Shane speaks to Parliament after recovering from an attempted assassination.....

    President Shane Simba stood in the Parliament building in Nairobi making a speech.  He was determined to overcome any nervousness after having been shot at the same podium some weeks before.  If he thought he had a bad case of nerves, his were nothing compared to his Masai warriors.  He made a stirring speech.  After leaving the podium he sat next to Jane Leoparde who was covering the event.  She placed a paw on his arm. 

“That was incredible, Mr. President.  You showed no signs of fear at all.”

“I was afraid, Janie.”

“I still love you, Mr. President,” she whispered, squeezing his arm. 

“I will always love you.”

            On the plane ride to the Mara, he sat starring out the window at the dwarfed landscape below.  If only Betty could have been there.  She would have understood everything, he thought to himself.  He blinked back tears and asked the stewardess for another Scotch. 

            Former President Ralph Lyon, after hearing the speech on a live telecast, turned off the set. 

“That’s my boy,” he said quietly giving his nod of approval to Shane’s extreme act of courage. "You are going to be just fine."

             Betty was getting to know Patsy much better and liking her immensely.  With the ear of a true author, she felt that Patsy’s story was worth the telling. 

            One evening in the bedroom allotted them, Betty was writing on her laptop when Tarzan entered the room from his shower.  He looked over her shoulder. 

“Looks like good writing.  I always wanted to write about the Lake,” he said, toweling himself dry. 

“Sit here and try…..oh please, Jack.  I want to see your writing.  You must be good or you never would have gotten through the school of journalism in Nairobi.” 

He sat down and began to play with the keyboard.  She went to get him a beer.  She waved to Patsy who was on the steps, sweeping the day’s debris.  Betty went outside and chatted with her elderly friend for a bit before returning to Jack.  He stood when she came in the room. 

“I’d forgotten how much I like to write,” he said, tousling her hair and going to get another beer. 

She sat reading the three paragraphs he had written about Lake Tanganyika.  She found it clear, concise and wonderful, reminiscent of Hemingway’s style.  She saved his text to her hard drive. 

                                                Betty convinces Tarzan to write something.....

            They spent that evening listening to Patsy’s tales of the old Northern Rhodesia where the British settlers held sway over the indigenous peoples and animals. 

“I studied biology in Russia as a young woman.  When I came to Africa, the wildlife was the most wonderful thing about it,” said Patsy in her faintly accented English.  “I hated the slaughter of all those wonderful animals.   My brother and I were dedicated conservationists.  We were on the side of the native peoples of Rhodesia.  This is how we got to stay here in the houses we had built.”

            Ashley Lyon had his houseboy and maid sprucing up his new home.  This would be his first weekend in residence.  It happened to coincide with the every other weekend visits from his children.  Deciding he also wanted some comely female company, Ashley invited Lucy Cougar with her three cubs.  This was a huge house and could comfortably contain many factions.  He planned to test the waters.

            At Leah’s residence on Leoparde Drive, her adopted son, Brad Lyon, was resisting going to his father’s home.  Brad had taken a protective stance with his mother.  Having been adopted at an older age, he was in the same range as Kitty and Imani.  Leah and Ashley’s natural born sons, Sim and Adam, were excited at the prospect of kicking around their dad’s new digs.  Kitty a full blooded leopard, although adopted, was Ashley’s favorite.  His natural daughter, Imani, was a fiery young soul and was still having to wear wigs and scarves due to the fact of having shaved her head in a fit of pique.

            In Lucy Cougar’s elegant estate on the Mara River, excitement ran high.  This was would be her children’s first meeting with the lion Lucy hoped would be her next husband.   Lucy had packed several of her most becoming bathing suits.  She hastened the children at the breakfast table.

Ashley and Lucy in a bare all moment at his bush house....

            Betty, having left all of her notes for her coming book on the chimpanzee, Pansy, in her house in Gombe, now began a new book.  Patsy’s tale of leaving Russia with her brother and heading for Africa was on her mind as a possible best seller.  Betty and Tarzan had gotten in the habit of preparing fish and vegetables and eating supper with Patsy.  Over an after dinner coffee, they would sit by a fire and share anecdotes of their lives.  In this way, Betty got information for her new book and gleaned details of Tarzan’s life.  Something in the old woman brought out a tenderness in him.  He spoke more freely and was solicitous of the aging lady’s needs.  After he shored his dhow in the late afternoon, he would gather and chop firewood for her evening fires. 

            Patsy stood at the top of her stairs looking down at one of the handsomest and best dressed lions she had ever encountered.  Of course, Patsy’s social intercourse with Kenyan lions was confined to Tarzan but she knew one when she saw one.  It was when the Masai warriors flanked him that she realized his identity. 

‘

“I know who you are President Simba.  Come on up and get a cold drink.  Bring your guards too,” she invited.  Shane and his warriors sat talking with Patsy for several hours.  He had letters for Betty who was on the boat with Tarzan.  He had inquired about Betty and Tarzan.  Patsy had told him of their seeming companionship and camaraderie.  He also left cigarettes for her and a letter of his own, before flying out just before the sun was beginning to set. 

            Patsy took the time when Tarzan was gathering and chopping wood to tell Betty of Shane’s visit.  Betty stood stiff and erect, barely moving a muscle as she heard what had been said.  Patsy handed her the three cartons of Kool cigarettes and the two letters.

“He was the most gorgeous lion I ever saw in my life, Betty.  He looks more like a young king than a president,” said Patsy.

Betty began to cry softly. 

“You still love him as he does you.”

“He doesn’t love me, Patsy.  That was the problem.”

“Oh yes he does, Betty.  Take it from an old woman who’s seen many years and many things.  He does love you.”

            Betty went to the room she shared with Tarzan.  She opened the letter from her sister Gloria which was filled with disquiet over Betty’s life choices.  She started to open the one from Shane but was too raw at the moment.  She stuck it in a dresser drawer for later.  

Johanna accompanies Shane on an official junket to the Lamu District.....

     Shane took Johanna on a semi-official junket to the Lamu district of Kenya that had undergone disastrous flooding.  He wanted to reassure the populace once more.  Johanna went about with him pressing the flesh and seeming to enjoy herself.  They ended the trip in his home in Mombasa where he engaged in the water sports he loved.  Sitting in his favorite chair overlooking the Indian Ocean, he would think of Betty and wonder what she was doing and how much she actually loved Tarzan.

            It was on an evening when Tarzan had engaged in a little night trawling for certain types of  fish that came close to the surface only during the hours of darkness, that Betty opened the letter from Shane.  She drew it from the drawer and opened it.

Dear Betty,

I know you will find this laughable but when I brought the final papers back to the Mara I simply burned them.  I couldn’t bear the thought of us being severed forever from our problematical but very tightly bonded relationship and marriage.  I have no excuses or explanations for my particular nature.  All I really know is that I can’t even remotely think of us being apart from each other forever.  I do love you, despite your probable thoughts otherwise.

Until we meet again, hold this thought.

My love always,

Shane

She sat on the edge of the bed, her tears soaking the letter written on the fine stationary.

             Two days later, Patsy had Tarzan take her to town.  They were gone several hours while Betty made her special bouillabaisse and wrote.  When Tarzan pulled in the narrow road way driving Patsy’s ancient but beautifully preserved Land Rover, Betty ran to greet them. 

            That night after supper before a blazing fire, Patsy told the reason for her trip to Mpulungu. 

“I was married briefly to a trophy hunter when I first came to Rhodesia.  He took down many lions,” she said handing Tarzan some papers.  “I made you my official heir, Jack.  All I have comes to you when I die.  I went to my lawyer’s office while you were selling your fish.  I want to make it up for what my husband did to your kind. You have been like a son to me since you and Betty came here.  I’m an old woman with no heirs until now.”

            The weekend with Lucy Cougar and her children was a mixed bag as far as Ashley Lyon was concerned.  Lucy had donned several revealing and sexy bathing suits and sunned around the pool.  As far as Ashley was concerned, her three cubs by Alexander Simba were spoiled and whiny.  Adam and Sim, his sons, fit right in with the three, being of the same ilk.  He spent some quality time with his adopted daughter, Kitty, while Imani sulked throughout most of the visit.  The bright spot in his weekend was receiving an email from Betty giving him directions on where she was located in Zambia – and of course, there were also several great sessions banging the stuffing out of Lucy. 

             Ashley Lyon pulled his seaplane ashore and moored it to a tree.  Patsy, despite her great age, was ever alert.  She stood at the top of the stairs, shot gun at the ready. 

“Is Betty here?” he shouted to Patsy. 

“She surely is and she does bring a lot of handsome lions to my door,” cackled Patsy in the way the extremely aged manage a heartfelt laugh.  

“Are you going to shoot me?” asked Ashley.  He thought he should clarify this matter before maneuvering further.

“No, I’m not.  Trophy hunting is not my kind of thing to do.  You’ve got a great mane on you though.  It’d be nice on someone’s wall.”

            Ashley stayed several days with Patsy, Betty and Tarzan.  He even gave Tarzan a lift back to Gombe where he could retrieve his old boat from the beach in front of Betty’s house.  The two parted friends, despite the fact that Ashley’s father had been the one to banish Tarzan from Kenya. 

             In the four days it took Tarzan to sail back from Gombe, Betty spoke more with Patsy. 

“My birth name is Piusz.  My mother was Hungarian and chose the name.  The Brits couldn’t handle it when I came to Africa.  They just called me Patsy and it stuck,” related the old lady.