OUR NATIONAL TRAGEDY
Obsessed by a fairy tale, we
spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.
Eugene O’Neill
Shane Simba works to relieve a stricken Kenya....
The suffering resulting from the ethnic strife in Kenya worsened. President Shane Simba and former President Ralph Lyon continued their milk stops to the various hamlets, villages and conflicted areas. I doubt seriously if Shane gave much thought to the rip in his marriage. I know him. He is consumed now by Kenya and the governing of it. Things were pretty calm in the Mara, Samburu and other former so called ‘game reserves’. These are, for the most part, populated by animals. The human inhabitants of the Mara consist typically of the Masai people whose dog is not in the tribal struggle.
I grew quite fond of Dickey Simba as we worked diligently to keep things going at the State House. I think Alexandra’s personal secretary, Bernice Bear, was a bit perplexed at the first lady not returning to her husband during this terrific conflict – but then observers never truly fathom the dynamics involved in a marriage.
“Coffee anyone?” invited the sexy voice of Dickey Simba.
“I would love to join you for coffee….Starbucks in the mall or the pub?” inquired Betty Chimpo.
“How about the pub thing, I’m driving from the State House and the pub is closer and will be quieter on the deck - might as well take advantage of this glorious weather. Not much else is glorious in Kenya at the moment.”
Dickey Simba emerging from Starbucks.....
When she arrived, Dickey was on the deck reading the Kenya Post with two cups of coffee in front of him.
She patted him on the shoulder and took a chair at the iron table. He pushed a latte toward her.
“Are things easing in Kenya?” she asked as he lit her cigarette.
“Not at all,” he said, lighting his own. “You wouldn’t know it from the quietness of the Mara but elsewhere things are going to hell in a bloody bucket.”
“It’s all so terrible, Dickey.”
“That it is and to add to his woes, I think Shane and Alexandra are having marital problems. They are separated for the time being.”
“Oh how terrible,” she said quite spontaneously.
Good God, I really meant that - I am sincerely sorry for their split, she thought in total wonder at this self revelation.
Dickey gave her a sharp look, his tawny eyes narrowed.
“I have always heard that you are still totally stuck on Shane,” he said.
“It seems to have evaporated to a great degree. I am truly sorry that this is happening to their marriage. I’m sure it will smooth itself out. Let’s hope so.”
The birds kept up a merry chatter in the trees around them. The sun was warm although it was beginning its descent over the burnished hills to the east. Everything looked verdant and lush - the scent was fresh from the recent monsoon season. Betty breathed deeply and gloried in the atmosphere and her coffee drinking partner. They chatted of things political and otherwise.
Georgy Simba and her cousin, Imani Lyon, were in cut throat competition as models. They were vying with their various magazine covers and glamorous, lucrative advertising contracts.
Georgy was, once again, in the throes of her passion for Sean Simba. A major difference was the fact that Georgy was practicing meticulous birth control these days – or should I say ‘nights’. Sean and Georgy could move around with a comparative lack of media attention. These troubled days reporters were focusing on Kenya’s bloodbath. The President’s naughty and rather air-headed son was of no real interest at the moment. The media, in the confusion of the times, had not even gotten a glimmer that Alexandra Simba was not present in the State House. Shane was all around the country, mostly in the company of Ralph Lyon, attempting to ease the tensions and violence running riot in the human population of Kenya.
Sean and Georgy on an outing....
Alexandra Simba, finally realizing that she had chosen a poor time to teach her husband a lesson, placed a call to him. Matter of fact, she placed several that went unanswered. Shane was all over Kenya and dropping from exhaustion after a harrowing and frustrating day of attempted mediation. At times he returned to the mansion in the Mara, at others he slept in the places he had gone that day. Whichever the case, he was almost brain dead by the time he dropped.
Alexandra Simba badly miscalculates her period of absence....
On one of the rare days, Shane was present in his office in the Masai Mara; his secretary placed a call to his ex-wife, Betty Chimpo, and asked if she could come there. She arrived in the early afternoon, after her morning class. She was shown to his inner office. Betty was shocked at Shane’s appearance. His handsome leonine face was etched in weariness and worry. He was slumped in the chair behind his desk. He was about to rise in greeting, when she stopped him.
“Shane, please don’t get up. I have never seen anyone look so drained in all my days.”
“Betty, what’s going on in Kenya could destroy the very vestiges of our carefully constructed new age for animals and humans. It is a tragedy of such proportions, I can hardly speak of it,” he said, his voice breaking.
“I am so sorry, Shane. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I called you here to ask you to take Solly, Tarek and Jalil to your home. I am never at the mansion now and Alexandra has gone.”
“Oh, Shane, of course I will,” she said and began to cry.
He cried also. There they sat - former mates who had shared so much hurt, ecstasy and regret in addition to three sons, grieving over their country’s current tragedy in concert. They managed to pull themselves together and discuss the cubs and Kenya. Shane ordered hot tea for them. Finally, Betty had to depart for her next class at the University. She stood to leave.
“Fifi, I am very proud of you,” he said, his green eyes filled with anguish.
“As I am of you, darling,” she answered.
She left the office barely holding back the tears. She went to her car and there she wept for a time before starting her engine and heading for the campus.
Solly Simba called his mother, Betty, and told her that he would stay put in the mansion.
“Mom, I’ll bring Tarek and Jalil to your place but Dad needs me now,” he explained.
“Oh, Solly, I think you need to do just,” agreed Betty.
I suppose these national catastrophes either bring out the worst or best in those involved. Sean Simba did a great deal of thinking. He was between sports seasons and wanted to assist his dad in some meaningful way.
“I’ve been a self centered asshole,” he told Georgy Simba, who was lying next to him in his bed. “I need to help Dad in one way or another.”
“You’ve certainly been that,” she concurred.
Ashley Lyon and his partner, Luke Leoparde, wanted to be of national service. They offered their planes and pilots to help with humanitarian aid in the stricken regions of Kenya.
All reporters were dispersed to the districts involved, among them Jane Leoparde and Jack Tarzan.
Chris Simba and his employer, Sylvia Leoparde Cougar, worked night and day designating funds to aid in the crisis that was taking such a toll. The Leoparde Bank and Nathan Leoparde Memorial Fund contributed millions as did Lewis Lyon and Shane Simba.
Although not directly linked to the animal populations, the fear was rising that our society would be destroyed by the human devastation surrounding us. It seemed as if Lachlan’s patient load became much greater. The animal churches were filled each Sunday with prayers to those above to stem the tide of human destruction in Kenya before all was lost.
On a lighter but slightly irritating note, it seems that nothing affects Bertram Baboon’s little world, not even these terrible events. He finally cajoled me into to joining him in one of our frequent lunch trysts. There I sat truly amazed as he chattered on about film awards and studio problems as if our country wasn’t falling into shambles around him.
Alexandra Simba flew her small plane to the Mara and went to the mansion. It was late evening and she found her husband sitting in the library with a drink. He was alone and starring into the flames of a fire that was crackling with life. He looked up when he saw her but failed to move.
“Shane, how can I make it up to you for leaving at such a terrible time?” she asked, her own face rather ravaged by worry.
“I don’t know that you can, Alex,” he said, very softly and with a terrible sadness.
“Oh, Luv, I am so very sorry.”
“Alexandra, humans are threatening to bring Kenya into a crisis that often befalls other African nations but not ours since the Mau Mau. We animals could lose our very lives and be tumbled from power. This tribal bloodbath threatens all life in this country. Do you realize this?”
“Yes, Shane, I do. I left Tanya and Sacha at the plantation but I will bring them back too.”
“Don’t do that, Alex. They are safer in the highlands. You are too. Just stay there. I’ll call you if things get better.”
“But Shane, I want to be here with you,” she sputtered.
“Not now, Alexandra. I don’t have time for a personal life these days. It’s better that you stay on the plantation.”
“I want to help, Shane.”
“Go back, Alex. You and the twins are safer there. Do I have to repeat this again?”
Alexandra was horrified. Either he was too weary to deal with issues tonight or he was through with her. She couldn’t really judge. She spent the night in the mansion guest room and returned to her plantation early the next morning.
The media as well as all of us were in love with our young lion president these days. He was totally dedicated and devoid of any thought but the country he governed. In Eldoret where he went in another effort to quell the atrocities, the reporters were assembled and approving his every move. He truly deserved that praise. He was tireless in his efforts to save Kenya from itself.
former President Ralph Lyon and current President Shane Simba in Eldoret, Kenya....
Ashley Lyon agreed for his wife, Staci Simba Lyon and their new cubs to move temporarily to the executive mansion in order to cheer and be supportive of her beloved father when Shane was there. Ashley joined her when he was in the Mara.
The Tigeres-Lyon Clinic dispatched medical teams to the stricken areas and their halls and waiting rooms were filled with refugees fleeing the regions in conflict.
On an evening after a strenuous and harrowing day at the State House, Dickey Simba called Betty and invited for dinner at OKAPI’S. She dressed carefully and met him there.
Sloane Simba and Lucy Cougar, fully realizing that the halcyon days of animal equality and ascendancy could end soon, clung to each other in a special tenderness. They soothed one another in the darkness of the East African night and grew even closer.
lovers, Lucy Cougar and Sloane Simba....
Charlotte Elephanti, the great elephant matriarch, opened her barn doors to human refugees. Her long time friends and employees were from the Kikuyu tribe and she wanted to be of help. Her husband, Cappie Cape Buffalo, sat quietly on the oversized couch with his tick bird companion, Bertie, and watched as his wife held forth in front of her captive but grateful audience.
Charlotte Elephanti comes to the aid of the crisis victims..