Maurice & Friends

Shane Simba was particularly rattled this morning. Word had just come from the health minister in Nairobi that the Ebole virus had reared its hideous head in Uganda near our border. It is one of Africa’s worst scourges, barring HIV, AIDS, malaria and starvation. By some hook or crook it has been kept under a modicum of control since it was identified some years past. Now it was very close to Kenya. One step over the border with transactions between Kenyans and infected Ugandans could wreak havoc with the human and ape population. It is not known to affect other animals but our lion president governs humans as well as other species. He must guard the health of all his inhabitants. Other things also were at play in his alarm - his human wife and children who appear to be more human than lion. I was called to join Shane and his health minister, who happens to be a human also, to visit the border areas and make sure that well guarded barriers were in place between our country and Uganda. When Alexandra attempted to go with us, Shane was very adamant in not permitting her to do so. He was taking no chances with the woman he loves to distraction.

A very important fashion show was in the making at JAGGERS. Bustling about and approaching panic were the two main honchos, Leah Simba and Duke the lion couturier. It was noted forthwith that Georgy Simba had lost several inches in her once expanding waistline. Both Georgy and her cousin, Imani Lyon, were undergoing last minute alterations on the outfits they were to wear. Delilah Dik Dik pattered around on dainty polished hooves doing the same. Caroline Cheetah, who had been asked to model a special outfit or so, was about in one of her acidic moods. Zambia, the black leopard model of many years, still sleek and lovely, was the main model for Duke’s adult female collection for the season. To top things off, an elaborate cocktail party was to be held afterward. The A-List animals and people had been invited.

left, Georgy Simba and right, Imani Lyon in outfits designed by Duke........

Betty Chimpo Tarzan finally got that chance to select some maternity outfits and buy Jack some Christmas gifts. She also shopped for Solly, Tarek, Jalil, Jason, Joshua and Arlon Lyon - her sons. She was looking in the window of Harrods when the same voice halted her. Sean Simba stood there, his arms filled with exquisitely wrapped gift packages.

"We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Betty," he teased, his green eyes warm with the sight of her.

"Do you live in this mall?" she laughingly asked him.

"Yes, this time of year, I do that. How about that lunch I promised you the last time we met up here?"

"Why not?" she acquiesced. "Where shall we go?"

"I think Margaux’s is the best and it has great wines."

"So Margaux’s it will be," she said, retrieving one of the packages from his arms that had taken on a precarious angle.

Margaux’s was packed to the gills. My sister waved to Betty as she and Sean entered. She thought nothing of the duo, a former stepmother with a cub she had continued raising after the death of his mother. Now, of course, that cub was an adult male and overwhelmingly attractive like his father. She signaled to the head waiter who led them to a quieter corner of the restaurant which contained cozy booths. Sean ordered two bottles of vintage Merlot. The waiter returned, pouring two glasses for his diners to taste. Sean leaned his handsome head across the table in an intimate manner, taking her hand across the table. The reason I know all of these details is because I happened to be lunching there with Bertram Baboon. Betty didn’t notice us when she came in. We were at a table that was rather difficult to see from her angle in the booth. I thought Bertram’s jaw might come unhinged from gaping.

A fracas had broken out in the civic center. This particular debate involved which factor would decorate the town’s Christmas tree which had been erected in the square. The Avian female group was at odds points with the Mara Snake Guild headed by Polly Python. Maude Hyena, our mayor, told the contentious females to split the job between them. Vonda Vulture was pissed.

"If those serpents have their way," sniped Vonda "It won’t hold a candle to Rockefeller Center’s tree."

Polly Python heads the Snake Guild in the Mara.....Vonda Vulture heads the Aves......

"What are they about now, Maurice?" asked Bertram, attempting to crane his neck toward the booth occupied by Sean Simba and Betty Chimpo Tarzan.

"Just chatting," I lied most bravely for the couple were in intense conversation, their heads almost together across their table. Sean’s hand was on Betty’s face, caressing it the entire time.

Bertram leaned a bit further to the left to get a better view.

"They are most certainly NOT just chatting, Maurice. You’ve been caught in an untruth," he sputtered, spewing a small sample of salmon pâté my way.

"They are in deep conversation, Bertram," I yelped, not caring to be called a fibber.

"His hands are all over her," argued Bertram.

"Only one is on her face," I corrected.

This brainless bit of give and take was ended when we were presented our check. However, Bertram was slow to leave. He was glued to his chair studying Betty and her former stepson’s obviously erotic behavior.

Georgy Simba strutted her stuff on the runway at JAGGERS to loud applause and intense audience appreciation. Imani Lyon and Delilah Dik Dik followed achieving the same patron appreciation. Hip hop and rock blared forth from speakers as the younger models walked the runway sporting the latest designs from Duke and the now proficient and talented Leah Simba. Next followed Zambia in sleek fashions designed for mature females. To the side stood Leah with recent beau, Lion Lion the architect. Lion was waiting for the male fashions to be shown. Georgy Simba realized that, although against her will initially, her father had made the best choice for her in an abortion. She was signed that very evening to a new junior fashion magazine based in Nairobi. They would feature the photogenic Georgy in their ads and billboards.

Betty walked before Sean Simba into the house she knew well which had belonged to her neighbor and good friend Christine Cheetah. She allowed herself to be led to his bedroom where he disrobed her. There they made love until Betty came out of her sexual reverie and realized the time.

Sean with Betty in his boudoir.....

Sloane Simba had made a decision. He braced himself, walked downstairs from his office and entered President Shane Simba’s suite. Shane saw the strange but determined look on the face of his half-brother and justice minister. He poured drinks for both of them and sat to hear what Sloane had to say.

"This thing with Georgy has shaken me to my shoes, Shane. I feel I have been a part of a too glib and not very caring society. I want to do something very different from now on. I am offering you my resignation to be effective next month," said Sloane, quickly taking a gulp from his whiskey before he lost his nerve.

Shane was horrified. "Sloane, my God, you are a top ranking minister. Take some time off and pull yourself together again. You don’t want to do this."

"No, I have made a decision, Shane. I felt you were very nonchalant about your son knocking up my daughter who is a member of his own pride and your niece to boot. I didn’t like what I saw here."

"What the hell could I do about it, Sloane? They are adult animals."

"If the situation had been reversed and it had been your daughter instead of son, you would have made sure something was done about it. But Sean is your son and a chip off the old block at that."

"What would you have had me do, Sloane? Grab a shotgun from a cabinet and put it to Sean’s head? The marriage would never have worked at any rate."

Sloane stood up slowly and put his glass down.

"I’m sorry, Shane. You can get a dozen good ministers in my place."

"No I cannot, Sloane. You are one of a kind and I will miss you sorely."

Two days later on a bright Saturday, Sloane drove to the Masai Mara Leoparde-Lyon Safari Club and asked if either Ashley Lyon or Luke Leoparde would train him as a bush pilot. They both agreed to do so.

Sloane Simba resigns in Shane's office......

Shane walked slowly to the mansion. It was late afternoon, the sun sinking slowly over the Cholula Hills to the east. This was the night of the JAGGERS fashion show and he found his wife already dressed and waiting for him in the library.

"You look ragged, Luv, what happened?" she asked, kissing him on the cheek.

"Sloane resigned today," he told her, accepting the drink she offered him.

"Oh, Luv, I am so sorry. I know how you depended on him but I have seen him these days and he seems very depressed."

"He didn’t like the way I handled the thing with Georgy and Sean. I did what I could though, Alex."

She bit her tongue and only said, "I suppose you can’t do much with an adult son."

He looked at her. "You think I could have done more too, don’t you?"

"No, Shane, your son is an adult and as strong willed as you are. Jump in the shower, darling. We have to be at JAGGERS in two hours."

A young and untried doe whose official species was the Thompson Gazelle stood before Duke in his office at JAGGERS. She was pretty enough as hoof stock went thought Duke surveying her with eyes that once would have held hunger and thoughts of predation. Now Duke gazed upon the young and pretty thing with an eye to draping her in eye catching and luxuriant garments for potential hoofed buyers. There were now six lovely does walking the runways at JAGGERS.

"I believe they call your kind Tommys in East Africa, am I correct that you are a Thompson Gazelle?" asked Duke, putting a cigarette in a holder and lighting it.

"Yes, sir. My name is Giselle Gazelle," announced the little doe, shifting her weight in a slightly nervous gesture.

"How absolutely ‘cute’," said Duke eyeballing her from different angles as he walked on suede slippers around the doe. "Despite the far too precious name, you are very fetching and I can probably break you in as one of our models."

"Oh thank you Mr......"

"Duke, my dear. I am simply called Duke. Let me take you down the hall to meet Ms. Simba, another boss."

Giselle Gazelle, new doe at JAGGERS.......

Betty drove home at break neck speed. She was awash with conflicting emotions, intermingling guilt with titillation. She was glad that Jack’s car was not there yet when she arrived at their home in the hill country of the Mara. She at least had made some purchases to account for her day that had begun as a shopping trip and ended in her lovemaking session with a male that had once been a young cub nurtured by Betty when she had married his father after the death of Catherine Cheetah Simba. Betty gave a shaky hello to old Patsy who was sitting in her chair in the library. She then went to the room she shared with her husband and removed the items she had bought from the maternity section of Harrods. She placed them on hangers and took them to her closet then proceeded to the bathroom where she began to fill the comfortable claw footed tub with water. She removed her clothing and sniffed her skin which still held the scent of Sean Simba’s cologne. She realized it was the same one that his father used. She stood for a while taking in the heady fragrance which was so evocative of her days with Shane Simba. Suddenly she flinched remembering her affair with Shane when she was pregnant with Jason Simba, Sam’s son. Now, here she was pregnant again with Jack Tarzan’s cub and having a sexual liaison with Shane’s son. She lowered herself in the warm tub and wished fervently for Jack to have a late assignment at the Daily and come home when she was asleep. She was too ashamed to face her husband this night.