Alexandra Simba took charge in her role as the first lady of Kenya with a gusto that put Betty’s lackluster performance badly in the shade.  She would drive her own car to the State House and arrive just a bit later than her husband who was usually here bright and early.  Her infectious husky laughter rang through the halls. 

 

She passed by her husband and me on our way to a meeting upstairs.

 

“Good morning, Maurice,” she greeted, placing a small kiss on the top of my head since she towered over me.

 

To Shane, goosing him, she exclaimed, “And a good morning to you too, you gorgeous beast!”

 

I glanced at him, taking a quick check on his reaction to this bit of irreverence. He seemed as happy as a newborn pup at its mother’s teat and squeezed her arm lovingly 

 

Alexandra gives her husband, Shane, a tie adjustment while I look on in the State House....

 

    Her long strides could be heard throughout the halls all day.  She set to work on various projects.  Among them was her idea of inviting the schools to bring their students to visit the State House.  One of her first official functions that she put on the calendar was a cocktail dinner for the ministers, their wives and selected VIP's.  Alexandra had the background for this type of social and civic action.  Being a descendant of the former colonial governor and a member of the most important human family in Kenya, she had been asked to head many civic groups in Nairobi.  So Alexandra, unlike Betty, already knew the ropes when she married our lion president.  As for Shane Simba, I had never seen him so happy and contented. 

 

Dr. Juma Mnyama, Alexandra and Dr. Trevor Tau during the visit to the Kenya Medical Facilty on the Mara River....

 

   The new Mrs. Simba made an official tour of the Kenya Medical Facility which was headed by the two lion doctors who headed the malaria and HIV/AIDS programs.  There she charmed doctors, Trevor Tau and Juma Mnyama as she asked questions and was genuinely interested in their programs.  Staci Simba Mnyama already admired her new stepmother and got along famously with her.  When asked to visit the patients, Alexandra did a Princess Diana and spent another three hours at the facility speaking with the sick and holding babies that were born with HIV.  The doctors and entire staff were bowled over.  When the First Lady had vacated the premise, Juma Mnyama took his wife Staci aside. 

 

“Your dad may have gotten it right this time.  She’s absolutely wonderful.”

 

The next weekend, Juma accompanied Staci to dinner at her father’s new bush home. 

 “Don’t you think you should slow down some, Alex?  After all, you are pregnant.  Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you get sick at all,” marveled Shane to his wife on the way home one late afternoon. 

 

“I was only sick twice.  That is what sent me running to the doctor.  I’m very hearty – not to worry, Luv,” she laughed, hugging him tightly in the back seat of the official Rolls. 

 

            They made an appointment with Dr. Frank Tigeres the next week.  He examined Alexandra and found her eight weeks pregnant and fit as a fiddle. 

 

“You seem to have acquired the knack of generating your DNA across species boundaries, Shane,” chuckled Frank who had his stripes nearly charmed off by Alexandra. 

 

Alexandra thought it would be the better part of wisdom to have the same international team examine this pregnancy and make the findings public since the couple was married which was officially recognized by all.  Frank agreed heartily and Shane concurred. 

 

“I am so pleased to have made your acquaintance, young lady,” said Frank as Shane and Alexandra were leaving his office. 

 

“The pleasure is mine, Frank.  I have heard such wonderful things about you always.  You’re famous in Kenya.”

 

Yes indeed, there was absolutely no one that Shane’s new wife could not charm.

 “Mom, you need to move on past this thing with Uncle Shane,” remarked Betty’s son Joshua Simba one late afternoon when he found his mother crying in her study on Leoparde Drive.

 

“I am getting better, Josh, darling, but thank you so much for caring,” she said getting up.  “I’ll have a beer with you on the veranda.”

 

“Let’s go, they're waiting in the cooler.  Wilda should be getting back soon.”

 

            Betty was trying to recoup her life after the shock of her divorce and Shane’s hasty remarriage.  Her job at the Masai Mara Daily meant a great deal to her though she certainly didn’t need the salary.  It was the camaraderie of working with Jane Leoparde and Jack Tarzan that provided the healing factor.  They lunched together most days and Jane and her husband, Luke, joined Jack Tarzan at her home for Sunday afternoon swims and barbecues.  However, it was the nights that she dreaded.  She would have sex with Jack when he would come to her home but he never stayed the night, returning to his bush house.  This left the most dreadful hours of darkness for Shane Simba, and now Alexandra, to gallop through her head in their envisioned scenes of happiness.  Her dreams were haunted by Shane.  When she would ask Wilda, who had been reluctantly reassigned as the anchor to the State House, how Alexandra was faring as first lady, Wilda’s response was: 

 

“Don’t ask, Betts.  She is on a roll with it.  She’s going great guns.  One can’t help but like her.”

     Shane offered Betty the home in Mombasa he had bought for her during their marriage but she refused it – too damn many memories.  He put it on the market and bought another on Lamu Island so that he and Alexandra would have more privacy.  That didn’t work at all.  The media, world wide, was in a frenzy to photograph every aspect of the lion president and his human wife’s existence.  It didn’t seem to rattle Alexandra.  She would wave gaily to whoever was openly working a camera.  Even those lurking in hidden places, she greeted with a laugh and smile.  She seemed indefatigable in her good humor. 

 

“What makes you so laid back, my love?” inquired Shane. “Nothing rattles you.”

 

“I suppose I was raised by a father who adored and pampered me.  My mum, while she lived, was very caring and tender.  It gives a person great ballast, you know.” 

 

“I wouldn’t know.  I didn’t have that sort of upbringing.”

 

With that statement, she led her husband to the veranda in the bush house and sat him down. 

 

“I want to hear about your childhood, Luv.  I want to know EVERYTHING!!!”

 

He told her everything concerning his rotten relationship with both parents and the death of his litter mate, Solly.     

 

             

  Sarah Lee Simba had written her son a letter which read:

 

 

Shane,

 

Do not ever come to my home again or the pride territory.  You and your human wife are not welcome here.  I won’t come to your place either.

 

Sarah Lee Simba

 

 

He laughed bitterly when he read it.  He never visited her nor did she visit him.  Her letter brought up a moot point.

 

            When Roy Lee Simba heard from his mother that she had sent that letter to his younger brother, he castigated her for one the few times in his life. 

 

“That was absolutely rotten of you, Mom.  Shane’s your son too.”

 

“You tell her, Roy Lee,” piped up Sarah Lee’s sister, Leander Simba, who adored Shane.

 

“I meant every word of that letter, Roy Lee.”

 

“That’s a damn shame if you did, Mom.”

             Shane, being a very savvy type, realized that Alexandra probably needed her human friends from time to time.  Occasionally, she would take a break from her chores in the State House and fly to Nairobi where she would have a brunch in the house she still maintained there, inviting all her chums. 

             Chris Simba had a bit of a dilemma.  He was falling madly in love with Johanna, Shane’s formerly pregnant discard.  The problem was that Chris didn’t want to upset the tempestuous Chloe Cougar.  He and Johanna hovered together in his apartment and made plans.  On a moonlit night, the couple eloped to Nairobi.  The paparazzi got wind of the marriage and the shit hit the fan.  It was all over the news.  Once more Sarah Lee Simba banned a son from her presence for marrying a human.  Chris, who adored his mother, was crestfallen.  He had always had a real knack for stepping knee deep in doo doo.  He had taken on a very problematical wife as well and to make matters worse, Chloe slammed the door in his face when he tried to make reparations.

             Shane’s cubs with Betty spent a romping weekend in his new bush home.  Alexandra was not exactly the cooing and coddling type but the boys enjoyed a rough and tumble time with her as she kicked a soccer ball around the lawn.  She allowed them to try and sink her as they frolicked in the Olympic pool.  She was warm and took time to listen to them.  The twins were beginning kindergarten and Alexandra was shown their primitive drawings.  Solly described his soccer triumphs to her.  All of Shane’s kids warmed to the caring, athletic girl who was now their stepmother. 

 

            Shane was not interested in pursuing his wife’s favorite sport of horseback riding.  For starters, horses had a very adverse reaction to his leonine presence.  When almost kicked on coming to the stable to see Alexandra, who was unsaddling her horse, his wife discouraged him from further excursions. 

 

“Luv, just leave the stable to me.  The horses don’t want you here and I can do this alone.  After all, we cawn’t be in each other’s pocket’s 24/7.  That is when you will tire of me and I may of you,” she announced with a hearty laugh.  

 

“I will never tire of you, but I’ll be glad to leave the equine scene alone.  Those creatures detest me.”

 

“They’re afraid of you, Shane.  After all you ARE a major predator,” she giggled. “The good news is that I simply adore your form of predation, scratch marks and all.”

 

He whacked her on the seat with the newspaper he had been reading and left the premise laughing in delight at this wife of his. 

 

 

            One member of Shane’s family that was a rider and failed to alarm horses was Staci, who had moved her mare to join Alexandra’s four Arabians.  When Staci could get away, she often joined Alexandra for a ride in the early evenings when the Equatorial sun had lost some of its luster. 

            Betty tried to get Jack Tarzan interested in buying the old bush home that Shane had given her but Jack wanted none of the state of the art and very plush estate. 

 

“I have no desire to get bogged down in a life of possessions, Betty,” he explained.

 

“You have the money now, Jack.  Why don’t you pleasure yourself a little?”

 

“All of this over the top luxury is not my idea of pleasuring myself, Betty.  Speaking of lacking luxury, why don’t you go camping with me this weekend?  I did purchas a ramshackle camper.  I thought we’d go to Tsavo.  I’ve always admired the hell out of the lions that are there.”

 

“Sounds like fun.”

 

“We can take your kids.”

 

“They’ll be at Shane’s this weekend.”

 

“Okay, then we’ll just be alone and screw a great deal.”

 

“That sounds very good.”

 

Betty tries to convince Jack to buy the bush house Shane gave her..

             Shane, going over the invited guests for the cocktail dinner that Alexandra had slated for the ministers and other VIPs, he noticed Betty’s name.  He called Alexandra to his office.  I was there as well.

 

“Alex, why is Betty’s name on the dinner list?” he asked.  

 

“Because she is family and very important too.”

 

“Family?”

 

“Yes, she is your sons’ mother.  If you’ll look closely, Jane and Luke Leoparde’s names are on there too, Luv.  We are going to mend fences,” she announced, giving him a kiss on the tip of his nose. 

 

I was so pleased; I gave her thumbs up as I stood just behind Shane.  She gave one back. 

 

“That will be different for sure,” he mumbled but I could tell he was pleased. 

 

Shane turned to me after Alexandra had left the office. 

 

“She’s something else, isn’t she Maury?”

 

“I simply adore her,” I stated, quite factually. 

 

He gave me an appreciative pat on the back.  One of the things that Alexandra Delamere Simba has accomplished is the final breakthrough of the remaining barriers between her husband and me.  We have almost taken on that air that Ralph Lyon and I had.  We are as comfortable as old shoes working together.