair as swiftly and roughly as he had removed her. He slammed her office door behind him as he left. She sat stunned for a few moments. Babs, her housekeeper from Leoparde Drive, realizing that Shane seldom came home for lunch, entered Betty’s office. She saw her employer and friend sobbing into her hands.

“Betty, what is it?” she asked kindly.

“Shane read me the riot act about Solly,” she sobbed.

“You have been a bit remiss there, I must tell you.”

“Please get him ready. I am going to take him to the State House today and do a bit of work in my office there.”

“I’ll do that immediately.”

Simone Serval being, despite her film stardom, something of an old fashioned female, was waiting for the other shoe to drop in her affair with Alexander Simba. She was perfectly willing to be bedded but after the proper amount of time, she wished to be wedded and Alexander wasn’t making any of those noises. To see it from his perspective and to be fair, he had suffered through his marriage to the spoiled Lucy Cougar only to fall into an affair with the testicle wrenching Cameron Caracal. He was not ready to commit to anything anytime soon. Simone was a dear thing to him but for the time being he wasn’t getting into the thick of it any further than currently established. Simone, however, was a patient creature having endured affairs with Ashley Lyon, Sam and Shane Simba and a terminated pregnancy with Roy Lee Simba. She bided her time sweetly as was her nature.

Bob Bushbuck, the publisher of the Masai Mara Daily, had an interesting assignment in mind and who better to give it to than his favorite employee, Jane the lioness. With this in mind he summoned her to his office.

“How does a jaunt to Afghanistan strike you? An interview with the American generals there?” he asked.

“Oh, Bob, can you manage that?” she asked in delight.

“It’s a done deed, my girl.”

“When?”

“Next week? Are you game, Jane?”

“You’ve got it, Bob.”

Lucy Cougar was not one to accept defeat easily. Despite a heady sexual adventure with Simon Simba, she still hankered for the elusive charms of his half-brother, Dick Simba. She decided to pay a visit to the Watering Hole Pub where she seldom failed to find adventures of a sexual and flattering nature. Only Dick had refused her boudoir charms proclaiming a disinterest in getting involved with her emotionally. She wanted to fix that small issue and deciding to do so, she primped in front of her bedroom mirror sporting a new dress with the usual amount of cleavage in view. She considered her ample bosom to be one of more striking characteristics. She tucked her three cubs in bed and headed for the favorite watering spot of the solo and horny.

Inside the pub, she managed to get to the bar. There she spotted Simon Simba who was engaged with a red fox female. Looking further, she saw Dick flirting with Cameron Caracal and another female unknown to her. She ordered her usual Cosmopolitan and hoped to catch his eye without being too brazen. She managed this by mistakenly dropping her cigarette in the drink of a male antelope standing next to her.

“What the fuck!” he bellowed, causing all to look their way.

“So sorry!” she exclaimed, seeing Dick approach out of the corner of her eye.

“Let me buy you another drink,” offered Dick, standing between the antelope and Lucy.

“Please do,” said the miffed animal. “It’s top grade Scotch and I ain’t rich like all you fucking lions.”

Dick placed the money for a replacement of Johnny Walker for the antelope and turned to Lucy.

“You chose a most unpleasant chap to sully his drink,” he whispered in her ear.

“I know,” she giggled. “But it got your attention and that’s not all bad.”

“You wanted that?” he laughed, his tawny eyes warm and sexy.

“I sure did. Were you really all that intrigued with my competition over there?”

“I was seriously considering getting Cameron Caracal in my bed tonight. The word is out that she is a serious ball buster. I like to crack my whip over those.”

“Which whip would that be?” she teased, placing a well groomed paw on his face.

“The usual and by the way, I understand that you are rather in that same category,” he said, lighting a Marlboro.

“Me?” she laughed. “You must have been talking to Alex.”

“No, your ex is too busy banging that little serval actress to be chatty.”

“Then who?”

“Grapevine material,” he joshed. “Drink up, we can go to my place and check out my etchings.”

“Really?” she asked, hazel eyes alight.

“Actually I do have some real ones as well as some great new CD’s I ordered from Amsterdam.”

Betty and Shane went to their bush house that following weekend. Betty noticed that Shane intensified his attentions to Solly, keeping him at his side whenever he wasn’t asleep. With her, his green eyes seemed to be set in a perpetual glacial freeze. He had ceased making love to her altogether. She had been paying a great deal of attention to Solly, putting her book on the back burner but this didn’t seem to make a dent in her husband’s interaction with her. He was polite and pleasant at meal time, his usual banter taking place with Staci and Sean. He answered her proffered questions and made fleeting conversation with her, probably as a method of sidetracking his children’s attention to the real state of their marriage.

Shane with sons, Solly (in his arm) and Sean Simba (in baseball cap).

On Sunday morning, Shane was sitting at the breakfast table perusing his usual intake of newspapers, ranging from the New York Times, London Mirror and Masai Mara Daily. Betty heard a sharp intake of breath from him and looked up.

“What is it, Shane?” she asked.

“Nothing, Betty – nothing at all,” he answered with a frosty glance across the table in her direction.

He sat staring at a byline by reporter Jane, the lioness, indicating she was in Afghanistan. It was an article in her usual top notch style indicating the status of the war front in that torn country. He knew the only way he could defray his ragged emotions at her being in another danger zone was with a game of tennis with his daughter. He called to Staci.

Lucy Cougar was, once again, returned to the parking lot at the Watering Hole Pub sans a sexual round with Dick Simba. The lion, as he had stated, had real art pieces to show her. The remains of his collection of furnishings had arrived from Amsterdam earlier that week. He also had the CD’s that Lucy pretended to enjoy. Polite, charming and entirely flirtatious, he still refused to bed her.

“I believe you are a male tease, Dick,” moaned Lucy into the front of his Armani shirt.

“You are the one who came seeking me, Lucy. I just played the polite role of host. I have never really come on to you and if you are fair at all you will admit this, even to yourself.”

“You’ve come on to me, Dick. You’ve flirted outrageously and done everything but fuck me.”

“Well, there will be no more of that then,” he said, opening her car door.

“No, I want that,” she cried.

“Have a great evening, Lucy and drive safely.”

She watched him return to the pub where she knew he would most likely end up with Cameron Caracal in his bed.