LOSS AND NEWFOUND LOVE
"He would have liked his own funeral if he could have seen it. It was small and quiet, and really not at all pompous…….”
Peter S. Beagle, A Fine And Private Place
The late William Leo, lion and scholar....
Death has robbed us of one of our most revered citizens – the erudite and scholarly lion, William Leo. William had suffered from a heart condition for some time. He went quietly and without pain surrounded by his pride members on an early evening last week. The funeral was held in the First Church of the Ascending Predator where Ralph Lyon gave a profound and moving eulogy for his old friend. It was an elegant finale for a grand being.
Shane Simba, having guided Kenya through this time of turmoil, has become a legend in his own right. I went with him to Nairobi the other day where he was literally mobbed by animals and people holding placards and shouting, “We love you, Rais Simba”.
Our popular President, Shane Simba......
Former First Lioness, Mildred Lyon has formed a committee to tend the refugees that are camping in sections of Nairobi and even the Masai Mara. Mildred was an exceedingly energetic mate in the State House proactively initiating the battle against AIDS. When Mildred sets her mind to a task as her husband tells it - “Hell hath no fury like Millie in the throes of a project – it puts PMS in the shade.”
A bit put off by William Leo’s demise, Ralph Lyon took Cynthia Cheetah’s advice and joined RUNNERS. He is personally ‘getting fit’ with the help of trainer, Gerald Giraffe. I wish I could be a fly on the wall during those sessions.
‘
Betty with me at William Leo's funeral....
Betty Chimpo was unable to join Dickey Simba in Nairobi. She was very fond of William Leo whose encouragement kept her going when she first arrived in the Masai Mara as a young reporter. They had both worked with the Daily at that time and William had taken Betty under his wing. She attended his funeral instead of joining her new lover.
Tanzanian lion president Pete Levin is in the Mara. He preferred staying in the penthouse suite of Lewis Lyon’s Four Seasons Hotel rather than be confined to the guest quarters on the State House grounds. Shane and Alexandra Simba were relieved rather than insulted. Pete can be a major pain in the ass at times. On his first night in town his limousine driver thoughtfully delivered Imani Lyon to the hotel. Once inside the elegant lobby, Imani, dressed in her most sensual outfit, sashayed to the elevator, ignoring the glances of curious guests. There she entered the glass enclosure, punched the button and ascended to her destination.
Imani Lyon dates Tanzanian President Pete Levin during his visit to the Masai Mara...
After working with ministerial parties to soothe frayed tribal nerves, Dickey Simba arrived back in the Mara. He went first to the State House where he made his report to Shane. At closing time he headed home. There were multiple messages on his answering machine. There was Caroline Cheetah followed by an irate Simone Serval in addition to muddled messages from a drunken Chloe Cougar. These three females had called repeatedly. Dickey retrieved his hash bong and made a drink. After getting pleasantly stoned, he phoned Betty.
Dickey making calls.....
At the other end of the call, Betty hesitated and had Babs answer, saying she wasn’t in yet. Betty made a drink and sat on the veranda facing the pool. She knew that she had fallen in love with Dickey Simba and it was very real. No obsessive shadow of Shane Simba clouded the picture as it had with Jack Tarzan. She lit a cigarette and heard the clip clop of Wilda Wildebeest’s approaching hooves.
“Deep thought, huh?” asked Wilda, noting her friend’s hunkered down posture on the veranda.
“Sort of, Willie. I am in love and please don’t laugh. I am not throwing myself off a cliff on this one either. He just phoned and I asked Babs to take the call.”
“Simba World again?”
“Yes, Dickey.”
“I told you that I like Dickey. He gives me my daily reports from his office but there is something slightly unsettling about him, Betts.”
“Willie, all lions with the exception of Ralph are unsettling to you,” argued Betty.
“Betty, it’s not that at all. I have my ear close to the ground as a reporter. I’ve heard rumors that Dickey Simba is a stoner.”
“A what?”
“A major drug user.”
“I doubt that if he uses, it is that much, Willie, he holds a very high post in the government of Kenya,” said Betty, not wanting to tell the reporter in Wilda of the hashish.
“Betty, you are so together at this point in time, please don’t go off the deep end over another Simba male.”
“Don’t worry, Willie, I’m being very cautious.”
Imani Lyon sat, legs primly crossed, in the home of her father and his wife, Staci Simba Lyon. She was observing her new half-brother and sister in their playpen.
“I hope they don’t show too much cheetah blood,” said the caustic and rarely restrained daughter of Ashley Lyon and Leah Simba. “Cheetahs have those tiny heads and weird bodies.”
Staci was half cheetah and lion, being the daughter or Shane Simba and his late wife, Catherine Cheetah. However, Staci wasn’t taking the bait. This was Ashley’s oldest offspring and known for her rude behavior in most quarters. The laid back Staci merely smiled and said nothing. The door opened and Ashley arrived filled with good natured hugs for his wife, cubs and oldest daughter. After grabbing a beer from the fridge, he turned to Imani.
“I hear you were at Lewis’ hotel last night shacking with Pete Levin. Is that really the thing for a young female like you to do, Imani?” asked her father.
“Dad, I am an adult now. Pete and I have been having a thing for quite a while. I could end up being the first lady of Tanzania,” she preened.
“Or his discard,” said Ashley, picking his infant daughter Cathy from her playpen and hugging her.
Ashley with infant daughter, Cathy Lyon......
Betty ascended the wide steps that led to the Watering Hole Pub’s deck. There sat Dickey Simba with the two coffees in front of him. He stood up and pulled out a chair. Betty sat down.
“Have you decided to avoid me, Betty? If you have, I can take myself out of the picture just as hastily as I put myself in it,” said Dickey pushing a double latte toward her.
She put a hand over his. “No, Dickey, not at all. I am just being careful. It’s an entirely new approach for me,” she smiled.
He leaned back and lit a cigarette, his tawny eyes serious. “I wasn’t planning a rush job on you, Betty. That’s not at all my style. We added sex to a growing friendship. For the time being, that’s all it amounts to.”
“I know this, Dickey, and I don’t want to ruin what we have with my usual overabundance of romantic enthusiasm. I have a history of that, you know.”
“What I believe you had was a profound obsession with Shane and maybe you are coming out from under that cloud and reassessing yourself. That can only be a good thing,” he said, in a crackerjack observation.
“You are exactly right. I am so impressed with your understanding of this. Dickey, I don’t want things to mess us up.”
He squeezed her hand. “It can only be messed up by one of us and I don’t think either wants this. So shall we proceed?”
“Yes, indeed,” she giggled.
“With the utmost caution, we can see where this takes us,” he added.
Betty Chimpo joins Dickey at the Pub...
Betty Chimpo was in the kitchen of Jane and Luke Leoparde’s bush home. She had been invited to dinner after Jane had guest lectured in her university class that afternoon.
“Betty, I slept with Shane in Eldoret about two weeks ago,” confessed Jane, who was making last minute preparations for a casserole to be put in the oven.
“Oh my God,” yelped Betty. “Was he back with Alexandra then?”
“No, not then…..he asked me to stay the night with him. I had gone for an interview. Betty, he fell asleep. We did nothing. He was so exhausted.”
“Janie, why are you telling me this - are you worried about it?”
“No, I just wanted to tell someone that I trust,” said the lioness sadly.
Betty put a hand on her friend’s arm. “You still love him, don’t you, Janie?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I do. And you don’t anymore, do you?”
“I will always love him but I think that now I am free of my obsession with him.”
“You thought you were over him when you married Jack and it wasn’t so, Betty.”
“I have reason to believe it is real now, Janie.”
“Are you seeing someone these days, Betty?”
“No…I just feel at peace,” answered Betty, wanting to keep the fact of Dickey Simba to herself for the time being – she felt him too special to share with anyone.
One backlash from the death of William Leo is the fact that his demented daughter, Laura, is now at the mental health center in the locked ward. Laura, for readers who are not familiar, is a very crazed lioness kept at bay only by her devotion to her now deceased father. She was married to Chris Simba at one time, having produced three cubs with him. The night after her father’s funeral, she found where he was living with Caitlin Cougar and screeched obscenities in the front yard until the police were called. Chief Bubba Simba incarcerated her for the night in the district jail, transporting her early the next morning to the center where she has remained under the care of Lachlan.
Leah Simba set the table for two in her Leoparde Drive home. The cubs were elsewhere and this was to be a special dinner with Jack. Old Patsy had retired early. Leah checked the chilling white wine and lit the candles. When she and Jack Tarzan sat to the table he wondered at the romantic atmosphere.
“It seems this is a special occasion, Leah. The table is set for romance,” he teased.
“I’m pregnant, Jack. We are going to be parents,” she said, leaning to give him a kiss.
“Leah, wasn’t there something difficult about you being pregnant, I thought the doctors had tied your tubes? Is this a good thing? I want nothing to happen to you,” he asked in alarm.
“It will be alright, Jack. I had Adam and Sim with no problems. Aren’t you happy, Jack? You don’t have to marry me.”
“I am very happy, Leah, and I most certainly want to marry you. I am just worried about you.”
“Jack, I will be fine, I promise you….my doctors are the best.”
Sean Simba finally managed to extricate himself from his mission in Nairobi and return to the Masai Mara. He had endured ten days of enforced service at the refugee camp. He headed for the sports bar in the pub where he found his father's former human squeeze, Dina Myers. The two hit it off and Sean gladly took Dina to his bush home for a proper bedding.
Dina meets her former lover's son in the Pub.....
Caroline Cheetah was not in the mood to be spurned by Dickey Simba. He was her choice of male after divorcing Sloane Simba and she was ready to bite the bullet and see the relationship to a good end – preferably marriage.
In a penthouse just across the way, Simone Serval had similar thoughts. She had nailed down a promising movie role at Baboon-Simba Studios and wanted to add to that accomplishment the devotion of Dickey Simba.
Who else but Ashley Lyon would offer his estate for the marriage of his ex-wife, Leah Simba, to Jack Tarzan? Nevertheless, that’s the way things transpired. Ashley, with a talent for remaining best friends with his ex-wives, invited Leah and Jack to wed at his elegant bush home that he shares with Staci Simba Lyon and their newborns. They took him up on it. Jack has a wonderful home in the Cholulu Hills but that area, being the site of some of the violence that has assailed Kenya, is not a feasible scene in which to host a wedding party. Lachlan and I received our invitations in today’s mail.