SAVANNA DAWNS
I'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time.
Emily Dickinson
The Land Rover bounced along sliding precipitously when it hit a mud hole formed by a morning cloudburst. It gained traction as Shane Simba, at the wheel, laughed and grabbed the hand of his passenger.
“What in the world are you doing in a second hand vehicle without your guards?” quizzed Betty Chimpo.
“I am paring down, Fifi. I sold my fancy cars and only have this jeep and the official Rolls now. I’ll keep that because it was used by Ralph Lyon during his presidency – it’s a bow to sentiment.”
He pulled the car near an ancient banyan bordering the marsh country. They got out and walked to the tree, hand in hand. Shane pointed toward the swampy juncture a hundred yards or so from where they stood. A stand of thorn and acacia trees bordered the swampy area.
“Over there is where my father and his brothers came from a marsh pride. They wandered from this area to take over my mom’s pride,” he declared with a laugh. “And thus I got born.”
“I have known you and been married to you. I have borne you three sons and never have I heard this until today. I’m so glad you brought me here, darling.”
“The formerly defiant, flea riddled lion cub and the chimpanzee who spent her youth under a tree with her sodden mother in Gombe - we make quite a pair, don’t we, Betty Chimpo?”
He stood there, the wind ruffling his magnificent mane, the sun lighting his sea green eyes.
“How in the world am I managing to fall in love you all over again, Shane Simba?”
“The answer to that, Fifi,” he laughed, tapping her teasingly on the nose, “Is that you never fell out of love with me.”
“You got that right,” she agreed, accepting a kiss.
Betty and Shane visit the site of his father's original pride......
Shane Simba’s ‘paring down’ was in no small way to send a message to the inhabitants of Kenya that our president wasn’t flagrantly living the life of luxury in the face of hunger and poverty in our nation. At least three of those cars removed from the garage at the state mansion, made their way to Shane’s lavish villa in the South of France. He gave his Lake Como, Italy home to his ex-wife, Alexandra, who was more of a snow skier than he. He also gave his home on Lamu Island to Alexandra who had decided to extract the maximum from her lion husband who never seemed to commit for very long. She had loved him deeply, borne him two natural children and been looked askance at by her post colonial British friends for cohabiting with a lion in the first place. She felt she was owed every bit of property he would throw her way. She got plenty. Shane Simba was a generous animal in everything but connubial love and commitment.
Alexandra Simba gets the 'lion's share' of her former hubby's properties...
“Maurice’s house,” enthused Ashley Lyon on a visit to his former wife and now good friend. “I have always loved this place.”
Staci Simba was busily putting things in kitchen cabinets.
“Ash, it’s such a great place. The kids love it,” answered Staci, getting her a bottle of wine from the fridge.
Staci and Ashley take a break among the packing boxes...
Far from my former residence, I was fighting depression. I had taken a week off from the State House to help Lachlan with the move to our bush cottage. It was quite the change from our beloved home on Leoparde Drive but I was determined to be sporting about the move.
The next morning, after we had arranged some things to our liking, I stepped out the door of the kitchen with a cup of soothing coffee. Suddenly I was in the real East Africa – the land of savannas and heavy bush scrub country. The Masai Mara I remembered from my youth. The sun was peaking over the hills to the east; the birds were waking for their day. The sounds of the deep bush country surrounded me and I was exalted. I called to Lachlan to join me.
“This is wondrous, Lach. I had forgotten.”
“I missed it too, Maury. I remember the savanna in Tsavo as a cub. It is the most special place on earth, especially in the early mornings and evenings.”
Sunrise just beyond our new home.....
me in our new home....
A Land Rover drove up as I was brushing dust from my khaki shorts. I had just been about placing some of Lachlan’s potted plants in what would be our new greenhouse – a dilapidated shed. The couple exited the car as I squinted in the sun lowering behind the hills to the west. To my amazement I realized it was Betty Chimpo and Shane Simba. They came toward me, Betty holding a potted geranium. After warmly greeting our guests, I called to Lachlan who was working in another part of the yard. We settled into our chairs and glider culled from the house on Leoparde Drive. They were placed on a cobbled patio that Lachlan had spent most of the day sprucing up. Shane had gone to his jeep and carted in several bags of choice booze. We sat, lazily sipping our various concoctions.
“I’ve fallen in love with the peace and tranquility of this place,” I ventured. .
“It’s beautiful and you’re very near my bush house, Maurice,” said Shane, lighting a cigarette. “I love the savanna this time of evening.”
Betty, who was sitting at his side in our glider, patted his leg and said, “This was a city lion that has fallen in love with the bush country these days.”
Shane handed Betty a cigarette he had lit for her and laid his hand on her leg. They seemed content, happy and peaceful in each other’s company.
“It reminds me of my home in Tsavo, maybe a little more botanically splendid but much the same atmosphere,” added Lachlan.
After a pleasant time spent together, Shane’s car bounced out of the rough turf in our yard and back to the rustic road. Lachlan and I stood there in the waning light and watched their retreat until the Land Rover was no longer visible.
“They are going to get together again, Maury, mark my words - but this time they have placed everything in the correct order. They are great friends with all the passion of the old days.”
Betty was going through some university papers in her home office when Babs, her baboon housekeeper, showed Dickey Simba into the room. Slightly taken aback, Betty regained her composure and led him to her back porch and the bar there. She pulled a bottle of vodka from her collection and poured one for Dickey over ice. She handed it to him.
“A drink wasn’t really what I came for, Betty,” he told her, lighting a cigarette and taking a long draw.
“I’m sure it’s not, Dickey.”
“Are you back in Shane’s life for good?”
“I hope it’s for good and not for the worse,” she said, nervous and trying to lighten the situation.
“And us, Betty? What about us?”
“Us, Dickey? How can there be an ‘us’ when you enter and leave my life with such frequency it makes me dizzy? I feel like my relationship with you is a revolving door.”
“Do you think Shane Simba, the player straight out of Dante’s Inferno, is going to make you happy? He’s going to stomp on your face and make raw meat of your heart this time as he did before.”
“We have three sons….and…” her voice trailed off and she lit a cigarette to hide her nervousness.
“And what, Betty?”
"He is changing....."
"Get real, Betty.....Shane Simba never REALLY changes. He only appears to do so. I hope you are not fool enough to believe that piece of utter fiction."
“I never stopped loving him, Dickey.”
“The truth finally comes to light. Okay, Betty Chimpo, I’m out of here.”
He stubbed his cigarette angrily into the porcelain ashtray and left. She heard the soft steady engine of his car as it left her drive.
Our next visitor to the new cottage was not so upbeat regarding the delights of the Masai Mara bush country. Bertram Baboon killed a giant mosquito that landed on his face like a dive bomber. He had come with his wife, Gloria Chimpo Baboon. She had brought delicacies and he had relinquished one of his prize orchids as a housewarming gift.
“My God, Maurice, what have you perpetrated here?” he asked in genuine alarm.
“It’s very different, Maurice,” stated Gloria, zapping another aggressive insect in mid flight.
Lachlan was not home, having gone into town for hardware and other supplies.
“What is that ungodly looking thing near your shed?” asked Bertram, pointedly mopping his perspiring face with a handkerchief.
“It’s a tractor, Bertam. Lachlan will use it for tilling the fields,” I explained, handing him a martini.
“Oh I quite forgot, you and your companion are country squires now. Farmer Brown sorts, if you will,” remarked Bertram.
“It is peaceful,” said Gloria, trying to ignore a mosquito whose loud buzzing reverberated in the humid night air.
Suddenly there was the sound of a rhinoceros crashing from the bush. A lion’s roar sounded nearby.
“Dear heavens, was that a wild lion?”
“Yes, there are still animals that didn’t cave into the new society in this part of the Mara,” I reminded him.
The couple looked at each other warily, their eyes wide in the deepening night. When Lachlan burst through the back door to the patio, they both screeched involuntarily thinking he was the lion roaring in the bush. Lachlan greeted them and freshened their drinks which were badly needed considering the ragged state of their nerves.
“We heard a wild lion not too far away,” announced Gloria.
“Yes, we have those in Kenya,” said Lachlan, his voice filled with amusement.
After a very heartfelt invitation, Bertram and Gloria declined our offer of dinner and sped off in their Bentley toward home and welcome civilization.
Lachlan's new tractor, an object of amazement for the visiting Bertram Baboon....
Dickey Simba and Cutty Sark in her condo.......
Dickey Simba relaxed on Cutty Sark’s bed. They smoked their post coital cigarettes, ends glowing in the darkened room.
“Want to marry me, Cutty?” he asked, out of the blue.
“Dickey, what in the world is this about? I thought you were anti-commitment,” she giggled but with an electric thrill running through her.
“Answer my question and we will go seek rings if it’s yes,” he said, stubbornly.
“This time of night?” asked Cutty, who was now in a kneeling position next to the male lion.
“The jeweler in the mall is still open. It’s not that late,” he argued.
“Dickey, it will have to be yes. Does this scare the hell out of you?” she asked.
“No,” he said, jumping out of bed and grabbing his briefs off the chair.
Love, or something akin, was in the air this night. Ashley Lyon made love to his ex-wife, Staci Simba. Dickey Simba escorted Cutty Sark to the mall where they bought matching gold bands. After making their purchases, the couple roused the Reverend Calvin Cheetah from his church study and had him marry them in a ceremony that skirted the edges of midnight. Calvin kept a straight face though he had once been Cutty’s lover. He had the night guard at the church step in as a witness and the lion and human said simple vows.
Shane and Betty share
a weekend with his children on the shores of Lake Tanganyika...
That weekend, Shane Simba, Betty Chimpo and Shane’s children by Alexandra, went to the lakeside in Tanzania where Betty had retreated after her divorce from Shane. He had enlarged her home there after having spent several weekends with her and their sons. Shane’s half human children loved Betty who looked human. The couple, along with Shane’s youngest offspring, walked the shores of Lake Tanganyika and enjoyed seafood in the evenings. It was an idyllic time and ended all too soon. Shane, Betty, Tanya and Sasha put down in Nairobi where Alexandra Simba awaited them for their return to her urban retreat in the capitol city. Betty and Shane flew on to the Mara where she spent the night with him in his bush house unaware that Dickey Simba was spending his second night as a married male