Shane Simba was so relieved that he was the true progenitor of Johanna’s natural pregnancy that he purchased a villa on the French Riviera at Cap Ferat just above Cannes.  All doubt had been removed upon the blood test taken on the fetus.  He took Johanna there for an extended vacation.  Being toward the end of summer, he had accomplished much for Kenya and felt he deserved a break.  Shane badly needed a chance to unwind. 

Shane and Johanna at the new villa in Cap Ferrat.......

            A dejected Betty saw pictures of Shane and Johanna as they vacationed together in their new villa.  She was perplexed and wondering if he had rethought his feelings for his human lover.  She also spotted Tarek and Jalil in the pictures with their father and Johanna. 

“Damn him!” she exclaimed aloud not realizing that Solly was behind her. 

“Damn who, Mommy?”

“No one, darling, just your silly mother thinking out loud.  Let’s go to see Wilda this weekend.  We can see Jalil and Tarek and all of your friends.”

“Good, Mommy, I miss the Mara.”

Betty with her son, Solly Simba in Naro Moru......
 

            Betty and her son landed in the Mara and went directly to her house on Leoparde Drive.  Wilda Wildebeest, her long time friend who was staying in the home, welcomed them.  In the evening after Solly had gone to the mansion to greet his newly arrived father and siblings, Betty and Wilda took drinks to her veranda. 

“Betts, why don’t you buy a place in Manhattan?  You have a real life and career there.   You could get away from Africa for a while and the constant reminders of Shane,” suggested Wilda, lighting a cigarette. 

“Why haven’t I thought of that, Willie?  Would you visit me there?”

“Do jackals howl?  I’d be sitting on your doorstep,” laughed Wilda. 

“I might just do that, Willie but I still can’t figure Shane and his not wanting to divorce me.  He said we would work our way back together then bought a house in France and took Johanna there.”

“Betty, wake up and smell the coffee.  That god damn lion isn’t going to be there for anyone.  He is the player of all players.  Just know this and get on with your life.  You have too much on the ball to sit around and mope about that son-of-a-bitch forever.  One of the reasons that I resigned as the anchor for the State House when Ralph Lyon retired was that I have never been able to stomach Shane Simba.  He is a complete prick.”

“I just can’t seem to move on past him.  I’m just too hooked on him, Willie.”

“The next time he follows you to wherever you are hiding, if you don’t shoot him, I damn sure will.”

            In the bush house far removed from the madding crowd, Jack Tarzan wrote on his book late at night after a convivial evening in front of the fire with Patsy.  He wrote in his clean, concise yet moving way of the angst and tribulations in living a life of exile.  Jack had no idea of how riveting was his style of prose.  He did realize that his column had constant readers and Jane had told him that he had increased the readership for the Masai Mara Daily.  Bob Bushbuck also included his column in his recently acquired newspaper in Nairobi. 

            Trevor Tau made his way into the inner sanctum of JAGGERS glamorous interior.  He looked around for Leah Simba.  A chic female approached him and asked if she could show him some merchandise. 

“I’m looking for Leah Simba,” he told her. 

She led him to a luxurious office where a secretary sat at an elegant mahogany desk.  She rang her boss and told Leah who was awaiting her.  The secretary rose and led Trevor to the inner office.  There Leah sat behind a desk of even more elegance than her secretary’s.  She came to greet him with a kiss to the cheek. 

“What is that perfume you’re wearing, Leah?  It’s lovely.”

“One of my mother’s own line of fragrances.  Please sit down, Trevor.  Would you like a drink?”

“This is quite a sophisticated office, Leah.  It suits you.”

“I love my job here.  It’s probably more me than the mayor’s office,” she giggled.

“What are you doing exactly?”

“Mom has made me her Executive Assistant and buyer.  Some things she buys rather than design herself,” explained Leah.  My cousin Landa is designing some clothing and accessories.  Mom has almost retired from the designing end.  But I know that this is boring to you, Trevor…..I’m sorry I got on a roll.”

“Nothing you do bores me, Leah.  That’s what I’ve come to say.  Can we have another go at it?  I’ve been foolish as well.  I’d love another chance.”

“I suppose we could.”

“You seem hesitant.”

“I thought you had found someone, Trevor.”

“I am in love with you, Leah, which never has changed.”

“I have to be honest with you.  You seem so afraid of being hurt.  I met someone who is quite extraordinary.”

“I’ll take my chances - how about dinner tomorrow at my place?”

“That sounds wonderful, Trevor, can I bring anything?”

“Just your beautiful self, Leah.”

            Betty bought a pied-à-terre on Fifth Avenue in New York City.  She spent two weeks there while Solly visited with his father and siblings.  She met a fascinating decorator who helped her furnish the place.  She, her editor and the decorator, who was named Marc and gaudily gay, did the night scene in Manhattan.  They dined at Babbo’s among other stylish restaurants.  Betty returned to the Mara tired but rather contented.  She called for Solly to be brought from the State House.  They returned to Naro Moru and the view of Mt. Kenya. 

Betty's new pad in NYC....

            The full moon hung low over the Mara River when Leah pulled into Trevor’s drive.  She had brought a bottle of wine.  He opened the door and pulled her into his arms.  They ate well and drank much.  The rest of the evening was spent in bed where their lovemaking reached giddy proportions. 

Leah with Trevor.....

            Jack Tarzan took a few days off and drove to Betty’s home in Naro Moru.  There he showed her the completed manuscript for his book with the working title: EXILE: A Life.  She read the entire night as he slept beside her.  The next morning Betty was up at the crack of dawn.  The aroma of freshly ground Kenyan coffee, from this very region, assaulted Jack as he rose from sleep.   

“Jack, this is a masterpiece.  Let me introduce you to my publisher and editor.  I just bought an apartment in Manhattan.  We can go there and take your manuscript to him.”

“That would be wonderful, Betty.”

“Where are you going this time, Betty?” asked Shane Simba.

“New York City, Shane, I’m taking a friend to introduce him to my publisher,” she explained holding her temper in check.  “I will bring Solly there for the time being.  He wants to be with you and the twins.”

“Who is this friend?”

“Jack Tarzan who has written a magnificent book.  Thank you for clearing all of his records and allowing him to return to Kenya.  He has a big future ahead of him.”

Betty hoped this would send a zing to his innards.  It did.

“I’m not so sure it was a wise move now.  You seem to be growing even fonder of him, Fifi.”

“No fonder than you are of your pregnant lady, Shane.  I saw the pictures from France - very revealing and most enlightening.”

“I told you that I am seeing Johanna through this pregnancy…….”

“Stop the bullshit, Shane.  I’ll drop Solly off Wednesday.”

She hung up and lit a cigarette.  Jack and Solly came in from kicking a soccer ball around the yard.

“We are all set, Jack.  I talked to Shane.  He is going to keep Solly while we are in Manhattan.  Is next Thursday okay with you?”

“Yes, Betty, and thank you very much for everything you have done for me.  I would still be hibernating in that fishing boat if you hadn’t come along.”

“Jack, I love you – and don’t let that frighten you.  It is a lovely kind of love.  There is nothing frantic or crazy about it.  I like feeling that way about you and believe me, there are no strings attached.”

“You have changed my life for the better.  I don’t fear you loving me.  I know it is not the same kind as you have for Shane Simba.”

Betty looked pensive and melancholy. 

“I don’t think I will ever be free of this obsession I have for Shane.  It is such a burden, Jack.”

“Don’t despair, Betty.  One day you may just wake up and find it gone.”

“I certainly hope so.”

            If Betty had thought the streets of Manhattan would be too much for Jack Tarzan to handle, she had truly misjudged her friend.  He took to them like a duck to water.  Wilda Wildebeest accompanied the twosome to New York. 

Jack and Betty on her balcony overlooking Central Park....

“Betty, that is a lion that I actually like,” mused Wilda on an afternoon when Jack had gone looking about the area on his own. 

“You have loved Ralph Lyon, Willie,” teased Betty. 

“I still adore Ralph but I’m speaking of ‘like’.  Jack is such a genuine chap.  I usually detest lions and it stems from a childhood fear of them and being a wildebeest and all but Jack is a wonderful sort - not at all like that damn husband of yours.”

The phone rang and Betty answered.

“Betty, that lion of yours is a genius – a sort of leonine Hemingway.  We want his book.  We will pay him major bucks.  Will you tell him that?” raved Betty’s editor. 

            When Jack returned and heard the news, he invited Wilda and Betty to pick a restaurant and they would dine there.  It would be his treat.  He could easily end up moneyed. 

“Oh come on, Luce, you’ve got to be kidding me,” moaned Ashley Lyon. 

“I’m not joking, Ash, I am preggers.  Isn’t it wonderful?”

“No, it’s not wonderful, Lucy.  My divorce won’t be final for many months.  I thought you were on the pill.”

“I don’t use the pill.  I have trouble getting pregnant.”

 

“Not this time, you didn’t.  How about a nice little abortion?”

Lucy collapsed on his sofa in a flood of tears.  “Noooooooooo!!!!!!”

Ashley was in a tight spot.  He was very aware that Lucy was the daughter of his parent’s best friends.  He also loved Sylvia and Bernard Cougar and didn't want to anger them. 

He sat head in paws for a long while before saying, “Okay, Luce.  I’ll ask Shane Simba to make an exception for us and push my divorce through so we can marry.”

Lucy was so elated that she ran and jumped in his lap, throwing her arms around him and plying him with kisses.

            Ashley sat in Shane’s office.  He had just asked him to push his divorce through to completion although his ex-wife was Shane’s niece. 

“Has Leah contested it in anyway, Ash?” asked her uncle.  “I’ll have to get her permission.”

“Leah is the one that filed, Shane.  The divorce wasn’t my idea.  Leely is in love with Trevor Tau.”

            Though surprised, Leah didn’t block the fast lane to her divorce.  Shane called his brother, Chief Magistrate Sefu Simba and told him to make Ashley and Leah’s divorce effective immediately.

“Okay, Shane, but I hope you don’t plan on doing this a lot for your buddies,” griped Sefu, who was hell bent on the laws being upheld. 

“I don’t really know, Sef.  I probably shouldn’t have signed the damn thing lengthening the period of finalization.  Some animals and people are not as happily married as you are.”

“It gives them time to think, Shane.  That’s the whole point of the law,” argued Sefu.

“Who needs time?” laughed Shane.

After hanging up the phone, Sefu answered that last question unheard.

“You do, Bro.  You are the main one who needs a law like this.”