PICTURES
Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.
James Thurber
Shane Simba was in his office when the Nairobi detective he had hired to check on Sean’s peccadilloes arrived with a manila envelope and was shown in by a secretary. Shane greeted him, offered a whiskey and was handed an envelope.
“I think you may be interested in these, President Simba,” advised the detective, accepting a whiskey neat.
Shane opened the envelope, removed the pictures and drew in a loud breath. There in several large photographs were his oldest son and the ex-wife who had almost raised Sean. They were kissing and in an impassioned embrace. Another showed Betty with a scarf around her head as Sean ushered her into his home on Leoparde Drive.
“What the fuck?” gasped Shane. “Is this the first time this has happened between these two?”
“No, Sir, they have had another meeting at the mall. That ended in his house too,” answered the man.
Sean thanked the detective, gave him a wad of money and told him to continue his surveillance.
Alexandra sensed her husband’s agitation as he entered the library in the mansion. She poured a drink and handed it to him. Shane lit a cigarette. He was holding a manila envelope.
“You look out of sorts, Luv, pissed to the gills,” she said, putting an arm around him.
“Look at these, Alex, but don’t try to dissuade me from taking action.”
He handed her the envelope.
She sat for a bit absorbing the impact of what she was seeing - Sean Simba in a passionate embrace and kiss with his former stepmother, Betty Chimpo Tarzan.
“I can’t believe this, Shane. What can she be thinking? She’s pregnant and married to Jack. I thought they were blissfully happy.”
“Betty doesn’t know the words ‘blissfully happy’. She’s fucking bananas! It’s always something psychotic with Betty. She coined the word sordid.”
“I thought it was you who screwed up your marriage to Betty. I always thought that.”
“I didn’t help matters but she had her own set of problems. It was a nasty marriage for the most part.”
“That sounds awful, Luv. What do you plan to do about this?”
“I don’t know whether to attack Sean or that bat brained Betty first. I plan to give them both the benefit of my thoughts though.”
“Have another drink, Luv, and let it rest until tomorrow. The twins want to show you their coloring books.”
He gave her a kiss. “I do want to forget this too for the evening. I love you, darling. Now where are Sacha and Tanya with their artwork?”
Shane and wife Alexandra....... Shane with daughter Tanya....
Betty had followed Jane Leoparde to her kitchen. The guys were in the den watching a soccer game by satellite from England. Jane and Luke had invited Betty and Jack Tarzan for dinner.
“Betty, I saw something very disturbing the other day. Glenda Gorilla asked permission to put it her column but I stopped her. There were pictures of you and Sean Simba in a compromising position in his home,” said Jane, lighting a cigarette.
Betty looked stunned for a moment then quickly gathered her wits.
“He is my former stepson, Jane. You know he was at my wedding to Jack. You were there too,” she dissembled.
“These poses weren’t of the maternal sort, Betty. You were disrobed and on his bed. Sean was over you. There are long lens cameras out there to catch those who are of high interest to the media. The ex-wife of the President of Kenya and his son are ripe for the taking.”
“Oh my God, Janie- don’t tell Jack, please,” she cried.
Jane put a hand on Betty’s slim shoulder. “I would never hurt you or Jack and do that, Betts. I just want to warn you about the bulldog tactics of the paparazzi. Sean Simba is very much of interest to them because he is so like his dad and as horny as hell to boot.”
“I’m so ashamed, Janie,” moaned Betty, face in hands.
“I destroyed those pictures and warned Glenda though she didn’t want to hurt Jack either. Nevertheless, please be careful. They are all over Sean and will catch you in their net if you see him.”
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I was with him?” sobbed Betty.
“No, you are my good friend and it is strictly your business. I simply meant to warn you.”
“I am friends with Ashley, Montecore and Sam now but Shane never calls me, Janie. We have three sons together and I never hear a word from him.”
“Betty, you must move on. Shane Simba probably doesn’t want to remember either of us although we meant a great deal to him. He is totally besotted by his wife now. With Shane Simba it is the female of the moment. He cares for no other. Let it go, Betty, you have wonderful Jack and will have his cub soon.”
“Shane is a total bastard, Janie.”
“Let’s go see Jack and Luke and have a night cap with them,” suggested Jane, leading her friend from the kitchen.
Jane with Betty in the kitchen after dinner.............
Dickey Simba paid a visit to his loony tunes mom, Goosey Simba. Despite being told she could move into either Sarah Lee or Leander’s vacant homes, she chose to stick to her trailer with the rusted springs and squalid interior. Dickey pushed the empty beer cans aside and sat at the table facing his mother who was already three sheets to the wind. A cigarette dangled from her lips, her glasses were askew on her broad lioness nose.
“Mom, do you think you can stay sober long enough to see me take official office as the Minister of Justice. It will be in Nairobi and I’d like you to be there. We will be going on the official plane.”
“What do I have to do, Dick?” she asked, taking a loud chugalug of beer from a newly opened can.
“Stay sober and get a new outfit.”
“New outfit?” she laughed. “I don’t even own a dress.”
“We will have to address that problem, Mom.”
Goosey Simba gets an invitation to her son's ceremony.....
Sloane Simba spent his last day at the State House. He had shown Dickey most of the ropes as far as the ministerial slot went. Dickey had the brains of the Simba males and was a quick study. Sloane decided to leave the post earlier than originally planned. He was anxious to double his flying hours and get his license thus enabling him to go to work for Ashley Lyon and Luke Leoparde as one of their bush pilots and safari guides. Sloane was very pleased with this change of lifestyle. He found Ashley and Luke to be warm and friendly not to mention helpful. He was losing the tenseness that had been such a part of his makeup for so long. Luke and Ashley were the epitome of laid back types and Sloane fell into step beside them. On the home front, Georgy and Sloane were close again since her abortion. Little Cindy, his daughter with Caroline Cheetah, and Caroline’s son Sunny, who Sloane had adopted, were having a great time at the home of Lucy Cougar on their weekends with Sloane. Lucy was a cousin to Georgy and the two had become quite close. Sloane, though still not passionately in love with Lucy, was at least beginning to appreciate her warm and caring household where kids thrived. Lucy soothed and cajoled Sloane in his moments of apprehension. The two were becoming a ‘couple’. Lucy, being a Cougar offspring and close kin to the Leoparde family, was invited to many high ranking social events. Sloane accompanied her and was beginning to enjoy her parents to boot. Sylvia and Bernard Cougar saw in Sloane Simba a male who was not pushing their daughter at great speed but seemed to be quite fond of her and shared the family closeness that the Cougar offspring had with their parents and kin. Bernard also admired the fact that Sloane had given up a lucrative and very impressive ministry to find peace of mind. Bernard, unlike Ralph Lyon, had never cared for Shane Simba and felt that he would be difficult to work for and with. This holiday season was the ideal time for the Cougars to get to know a bit more about the complex Sloane whom they could see their daughter was falling deeply in love with.
Lucy and Sloane together at one of JAGGERS' soirees.....
The helicopter began its whine as the presidential party was gathered inside for the trip to Nairobi. Goosey Simba sat stiffly in a new dress that she absolutely loathed and in an unnatural condition of sobriety. She wished fervently that this day would go by in a hurry. She was miserable. Shane, Alexandra, Sloane, Dickey and I were part of the group going to Nairobi to see Dickey become the Minister of Justice for Kenya in the Parliament building. The blades began to turn and we lifted from the State House landing pad and headed toward Nairobi.
Shane Simba’s green eyes were storm filled and his voice was as brittle as dried leaves on a winter ground.
“I have seen evidence of you screwing your aunt and cousin but this is too much,” he said, throwing the pictures of Sean and Betty on his desk for his son to see.
Sean, who had been called to come to his father’s office in the mansion, went through the pictures slowly wondering who the hell got these shots.
“Who took these, Dad?”
“A private dick that I use when I feel the need,” snarled Shane.
“You’ve got a private detective shadowing me?”
“Umm huh!” said Shane, his arms crossed, his eyes fiery.
“Why?”
“For Kodak moments like these with a female who continued raising you after your mother died. What is this about, Sean?”
“Betty and I sort of have a thing for each other, Dad.”
“A thing?”
“I guess you could call it a powerful physical attraction……or something.”
“This is a female that I married even though she was much older than I. Now you’re boning her?”
“Are you jealous, Dad?”
“Not at all, simply amazed at your ongoing trend toward incestuous behavior.”
“Betty is not kin to me at all. It’s nothing to do with incest.”
“You’re hopeless, Sean.”
Sean didn’t stay for supper but instead went to see Caroline Cheetah and later drank a great deal at the pub before remembering he had practice the next day.
Imani struts her stuff on the runway at JAGGERS as Pete looks on...
Imani Lyon was going each weekend to Tanzania to see Pete Levin the lion president of that country. There in Pete’s nouveau riche mansion in the Serengeti, the two would share intense and very passionate lovemaking sessions. On one particular weekend during the holidays, there was a fashion show at JAGGERS and Imani had to model in the runway show. It happened to be a trendy presentation that had a very broad invitation list. Ashley and Staci (Simba) Lyon were among those in attendance. When the crowd fell into something of a hush, it was due to the arrival of the Tanzanian president and his entourage. Leah, not knowing the fact of her daughter’s affair with Pete, placed him on the front row.
“It’s Pete,” squealed Imani after a run sporting an alluring youth oriented party outfit. “Georgy, Pete is out there in the audience.”
During Imani’s next run, she gave a broad wink to Pete which he returned in kind. All eyes were now focused on the two and their interaction. When ever Imani appeared in an outfit, the room hummed with low pitched conversation. Imani Janice Lyon strutted her stuff that evening, twisting about to show off her sexiness and that of the garments she wore. At the cocktail party that followed, she and Pete carried on a not so subtle but intense flirtation - even in front of her divorced dad and mom. Glenda Gorilla made notes and Roscoe took shots of the couple with his tiny digital camera. It was the main item in the next day’s gossip column of the Daily.