Imani Lyon meets her cousin, Georgy Simba, at Sarah Lee's brunch....

    Their first excursion in Imani’s SUV turned out to be a total bust thanks to Wally warthog who was devoted to Imani’s father, Ashley. The two cubs went to the Watering Hole Pub and tried to order beers. Wally remembered Imani from the time she had come in with her dad and refused to serve the two young cubs. That was thought to be a bummer by Imani and Georgy. The two then proceeded to Klip ‘n Dodi’s where the owner, Dodi Dik Dik Lyon, was very adept at ‘entertaining the young’. She had been threatened by Shane Simba when she gave his daughter, Staci, pot while still living in his home. She happily allowed the girls to order beers. Dodi was one of the wives of Imani’s grandfather, Ralph Lyon, and had been a lover and still good friend of her father, Ashley. Dodi happily turned her back while the cubs partied at her restaurant.

"Mom, I brought you a lot down from mine on Leoparde Drive. I’m getting Lewis Lyon to build on it for you. You need to think of what type of house you want," said Roy Lee as he sat with his mother on a late evening with Janice.

"Can it have a room for Leander?" asked Sarah Lee nodding toward her sister who sat on the sofa next to her with her seventh martini.

"Of course, Mom. Auntie Leander will have a whole suite to herself if she likes," answered the generous and amiable Roy Lee who was adored by all of his pride members.

"I would love that, Roy Lee," replied his aunt lighting a cigarette placed in her long rhinestone encrusted holder.

"Then I’ll move, Roy Lee. I need someone to care for me. I’m not getting any younger and Shane completely ignores me."

"You have plenty of children who don’t ignore you, Mom. Shane is president and has a lot on his plate," argued Roy Lee.

His plate is full of that human wife of his," snarled Sarah Lee.

    Lewis Lyon Construction started on Sarah Lee’s new home on Leoparde Drive after Sylvia and Bernard Cougar’s son, Nat, designed a veritable mansion for the aging lioness. It was put to Maude Lyon, now head of CHANGING SPOTS interior decorating department to plan the furnishings and drapes.

"Shit a brick," growled Ralph Lyon’s most irascible lioness, Maude. "That trashy old bat, Sarah Lee Simba is getting a mansion down the street from her son who sprayed my front door and rutted my yard with his damn motorcycle."

Tina Thompson Gazelle Okapi’s ears pricked at her long time boss’s grumbles about the Simba pride.

"Miss Maude, those Simbas are up in the world now," reminded Tina who was pregnant with her second fawn by Ossie Okapi’s son who happened to be her husband.

"My porch stunk for a week and the paint peeled off my front door from that spraying Roy Lee gave it."

"Every female around has a crush on Roy Lee Simba, Miss Maude," teased Tina, casting luminous doe eyes at her boss. "I have one too."

"Oh balls, girl, certainly you don’t have a crush on him too. You are a married doe wed to a nice hoofstock gent. Those Simbas were stil pulling ticks and fleas off each other when the Lyons and Leos were sitting around dining tables."

Tina laughed her silvery giggle as she took some papers to make copies.

Staci and Stanley Morrison the night he proposed.....

  Stanley Morrison invited Staci Simba Mnyama, sans Lee Simba, to a fine restaurant he knew of and frequented in Nairobi. He had made reservations and the candles were already lit on the table at 8:30 sharp. A silver cooler with a fine wine sat chilling with crystal goblets at the ready. They were seated and lit cigarettes, Staci having taken up the habit. the waiter poured the wine. Stanley took Staci’s paw in his warm hand.

"Staci, I might as well confess that I’m in love with you and being in that state wish to marry you," he said, color flushing his face and flashing his toothy appealing grin.

"I love you too, Stan. I honestly do but I don’t know what to do about Juma, my husband."

"Staci, he must know we see each other. We make the papers at least every other week. Doesn’t he ever inquire or say anything about it?"

"I never talk with him, Stanley."

"Never?"

"Never."

"Don’t you think it’s time you resolved the issue, Staci?"

"I’ll go to the Mara Friday and stay with Daddy and Alex. I’ll talk to Juma. Would you like to go too?"

"I don’t think this would exactly be the time for me to pop in for a visit, do you?"

Staci giggled. "I guess not, but I’ll miss you terribly."

"Let’s toast to a successful speak with your current hubby."

They clicked glasses. The waiter poured more wine and took their order for Coque au vin. The evening was lovely. They returned to Staci and Lee’s borrowed home and told Lee of Stanley’s proposal. Staci’s first cousin and dear friend, although liking Stanley too, took the news with the proper grace.

    Being in and out of Shane’s office, I was witness to several meetings he had with Ralph’s magnate son, Lewis Lyon. They were discussing purchasing cargo planes and setting up a transportation airline for Kenyan exports (mostly of fresh foods and other perishable commodities). The deal was accomplished and Lewis and Shane once more became partners in a lucrative business deal. At one point Pete Levin, the new President of Tanzania, was present. I am sure they made a deal to transport his goods as well.

    I discussed this later with Lachlan. We were sitting on our back patio listening to the go away birds and cicadas begin their evening chorus.

"I suppose that the ones who have the capital to invest are the ones that have to make these things like transport for food items possible. It creates magnates but what can you do about it, Maury? In this world, them that has gets."

"Shane is going to be a very rich lion," I mused.

"He already is, Maury."

Shane Simba and his wife, Alexandra....

  It was discussed in another quarter as well. Alexandra Simba was a bit perturbed that her husband was into yet another lucrative business deal.

"Shane are you not making money on the back of the country you govern?", she asked him.

"Alex, Kenya doesn’t have the money to buy these planes. Lewis and I do but they will benefit Kenya. We are getting complaints from the countries we sell fresh foods to that some are spoiled when they reach their destinations. This will rectify the situation. Lew and I are building refrigerated storage houses for interim use. It is all fine, Alex. Don’t worry, your hubby is not becoming a fat cat president."

"Well," she giggled, sitting on his lap. "My hubby is most definitely a cat. Just so he doesn’t become one fat on the back of his nation, I will be contented and keep my mouth shut. By the way, Janice called me today. Did Lew mention that his company is building a house down the street from Roy Lee and Janice for your mum? Roy Lee is doing this for her."

"No, by now I am sure that everyone knows that Mom and I are not on the best of terms."

"We will be attending the house warming party when it is completed. Maude Lyon is doing the decorations."

"Oh damn," laughed Shane. "Maude is one of Ralph’s lionesses. She hates the Simba pride."

    Staci Simba Mnyama pulled into the driveway of her father’s bush home in the Masai Mara. Her stepmother Alexandra ran to greet her.

"How are you and is Stanley well?" she asked, hugging Staci.

"We want to marry, Alex. I am here this weekend to talk to Juma about a divorce. Do you think Daddy is going to be pissy about me marrying a human?"

"He had better not be, if he knows what’s good for him," giggle Alexandra. "Let’s get you settled, have a glass of wine and take the horses out for a canter, shall we?"

"Yes, let us do that," agreed Staci who loved her father’s third wife very much.

    The next morning after a lovely dinner with her dad and Alexandra the night before, Staci set out for Juma’s home where they had once lived together. He was puttering around the house and invited her to enter in a desultory manner. He seemed bored and as cold as death. She wondered in the change in this lion she had married with good intent, linking her career to his. He handed her a beer and opened one for himself.

"I am sure you’re here for a divorce. I read about you with that human. I should have known you would follow in Shane Simba’s footsteps. You are chip off the old block," he said.

She lit a cigarette as he sneered slightly showing his fierce canine teeth.

"Since you have me so neatly pigeon holed, Juma, can I have a divorce? I don’t want anything from you and all I want is the house my dad bought us in Mombasa."

"That will be quite agreeable and I will never hire you in my program with the AIDS issue in Kenya. Just be sure of that, Staci."

She wondered at his folly in making that remark. Her dad was the reason he had been hired in the first place. Oh well, she just wanted her divorce and that would be quite enough for the interim. She certainly wasn’t going to argue the AIDS question with him at this point.

"That’s okay, Juma. I will file with my Uncle Sam Simba if that’s okay with you? I wish all of this hadn’t come up. We did love each other, didn’t we?"

"I loved you, Staci, but I should have known that the Simbas are lacking in that ability."

She didn’t want to argue that point. She reached up to kiss him and he turned away.