MEETING ALEXANDRA
Passion, though a bad regulator, is a powerful spring.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
President Shane Simba attended an honorary luncheon put on for him by the human descendants of colonials in Kenya. Most were prosperous farmers, coffee and tea growers or involved in Kenya’s growing industrial economy. The happening was in the Abedares Country Club in Nairobi. He pressed the flesh and charmed the group of well dressed people. A husky voice sounded just behind his left shoulder.
“Mr. President, you will be sitting at the main table with me,” it said.
Shane turned to find a woman of astounding beauty. She was almost as tall as he was which was very tall.
“That will certainly be my pleasure,” he told the striking young woman.
He went about chatting with his hosts and assembled guests but kept his eye on the tall blond that would be his luncheon seat mate. People kept pressing champagne flutes in the lion president’s paw so he was feeling absolutely no pain when everyone was finally seated. The blond stood up and put a fork to a crystal bell bringing the group to silence.
“As you all know, I am Alexandra Delamere and it is my pleasure and honor today to have our President say a few words.”
There was applause and then Shane stood to say some words of thanks to his hosts and give a brief outline of Kenya’s progress. Then he reseated himself next to Alexandra and turned his full attentions on the beautiful woman in the chair next to his. He learned that she was recently returned from Paris and a brief marriage.
“I am the accountant for the family holdings and tea plantation in the Rift Valley and highlands. I spend time between the Nairobi house and the Rift Valley and highland homes. My parents are dead, my siblings living in England so I am the only one around these days,” she told him.
“Do you ever get to Mombasa?” he inquired, taking a drink of his white wine.
“I have a home there, President Simba.”
“I would be very pleased if you would call me Shane.”
“Then you must call me Alexandra instead of Miss Delamere,” she said with a breathtaking smile.
“I go there to my beach home quite often. I seem to be hooked on the various water sports despite the fact that I’m a lion.”
“I’ve seen you in the media coverage. I love to wind sail.”
“Then we must get together soon and do some wind sailing together, Alexandra.”
“I’d like that very much. I’ll give you my cell phone number before you leave.”
“Please do.”
Shane meets an important Colonial descendant - Alexandra Delamere....
Ashley Lyon and Lucy Cougar’s nuptials were on a rainy windswept evening in the First Church of the Ascending Predator. The wedding was simple and elegant, Sylvia having talked her daughter in to wearing a cream colored dress of elegant style and cut instead of something white and flounced. The church looked lovely with flowers and candles. A reception followed at the Predator Club. The guests milled about drinking expensive liquors, champagne and eating marvelous finger foods in anticipation of a groaning banquet later. Ashley looked slightly shell shocked but true to his ability to keep his ex-wives close, Betty and Leah were present at the wedding and reception. Leah’s date was Dr. Trevor Tau and Betty came alone. I didn’t see Shane Simba although he had been instrumental in hastening Ashley’s divorce and was a good friend of his as well.
Everyone gathered to see the couple off on their honeymoon to the Seychelles. Lucy Cougar Lyon tossed her bouquet of lilies. It was caught by Leah who laughed sheepishly. Everyone got a bit of the giggles at the ex-wife of Ashley catching the bridal bouquet which tradition says will dictate the one to marry after the fact.
Shane said goodbye to Johanna, leaving her at the mansion, and headed for Mombasa where he was to meet Alexandra Delamere for some wind sailing. The pregnant Johanna was not happy to be left for the weekend with Shane’s youngest cubs her only company except for the domestic staff.
Betty and Solly wondered where Shane got to until the front page of the Masai Mara Daily ran a picture of Shane and Alexandra in the midst of preparations to wind sail together. Miss Delamere was immodestly clad in a very wee bikini, her long lean body for all to see. The President also wore his own version of the same. The phone rang. Betty answered to hear Wilda Wildebeest’s voice.
“I see the big boy has clamped down on another human damsel. He seems to be into those now. Betts, are you finally smelling the coffee?”
“I see that too, Willie. Damn, Shane is on another roll.”
“This one is the great granddaughter of Lord Delamere, one of the most famous colonialists in Kenya.”
“I knew that name rang a bell.”
“That family is not going to like one of their own to get a taste of bestiality. Delamere was also known for trying to organize an Apartheid movement in Kenya but failed. I’ll bet Shane doesn’t get that one into bed.”
“My money is on Shane when it comes to getting anyone in bed, Willie.”
Shane and Alexandra about to take off wind surfing....
The one in question was not having an easy time of it. He and Alexandra were at her home with sundowners watching the red sun sink into the Indian Ocean. Alexandra, though greatly intrigued, was no pushover. She was highly educated and no one’s fool. She had the blood of British colonialists running through her veins and wasn’t prone to getting hasty with her choices. She had already been bitten when she married a French exchange student who was studying in Oxford with her. She had married him after graduation and found that he was not one to be faithful. She had read enough about Shane to realize he had the same propensities.
“I’ve read of you and your affairs and I’m very wary of you,” she told him when he tried to approach her for a kiss.
“So that means you can’t even kiss me?”
“I am very aware of your physical charms but I am too aware of your record of breaking female’s hearts, Shane.”
“I can’t beg off of that charge, Alexandra.”
“No, I am sure you cannot.”
“So what does that give us? A frenetic bout of water sports? I must say you are very adept and skilled at surfing and wind sailing.”
“I think we can share those, Mr. President,” she smiled, taking his arm.
“Are you a tease, Alexandra?”
“What if I am?”
“I just might get rough.”
“You can’t afford to do that,” she teased with her slow and throaty giggle.
When the two parted, they both knew they would return to discover more of each other. The chapter was far from closed.
Ashley Lyon spent his honeymoon sailing, wind surfing and surfing as many hours of the day as he could. When he arrived back at the ritzy bungalow on the white sand beach in the Seychelles, he began to drink heavily. Lucy, who was only too happy to have become his bride, was in a fog of solid happiness, bubbling over with good spirits. Ashley would fall into a drunken sleep while Lucy joyously made plans over his supine body.
Chloe Cougar stood topless in front of her ex-husband Roy Lee Simba in the studio office.
“You have ruined all chances at being a serious actress. You were off to a good start too, Chlo,” scolded the lion superstar.
“Oh Roy, that is so absurd. Of course I can play serious roles since the boob job,” scoffed Chloe.
“If the studio has anything serious for a female encased in a voluminous muumuu, I’ll call you. With those tits of yours, don’t call us. Burlesque is dead and in its grave.”
However, Bertram Baboon had a splendid idea. He suggested that they revamp an old Mae West film and let it star Roy Lee’s big bosomed ex-wife.
“We could do it for the sheer camp of it, Roy Lee,” enthused Bertram.
“You’re probably on to something. Will you work it up and get Chloe in line? I have to get back to Italy by tomorrow. We have some more exterior work on Spartacus. I just came to oversee the additional camera equipment we need on location.”
“Of course, dear boy, do not worry, I will attend the matter.”
Betty Chimpo Simba was wise to put her money on Shane Simba (although there was none to be actually exchanged). He had Alexandra Delamere in bed before the end of the next week. Prying cameras caught them on her veranda in Mombasa. They seemed besotted with each other.
The sight of Shane on the front pages again with Alexandra sent Johanna to the hospital, causing Shane to have to interrupt a liaison in order to get back to the Mara and see to his pregnant lady. He took Johanna home after one night in the Exotic Animal Clinic. He stayed close for a while after that.
Betty visited Jack Tarzan in his bush home, taking Solly one weekend. The two had a relaxing time of walking with Solly about the farm and making love in Tarzan’s room at night. The early evenings were spent before a fire talking with Patsy. They made arrangements to visit New York again very soon. Betty’s memoirs were almost completed and Jack had to autograph his book at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue.
As her memoirs drew to a close, Betty began to tire of the isolation of Mt. Kenya and Naro Moru. She withdrew Solly from the school and returned with him to the house on Leoparde Drive, telling Wilda Wildebeest that she wanted her to remain with her in the house
“I plan to spend a lot of time in New York from now on, Willie,” she had explained to her long time friend.
The presidential staff in the State House waited for bad vibes to come across as the result of the President’s new human lover. Apparently the Kenyans were truly blasé about their leader’s sex lives as long as they ran the country well. You would have thought the French colonized this country instead of the Brits, but there it was. They adored their young, handsome and very vital President. I accompanied Shane on most of his trips and witnessed the crowds of admirers pressing close in order to grasp his paw or get a kind word from Shane. His audience was more like one that a rock star acquires – worshipful, screaming in delight and filled with young females of every persuasion. He continued to prod Kenya into the 21st century and into the world’s eye. He was already becoming a legend in his own time.
Alexandra was determined not to be one of Shane Simba’s victims. She had a degree in Economics and Political Science from Oxford University and knew her worth as a personality and a gorgeous young woman. At the moment Shane was totally enthralled with her. Alexandra planned to keep it that way. She made trips to her tea plantations in the Kenyan Highlands and Great Rift Valley without leaving word for him. She was an accomplished horsewoman and an intellectual to boot. She was fodder for no male. Her siblings, reading of her affair with the lion president, railed temporarily against bestiality but then quieted down after Alexandra reminded them that she, alone, attended their lucrative businesses in Kenya. Her home in the Great Rift Valley was a spectacular one and hidden from everything. Shane tracked her down there by way of her cell phone.
“You skipped town on me, Alexi, do you do that often?” he chided but with genuine amusement at her cheek.
“Yes, I do. It’s a habit of mine,” she laughed.
“Where are you?”
“In the Great Rift, do you want to join me here?”
“Yes, just give my pilot directions. I’ll be flying in.”
They spent an idyllic weekend with no media interruptions. The plantation great house was too far from prying eyes and cameras to be accessible to the media. It was in a stand of thorn, Jacaranda and Fever Trees and down a long winding road. A massive wild fig tree held back a spring which crossed the dirt road in a small but swift stream.
“I can never fall in love with an animal,” she had declared to him.
“You’re one too. A major primate….a greater form of ape,” he had laughed.
“Don’t ever take me seriously,” she had declared, putting her long arms around his waist and rubbing her face against his.
“I won’t make that mistake, I can assure you.”
“I’m lying again….I want you to take me very seriously. Make love to me please.”
