LIFE CHANGES
Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
O. Henry, Gift of the Magi
Staci seeks her dad's advice.....
There was absolutely no way that young Staci Simba’s life would be ruffle free. After all, DNA-wise, she had been blessed with a mixed bag. She was the daughter of Shane Simba and the late Catherine Cheetah Simba, who blistered the landscape with their tempestuous affair and ensuing marriage before it all ended in a fatal automobile crash. Very helpful components of her inherited genes are those of her maternal grandmother, Cynthia Cheetah, a steady and very wise animal. Staci is loving and very kind with a genuine wish to help others. She inherited her parent’s brilliance, having risen in school to the point that she had graduated far ahead of her contemporaries. Along with the intellectual advantage she had also inherited their lusty libidos. Having lost her mother when she was just a tot, her father had fiercely protected and raised her. Shane Simba was a loving and caring parent but Staci had grown to adulthood in the shadow of his usually frenetic love affairs and a genuinely stormy marriage to Betty Chimpo. Now here she was in her first fit of indecision as to what to do with her life. She made her usual choice – she sought advice from her adored and adoring father.
“Staci, why don’t you drop out of medical school and utilize your nursing career for a while? You are a brilliant nurse. I know the Exotic Animal Clinic could use you….also Tanzania is in need of nurses. You can either live with Alex and me or move to your townhouse near your Grandma Cyn,” suggested Shane. “You are still young and can return to medical school at any time if you wish.”
“I think I’ll ask Dr. Frank and Sylly Lyon if they could use me, Daddy. That’s a good idea. I’ll move into my town house again until I get a grip on things.”
“Honeybunch, things will be just fine….take it from me. Things happen for the best as a rule and if you need anything, you know where I am.”
The following week, Staci said goodbye to her cousin, Lee Simba, and left Nairobi, heading to the Mara again. Alexandra Simba had told Lee that she could continue living in her Nairobi home. The parting with Stanley Morrison had been poignant but they promised to maintain their friendship.
It was merely coincidental but Lewis Lyon and his sometimes business partner, President Shane Simba, had already decided to donate 40 million dollars to enlarge the Tigeres-Lyon Exotic Animal Clinic. There was to be a new very technically advanced addition. Since it now served humans as well as animals, the owners renamed it Tigeres-Lyon Clinic. Staci applied for work at a very good time. She was an outstanding nurse and loved by Sylly Cougar Lyon and the Tigeres brothers, Frank and Ted. They immediately made her the head of emergency nursing. So once again, Staci Simba took up residence in the townhouse her dad had bought her. Very conveniently, it was just a few doors down from her beloved grandparents, Dorian and Cynthia Cheetah.
Getting to know Leah Simba’s existing cubs was placed high on the 'to do list' for Dr. Juma Mnyama. He knew that Leah adored her children. He adored Leah so things had to be dealt with before the two could wed. The most problematical of Leah’s children was her oldest child, Imani Janice Lyon. Imani was living in an apartment bought for her by her dad, Ashley Lyon. There Imani lived with her cousin on the Simba side – Georgy Simba. When asked by Leah to come to dinner at her home on Leoparde Drive and meet Juma, Imani’s response was quick and not necessarily what her mother wanted to hear.
“I’m not interested in meeting your lover boy of the moment, Mom. Leave me out of the din-din. I'd rather eat canned tuna.”
That was fine by Leah. She did just that. The others of her brood were far more compliant. There was Kitty, her adopted leopard daughter; Brad, her adopted lion son and of course her blood cubs, Sim and Adam. All were her offspring with Ashley Lyon. Kitty was as biddable and sweet as Imani was bitchy. She was a little older than Imani and ready to accept anyone her mother loved. Brad, some younger than Kitty, was the same way. Sim and Adam, the first borne cubs ever bearing the intermingled bloodlines of the Simba and Lyon prides, were proper smart asses. Nevertheless, they adored their pretty mother and were willing to give Juma a chance. It certainly helped when he arrived on his new Harley and took each in turn, for a spin around the block. Sim, Adam and Brad were great admirers of their grandfather, Roy Lee Simba, and found the motorcycle fixation very grand. When Roy Lee and Janice strolled from their home to have dessert and coffee, the cubs were all won over and certainly willing to give Juma Mnyama a fair shot at their mom.
Leah with Juma Mnyama....
Georgy Simba was calling Dr. Trevor Tau, at all times of the day and night. He refused to answer the phone, realizing that bedding Georgy had been one of the worst mistakes of his life and fearing repercussions.
Georgy Simba pesters the hapless Trevor Tau.....
Betty Chimpo and Jack Tarzan invited Jane Leoparde and her children to dinner one night. Luke, Jane’s husband, was flying a safari group to Namibia. The chat at the table was jolly. Jack had begun to enjoy good wines and it flowed as did the conversation. Suddenly Jane put her face in her paws and began to weep. The children had already left the table in order to explore the splendors of Jack’s pool table.
“What’s wrong, Janie?” asked an alarmed Betty.
“I am such a fool. I have the most wonderful husband and children in the world. I love them to bits but I can’t move past Shane Simba. I resent his letting Luke adopt Andy and Catherine – it just plain hurts,” sobbed the lioness.
“I’m sure he meant it for the best, Janie, but I imagine it did hurt,” said Betty, in defense of her ex-husband.
“I don’t know what’s come over me. I am so silly these days,” moaned Jane.
“Jane, you have always been the strongest of animals. You’re entitled to a bit of disorder now and then,” said Jack.
Betty looked at this lion that she lived with; his golden eyes warm with affection for his friend. I’m the luckiest female ever, she thought to herself. Jack is so wonderful. Without him, I never could have moved past Shane Simba either.
That night after Betty and Jack had seen a more cheerful Jane and her cubs off, they walked, arm and arm, to the library where they had a final nightcap. The library’s doors were open to the fragrant night air.
“Jack, I am so lucky to have met you. You have no idea….”
He came to her and wrapped her in his strong arms, leaning his chin on her hair.
“Betty, you have changed my life completely. I was this disenfranchised wanderer with no goals other than to live my life to the end, fishing and making ends meet. Then you came along and now……well all this has happened.”
“It has all been so extraordinary. I just feel so peaceful with you……I haven’t felt this way in so many years it’s hard to remember them, Jack.”
“I feel the same, Betty,” and tipping her face to his, he added, “If you ever want us to get married, all you have to do is say the word.”
“Oh, Jack, I love you so. There’s no rush on that. I read an old and very amusing saying once….’if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. We are sooo not broke,” she giggled.
“No, we are definitely not broke,” he laughed.
“Do you want kids of your own, Jack?” she asked suddenly.
“Betty, I have kids of my own. Your children – I love every one of them.”
“And they love you too, Jack….so much. By the way, Arlon and Joshua are coming home for Christmas and want to stay with us.”
“That’s wonderful, Betty. We’ll decorate this house like a bloody carnival steamer.”
Betty, Jack and Jane on his veranda.....
If Betty had finally found a peaceful harbor with Jack from the storm that had been her life, her sister’s was anything but. Gloria Chimpo Baboon was facing a divorce from her husband, Bertram Baboon. Gloria retreated to Betty and Jack’s home for a few days, hoping that Bertram would seek her. That was a pretty farfetched notion considering Bertram’s self-serving nature and the fact that he had engaged in a straight marriage when he was as gay as the proverbial goose. Bertram sought solace with Lachlan and me most evenings. Getting soused and morbidly thespian, as was his wont, he would bemoan his fate at having married Gloria who wanted his body. Lachlan and I would gaze at each other and wonder when this performance would finally come to an end leaving us free to sleep in order to rest ourselves for another stress filled day at our respective jobs. At the moment when Lachlan and I would think that the baboon director was winding down, he would ask for another cognac and hold forth on other aspects of his disenchantment with his wife. It seemed endless.
At Jack and Betty’s, Gloria would sit with her sister and her lover on Jack’s lovely Jacaranda shaded veranda in the late evenings. The tree frogs and cicadas would be in chorus; the moon rising higher over the Ngong Hills to the south. Gloria was in a sad state. Betty and Jack offered as much comfort as possible but Gloria Chimpo had long harbored a crush on Bertram, never dreaming that he would propose marriage. Jack and Betty would listen, Jack finally retiring and leaving the sisters some privacy in order to discuss the more personal aspects of the dilemma.
“Glo, you knew Bertram was gay when you married him, why on earth did you expect anything of a sexual nature from him?”
“I suppose hope never dies, Betts. Always I hoped,” Gloria would say, lighting her umpteenth cigarette.
Diana Duma, the President of Tanzania's new girl Friday.....
A long legged cheetah sat with silken legs crossed in front of President Pete Levin of Tanzania. I happened to be there in preparation for Pete’s first official state visit to Kenya since his election. Shane had sent me on a day tripper to meet with Pete in his Serengeti offices.
“This is my equivalent of you, Maurice,” introduced Pete. “This is Diana Duma (Swahili for cheetah) my new factotum - in other words my ‘lady everything’. She’s my press secretary as well and will be with me on the trip.”
Her dark eyes were friendly as they landed on me. “I have heard so much about you, Maurice,” she purred.
She was exactly like Catherine Cheetah Simba. Now readers, I know you are about to give it a laugh and tell me, “Maurice, all cheetahs look alike.” We animals in Kenya, though getting a good grip on civilization, have still not been urbane so long as to have lost our animal keenness and perceptions. We still have our extraordinary sense of smell, touch and almost other worldly qualities that we come endowed with. Even other species can detect the individuals in a specific species. I knew the late Catherine when I saw her. I’m not saying it was her ghost – nothing as whimsical as that. Nevertheless, Diana Duma was the dead ringer of all dead ringers. The deep brown eyes, blond hair, silken clad legs, stiletto heels - all smacked of Shane Simba’s late wife. She lit her cigarette with red nailed hands that still held the cheetah markings. I suppose she was another hundred thousand in Todd Tigeres’ pocket.
When I got up to leave, Pete and Diana walked me to the landing pad where Shane’s helicopter waited to return me to the Mara.
“Maurice, thank you so much for coming over. We’ll see you next week,” said Pete, shaking my hand.
“It was my pleasure as well,” added Diana. “Do you have some available tennis courts in the Mara? I’m teaching Pete to play.”
“Yes, the President has courts at all of his homes,” I told them.
“Wonderful, does he play as well?” asked Pete, rather dumbly I thought. If Shane has courts at all of his homes, it stands to reason he plays.
“Maybe he’ll stand me to a game,” said Diana.
“I have no doubt he will, Diana,” shouted I, just as the helicopter began to fire its engines. Game after game after game, I mumbled to my self, completely drowned out by the sound of the whirring blades as we lifted.