Maurice & Friends

Jack Tarzan, as he was newly self-christened, was getting comfortable with his new ‘comforts’. It had been a shock to him to find his mother was dead despite the fact that he had not seen her in quite a number of years. Now he had the surrogate Patsy who made his home life cozy and enjoyable. He soon realized his real love for the written word, turning out articles of great clarity and appeal for the Masai Mara Daily in his column: Jack Tarzan’s Ramblings. His old friendship with college pal Jane Leoparde resumed with her encouraging him to write a book. Jack and Luke Leoparde became great friends as well. Life in the Masai Mara was becoming something of a wonder for the formerly iconoclastic, reclusive lion who had been banished from Kenya for not complying with the new age of civilization. His only regret was in not being able to make his hardworking lioness mother more comfortable in her old age. That was not to be. Now he would concentrate on his surrogate mother, Patsy, and the friends he had returned to find in abundance.

Ashley Lyon was slightly fed up with Lucy Cougar’s broad hints that they wed. Nevertheless, Lucy was attractive and shared many of his hobbies such as the intense water sports. She was also a good mother and was wonderful to his children when they would visit him. Therefore, Ashley made Lucy an offer he hoped she couldn’t refuse.

“Luce, you can be my mistress. I don’t know whether I will ever marry again but if I do, you may just be the one. You can keep some things here at my house but please don’t move in on me. We will go steady in a big way – sort of super steady. Sound like a plan?”

Lucy sat on the sofa in his den trying to get a bead on her thoughts. She wanted to slap his face for the outright arrogance of the suggestion but he was so damn cute, sexy and appealing. She fell more in love with him each day – so slugging him was out of the question. She swallowed hard.

“Ashley, I am already your mistress.”

‘But it would be official – we would be A COUPLE.”

She didn’t really see where it would change anything but if he thought so maybe he had other ideas as to how to enhance their arrangement short of marriage.

“Let’s see how it works,” she agreed.

“And no more talk of marriage, please Lucy.”

Ashley Ralph Lyon could get by with murder because he had that same totally boyish and devilish personality of his father, Ralph – they were sort of Peck’s bad lions – one wanted to beat the hell out of them but just couldn’t bring themselves to do so because of their extreme attractiveness. This stood Ashley in good stead, allowing him to remain great friends with ex-wives and lovers. The Simba males, with the exception of Roy Lee, lacked that ability.

Lucy and Ashley upon further commitment.....

Dr. Trevor Tau had a dinner date with the attorney Cameron Caracal. He had met her when a patient of his had requested her services for probation of his will - the patient, being a wealthy villager and wanting to attend to his affairs in the face of malaria. Cameron had walked on stiletto heels clicking across the tile halls of the Kenya Medical Facility on the way to her client’s room. The malaria doctor had found her petite, sexy and stylish with breathtaking hazel eyes. He had led her to the correct room where they struck up a conversation over the elderly man’s bed.

Cameron Caracal, attorney for Lyon & Associates law firm....

Cameron had been unsuccessful with the males she had dated. Stephen Simba had courted her only to drop her when he met Caitlin Cougar now married to Gus Leo. She realized that her caustic and castrating female persona were not sitting well with the male lions whose company she favored. Now, here sat this marvelous looking lion doctor across the table from her in OKAPI’S. She swore silently not to mess this one up. She curbed her tartness and poured on the charm of which she had plenty (although for the most part unused). Here they were a doctor and a lawyer. What an ideal yuppie duo. Cameron was on target the entire dinner and when he escorted her to her townhouse in the Salt Lick area, they kissed. She didn’t stick her tongue halfway down his throat but it certainly came into play during several extended kisses. Cameron demurely sent Trevor off with a preview of what sex could be like with her. He left assuring her that he would call. She certainly hoped so. Her dreams were filled with him that night as she lay snugly between her Laura Ashley sheets and quilted silk comforter.

In another quarter, Leah Simba lay awake in her home on Leoparde Drive. She had engaged in a long telephone conversation with Tracy Tigeres among the millings of her various offspring who were doing homework and watching their favorite television shows. She waited for Trevor to call. It was quiet and Leah had finally gone to bed. The phone sat in silence on the night table. She lay in the bed reading a newspaper article by a writer named Jack Tarzan entitled The Mixed Wonders of Homecoming. She finally fell into a fitful sleep.

Shane Simba went to Kuwait on an official trip to cement the trade agreement with that country. I accompanied him. We were treated in the best fashion by the Kuwaiti ruler and feted with all male banquets where the most sensual belly dancers entertained. On the second and final night we sat at a low table having consumed much drink and eaten lamb until I thought I would hear a bleat from my digestive tract. A beautiful belly dancer was writhing and shimmying in an artful manner with dark, sloe eyes glued on the lion president. She came and put her arms fleetingly around his neck, lightly ruffling his mane. She placed a note in his pocket. His eye lids lowered and I knew she had him.

I was in the suite next to Shane’s. During the night, I had to cover my head with a pillow to muffle the sounds of carnal delight coming through the walls.

Shane's belly dancer.....

Then it was on to another trading partner, Ireland. This was a different sort of trip altogether. This time he took Johanna. Our Irish hosts seemed to take to me in a warm and funny way, shoving much drink in my direction which I was only too glad to accept. We were entertained with a great deal of tippling which I understand is the Irish way. I had to admit that Johanna was poised and charming and Shane seemed infatuated with her performance at his side. He was very attentive to her the entire trip.

Johanna and Shane in Dublin.....

As we were about to board Simba One the official 747, an Irish dignitary handed me a handsome shellacked shillelagh and black felt hat.

“Maurice, you must come to Dublin again and bring your family,” he told me.

“I will come again and thank you for the warm hospitality,” I assured and gave his hand a squeeze.

As the emerald island receded beneath the plane, I vowed to return someday with my beloved Lachlan. I felt a real kinship with the Irish. Maybe Mother is right - Macaque is a Scottish clan. That would make me a Celtic monkey, I decided.

Jane Leoparde went to Jack Tarzan’s office in the Masai Mara Daily building. She was in obvious distress.

“Jack, my new cub is sick with a fever. I have to go home. Will you do me a big favor?”

“Of course I will, Janie.”

“I am due in an hour to get a story on Leah Simba. It should be an interesting piece. She resigned as mayor to work in her mother’s fashion house. She is Shane Simba’s niece and the daughter of Roy Lee Simba and Janice Jaguar. She is recently divorced from Ashley Lyon. She has been one of the mover and shakers among the new generation of animals. Will you do the interview and story for me? There are no other reporters around that are up to your ilk as a writer.”

“I’ll do that, Janie. Where do I go?”

She gave him the instructions. Leah was to be interviewed in her office at JAGGERS.

Leah Simba was taking phone calls in her office when a tall, rugged male lion shadowed the door.

“Can I help you?”

“I’m from the Masai Mara Daily. Jane Leoparde has a sick cub and asked me to come in her stead. I’m Jack Tarzan.”

“Oh, please come in. I have become addicted to your column, Mr. Tarzan. You are an incredible writer.”

He took a seat facing her desk in a comfortable and stylishly upholstered swivel chair. He took in the appearance of Leah Simba. She had the look of a small, very young lioness but with the tell tale jaguar spots on her cheeks and a pair of startlingly green eyes. He found her quite beautiful.

“I think Jane wanted you to tell the story of your resignation from the mayor’s post. I’ll just take notes while you talk, if that’s okay with you, Ms. Simba.”

“Please just call me Leah. Let’s see how it all goes, let me think…okay, are you ready?”

She began to tell the tale of her crumbled marriage, her children and the reasons that prompted her resignation from the mayor’s office. She told it simply with occasional tears shining in her remarkable eyes. She told him of Ashley and how she had loved him and of her children. Jack felt a decided tug at his heart. Leah even described, in complete candor, her affair with the malaria doctor that she had messed up with what she referred to as ‘the confusion of my life these days'.

“There you are, Mr. Tarzan. Not a very pretty story to be sure, but you are welcomed to write it all. Just please leave out Trevor’s name and position. He doesn't need more grief from my end.”

“Call me Jack and would you like a home cooked meal at my house some evening? I live with an elderly lady, sort of my surrogate mother. She bakes great bread.”

“That’s the best offer I’ve had in weeks, Jack.”

The delectable Leah Simba meets Jack Tarzan.....

Shane called out before he entered Betty’s home in Naro Moru. Solly came running out to greet his father. He was without his Masai guards.

“I gave them a break,” he explained. "I'll bring the twins next time. They were getting colds and the nannies didn't think it best to bring them this weekend."

Betty took Solly and Shane in her plane. She flew over the Great Rift Valley. After landing, they ate at a simple restaurant in Naro Moru. The villagers got wind of the fact that their president was there, supposedly incognito. They flocked around him.

Betty's bedroom in Naro Moru.....

“I took Johanna to Ireland with me, Fifi,” confessed Shane.

They were having drinks on her deck with the startling view of Mt. Kenya in the distance.

“I know that, Shane. I have the internet and I get the Masai Mara Daily sent to me.”

“And you don’t care? I think I want you to, very badly.”

“Of course I care, Shane. I just have to practice self preservation where you’re concerned or I would sink into a terrible depression. Only at this distance from you can I survive. You still like to torment.”

“Not really, Betty. I suppose it’s the very immature animal coming out in me. I seem to still long for assurance like some deprived cub.”

“Only when you can move past that cub, Shane, can we find something real and lasting.”

“I’m trying, Betty. I really am. Part of that is sticking by Johanna in her pregnancy.”

“Shane, I think you may be fooling yourself on that one. I think your ‘sticking by Johanna’ is a matter of your having a big physical and sex thing with her.”

“You will always set me straight. You may know me even better than I know myself, Fifi.”

“Of course I do, darling. I’m not hooked on you for nothing. However, let’s not get too noble about Johanna,” she giggled.

“Right you are, Fifi.”

That night they watched television with Solly. Shane carried him to his bedroom when he fell asleep on the sofa. After that, they made love in her room with the view of the mountain.

“If only you and I could lead this life far away from everything, Fifi, it would be so ideal.”

“Maybe we can one day, darling