LIONS AND LAMBS
A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested…..
Giorgos Seferis
Betty went with Shane on an official three day trip to Spain. It was a bow to her takeover of the first lady’s role once more. However, after this, it was agreed that Betty would resume her career as the head of the creative writing department at Kenya University in the Mara. Betty had long been a career female and Shane knew this and had agreed to let Betty be a non traditional first mate in his role as Kenya’s president.
Betty and Shane with Juan Carlos... Leaving Madrid......
Imani Lyon was feeling mixed emotions. She held the wand of a pregnancy test kit that read positive. She badly wanted Ari Leo to commit but she didn’t really want the responsibilities and pain of cub bearing to be hers. She put the wand in the trash and went down stairs to her father’s kitchen. She pulled a beer from the fridge. She lit a cigarette. Her father was still at work and she was alone in the large bush home of Ashley Lyon. She dialed Ari Leo. He didn’t answer. She phoned her cousin, Georgy Simba.
“Georgy, I’m preggers,” she announced.
“Is it Ari Leo’s?” squealed Georgy in excitement.
“Of course he is the father. He’s the only one I’ve been shagging, dummy.”
“When is the wedding?” enthused Georgy who had one cub and another in the oven.
“I haven’t told him yet. Will you help me pick out a wedding dress at Mom’s this week?”
“Yeesss!! I’m so excited for you, Imani.”
“It’s great, huh?”
“You’ll love being a mom,” said Georgy, who truly felt that way.
“I just need to get Ari to commit. This is a sure way,” was Imani’s halfhearted response.
Lachlan and I made up for the second time one evening upon returning from our respective work places.
“I’ve been avoiding you out of guilt, Maury,” he said, sadly.
“It’s not necessary, Lach. I love you and all is forgiven. I’ll even forget it soon,” I told him.
“You are a very special animal, Maurice.”’
“And I am committed to one, Lach. You are also an extraordinary being and I love you.”
“And I love you, Maury. Can we start over?”
“Of course we can.”
We attended one of those benefit functions that are so prevalent these days. This one was sponsored by former first lioness, Mildred Lyon and was in support of the Mildred Lyon breast cancer wing of the Tigeres-Lyon Clinic. Betty and Shane were back and it was held in the glamorous setting of the Leoparde-Lyon Safari Club main ballroom. It was heavily attended. Lachlan and I felt like honeymooners – all giddy and happy as larks. He bought a new suit for the occasion.
former first lioness, Mildred Lyon toasts the evening........Shane and Betty at the same event.
“I’m pregnant, Ari,” duly reported Imani Lyon one evening when they were bedded in his bungalow on the Leo pride estate.
“That’s special, Imani, don’t you use anything?” he snarled.
“Guess not,” she giggled. “Both my prides are powerful. You don’t want to muck with the Lyons or the Simbas. You need to marry me.”
“Thanks a million, I needed that.”
“Set a date?”
“Oh boy,” he groaned.
“Next week?”
“You’ve got me between a rock and hard place, Imani.”
“That’s right, sweetie. We are gonna get married,” she sang, sallying around the room buck naked. “Wedding bells will ring.”
In a rather hasty affair set up in her mother’s home on Leoparde Drive, Imani Lyon and Aristotle Leo tied the knot. Both Ashley Lyon and Leah Simba Tarzan were perplexed at the gravitas that propelled their surly daughter and one of the erudite Leos to wed this hurriedly. The fact that Imani had to rush twice to her mother’s powder room and toss her cookies due to early pregnancy nausea was attributed to bridal nerves. A small gathering was present to observe the mid-morning vows being taken. They consisted of Ashley Lyon, the groom’s mother, Leah Tarzan and her hubby Jack, Lisa Lyon Leo, and grandmothers, Mildred Lyon and Janice Jaguar Simba. Ralph Lyon had a golf game with his son Lewis that he wasn’t about to forego for his obnoxious granddaughter’s rushed nuptials. Roy Lee Simba was in rehearsals for Evita at the theater. Georgy Simba was the bride’s only attendant. The groom had none and boredom was written all over his leonine face. He even had the nerve to yawn during the ceremony. Ashley and Leah cast worried looks at each other when this occurred.
Imani gets a pedicure before her wedding....
Shane Simba arrived at his new home after work at the State House. Betty was there, having spent the better part of the day at the university working out details and plans for her classes. Aunt Leander was in the main sitting room with her pitcher of martinis before her, hiccupping in a sodden but affable manner. She had just spilled a cigarette ash on the Persian carpet which a maid was attending.
“Does she stay drunk?” asked Shane, feeling a little put out that his wife and he had almost no privacy except in their boudoir due to the ever present Aunt Leander.
The lioness was always in the main room or going to the veranda when Shane and Betty were there.
“I think she mostly does, darling. You didn’t know this about her? She’s your aunt after all,” said Betty, giving him a welcoming kiss.
“I never lived with her, Betty. Mom didn’t drink,” he said, pouring a drink for himself, lighting two cigarettes and handing one to his wife.
“I know your mother didn’t drink
but you’re aunt does and we both do, so sort of chill out regarding
this particular topic, darling.”
The couple went to the veranda which was one of their favorite spots in the home. Aunt Leander followed and sat on the couch where Shane had planned to sit.
“Any good television shows on tonight, Auntie?” asked Shane, hoping his aunt would remember something she just had to watch and leave the room where he longed for a few moments alone with his wife.
“Not till nine o’clock, Shane,” said Leander, accepting a fresh pitcher of martinis from the houseboy.
Shane's Aunt Leander with her ever present drink....
In the late Sarah Lee’s mansion across town, Shane’s other aunt, Goosey Simba, was proving adept at seeking legal aid in not being evicted from her dead sister’s home that was owned by Shane Simba now. In a drunken but crafty manner, Goosey called for a press conference. When the media arrived, they found the ferocious lioness sitting in the front yard with a beer and a cigarette dangling from her lips. She informed the reporters that she was sticking to her guns and would not be evicted by her presidential nephew – no matter what. And that was that.
The next day, the place was rolled with toilet paper by pranksters. The lioness wouldn’t allow the bits and pieces to be removed. The estate became even more of an eyesore.
Goosey Simba flips a bird to the neighbors...
Imani Janice Lyon Leo had no idea that she would live her married life in Aristotle Leo’s bungalow on the Leo pride estate and eat every evening meal in a formal manner in the main mansion. This was a habit of the elegant and erudite lion pride and they were not about to change it due to the passing of their beloved patriarch, William Leo. In the graceful formal dining room with the mahogany banquet table, pride members would attend supper. This was not a come-as-you-are kind of thing. The Leos DRESSED for dinner. Sitting at the head of the table, since William’s death, was his eldest son, Larry Leo. At his left was his wife, Lisa Lyon Leo. To his right was his mother, Portia Leo. At the opposite end was Laura Leo. Imani Lyon was scared shitless of the lioness with the fierce reputation who had finally found her niche teaching in Betty’s creative writing department at the university. One look from Laura’s yellow eyes could make Imani almost collapse into herself. The discussions were of an intellectual nature. Imani wished someone would just reference a fashion blog or even a sport’s magazine. It was all about the state of Kenya and academia. Imani wanted to yawn but one wary glance cast Laura’s way even prevented this. In short, the newly wed and pregnant young modeling sensation was miserable.
Dining room in the Leo pride manor house....
Betty sometimes wanted to pinch herself. Then suddenly, she would have a slight chill at the remembrance of things past. It was all part and parcel of her reunion with Shane Simba. Their romantic second wedding on the bluff at Sam Simba’s house was unforgettable. The look in Shane’s eyes as he took Betty’s hand and pulled her close for the ceremony was etched in her memory. Now the couple was situated in their new home – the first ever built with their preferences in mind. Betty has always created the coziest and most eclectic homes and this one was no exception. She and Shane would gather in a home office designed for two and dressed out with beautiful antique desks for each of them. There he would work on his presidential projects for the following day, while she worked on her outlines for classes. Before this were drinks and kicking back after a long work day. The nights were even better in the beauty and comfort of their bedroom.
After a game of golf at the Sporting Club... And in Mombasa....
Ashley Lyon was in the kitchen of his bush house. The maid had left and he was about to go to the living room for a televised soccer game.
“Hi Dad, I’m back. I couldn’t take that fancy shmancy Leo shit anymore,” announced Imani, dumping her bag on the tile floor.
“Jeez, Imani, you just got married the other day.”
“Dad, it’s been two shitty weeks.”
“Don’t you stick with anything?” snarled Ashley.
“No, dear dad, I guess I take after you.”
She opened the freezer and found her ice cream supply. She took a gallon to her room.
“Ciao,” she said, as she walked the stairs to her bedroom.
That same week, Cutty Sark Simba found that her cub was a male. She and Dickey celebrated with dinner at Klip 'n Dodi's restaurant.
“Dickey, you will have to do something about your mother’s presence in my home on Leoparde Drive,” declared Shane Simba.
“Dickey Simba was in Shane’s office on a matter of State House business when his half-brother tossed this in the ring.
“Shane, I can’t do a damn thing about it. My mother is crazy and adamant about staying in that house. I wish to hell you had just let Aunt Leander return to the pride house and this never would have happened,” said Dickey, holding his ground.
“Shoulda, woulda, coulda,” groaned Shane. “I wish I had too but I didn’t and now the place is an eyesore and in the news almost every day with the neighbors complaining.”
“Why don’t you build another house on the pride land and move Aunt Leander and Mom into that one? You’re a freaking billionaire,” suggested Dickey.
“That just might be a plan, Dickey,” said Shane, his eyes lighting up.
“The pride territory is off the beaten path and no one is around to see what happens there,” added Dickey.
“Right you are.”