Shane and Betty return from Canada....
"No adultery is bloodless."
Natalia Ginzburg
When Sloane Simba picked up Caitlin Cougar in front of the Masai Mara Daily building on Friday he had his mother, Leander with him. He was driving her SUV. He helped Caitlin put her things in the back.
“I brought you some built in protection,” he laughed. “Relieved?”
“I’m not really sure, but I like your mother very much. I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun.”
Leander greeted Caitlin merrily. She was in the back seat with her cooler of martinis on the floor and a cigarette smoldering in the jeweled holder. Sloane headed the Jeep for the Mombasa Road and a weekend of being with Caitlin Cougar for two days and nights.
Betty and Shane returned from Canada, bearing gifts for their children, household staff and a few chosen others. Shane was helping his daughter, Staci, install the intricate software he had brought for her computer. She mentioned a strange incident from the time they were gone.
“I saw Aunt Caroline at Grandma Cynthia’s last week. She asked me something really weird, Daddy. She asked me if I wanted to have more brothers and sisters,” giggled Staci. “I told her that you weren’t going to have anymore kids. She said you didn’t know everything.”
Shane tensed almost visibly. He had been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the aftermath of his sexual outing with Caroline. He knew her to be scheming and manipulative. He gave a great sigh and wondered if it would be the wisest course of action to tell Betty this latest development and handle it with her instead of having it slam her in the chops later.
Leander, Sloane and Caitlin enjoyed the beach the in front of his recently acquired home. They took long walks together. On Saturday night Caitlin made lobster bisque. Sloane built a fire and the three sat before it exchanging interesting and amusing conversation. Caitlin further bonded with the out of the ordinary lioness that had been such a part of the old pride system and moved within the new without excessively ruffling her fur. Caitlin found her caustic, her banter edged with sarcasm, knowledgeable and very warm of heart. Caitlin noticed how her son gave her great respect and affection. The young cougar female, so new to East Africa, enjoyed the discourse between the lioness and her son. Sloane stayed in the master bedroom downstairs, Leander and Caitlin in guest rooms above.
Lightening rent the sky, with loud clashes of thunder shaking the house. It was after midnight and all had gone to their beds. Caitlin sat up abruptly. She was accustomed to some degree of lightening and thunder in her native Montana but an East African thunderstorm, especially around water, is a fierce thing to behold. She went to the edge of the balcony door and saw the jagged streaks light up the sky over the Indian Ocean which was roiling beneath the assault of the deluge. Caitlin threw on a robe and headed downstairs away from the lightening that seemed to be in such close proximity to her balcony. She went to the kitchen to try and find the Scotch. Her stress needed calming. A small night light illuminated the kitchen cupboard. There she found the bottle and a glass, pouring herself some. She heard a sound behind her and turned around. It was Sloane in his underwear, his muscular body outlined in the semi-darkness. He got glass and poured another for him.
“Did the storm wake you up, Caitlin?”
“Yes, it’s a very strong one. I’ve never seen one like this before.”
“East Africa has some terrific electrical storms,” he said, putting his free paw on her shoulder. “You’re shaking, Caitlin, were you that frightened of the weather?”
“It could b-be the storm…or it may just be you, Sloane. A little while ago, it was the storm. I’m not so sure now.”
He put down his drink and held her tightly kissing her neck and breast where her robe fell away. He moved to her mouth and prolonged his erotic kisses. She held him strongly to her and gave back, in full measure, his passion. He picked her up and carried her to his room where she asked him if his mother would awaken.
“No, she’s knocked out by her martinis. She’ll sleep late.”
Sloane
comes to the kitchen and sees Caitlin during the storm…..
Betty Simba decided to preoccupy herself with a real job again. She didn’t want to think night and day of her husband’s adultery no matter what the reasons surrounding it. Her work in Mildred’s office wasn’t enough to keep her from thinking. She decided to call Irving Impala of WMM-TV and Bob Bushbuck of the Masai Mara Daily and see if she could work out something that wouldn’t tie her down with regular hours. Both former bosses were delighted to hear from her. Betty was among the best in the field of journalism. She knew all the angles in both areas of the medium. Bob offered her an editorial column arrangement when she had the time. Irving proposed giving her the news anchor chair whenever she had a special program worked up. She accepted both. Irving called Caroline Cheetah who had replaced Betty when she resigned to keep up the pace of the vice president’s spouse.
“Betty Simba will be doing the evening newscast whenever she has something special in mind. You’ll be warned ahead of time, Caroline,” he told the disgruntled cheetah.
Caroline left Irving’s office with a glacial mind. She already hated Betty and even if her salary wasn’t to be reduced, she didn’t want to take second place to her in any way. She called Glinda Gorilla who sympathized.
“I am pregnant with her husband’s litter, Glenda. I found out for sure yesterday.”
“Why haven’t you gotten that news out to Animal Enquirer, Caroline? You can make a mint off that story and hit Betty in the mid-section to boot.”
The headlines hit the stands, splashed in red letters on the front of the Animal Enquirer. VICE PRESIDENT’S FORMER SISTER-IN-LAW PREGNANT BY HIM! The article went on to say that Caroline, who is a dead ringer for Catherine Cheetah Simba, had an assignation with Vice President Shane Simba on a trip to northern Kenya. Unfortunately, two who were hit very hard with the news were Caroline’s very decent parent’s Dorian and Cynthia Cheetah.
Roy Lee Simba, who always peruses the decadent rags that abound with this sort of scandal because of his being a film superstar, read it and called Shane to see if he had. Shane, not being a reader of that sort of rubbish, had not. He sat stricken behind his desk and tried to sort out an approach to the dreadful aftermath of his faithless calamity. He knew he had to ask Ralph Lyon if he wanted his resignation. When he and the president had a heart to heart talk, Ralph refused to think of him resigning the post.
“If we were in this government because we were untainted sexually, I wouldn’t be at this juncture at all. I want you for this post because of your brilliance and efficiency. It is up to Betty to judge your extra marital capers, Shane.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Gloria Chimpo called Betty. Being an integral part of show business and working at Baboon-Simba Studios, she had been gotten hold of Roy Lee’s copy of the distasteful scandal rag. Betty was at home working on a news story about the fund raising she was engaging in for cancer testing centers throughout Kenya. She felt as if a fist of steel had been jammed in to her solar plexus. She thanked her sister for warning her, lit a cigarette and exploded in tears. She sat sobbing at her desk and failed to hear the front door open. Her cries emerged in whimpers of a piteous sort.
“Betty, we’re going to get through this, I promise you,” said Shane coming to where she sat and pulling her into his arms.
“Is Caroline pregnant, Shane?”
“I don’t know if she really is or if this is one of her brutish tricks.”
“What heartrending irony, Shane. I want your children more than anything in the world and here is this awful female pregnant with them,” she sobbed.
“Betty, you have my children. My children are yours and yours are mine. I am going to get to the bottom of this scam and if she is, I’ll ask her to abort them.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Well too bad, then, she can have them on her own with no participation on my part.”
“But she will have your children still,” moaned Betty into his shirt front.
“Betty, listen to me! It is who I live with and create a family with that has my children. Not some conniving female that is impregnated with my DNA. You place so much credence in just the import of pregnancy. I’ve made a home with you and my children love you as I do yours.”
“Did you even think to use birth control, Shane?” asked Betty, angered by the injustice of it all.
“Damn, Betty, I told you I was as drunk as a lord. I could hardly stand up. I was totally shit faced or it wouldn’t have happened.”
“Too bad you can still get it up when you’re that drunk,” she cried running past him and out of the room.
“You’ve got a point there,” he told her retreating back.
Shane Simba in a dilemma….
Caitlin Cougar worked in her studio on a sculpture of a male lion head. She had just begun working on it. She took a break and lit a cigarette. She went to her small back porch under the two acacia trees that formed a leafy configuration over that part of her yard. She sat down and put her feet up. She had been standing for hours working on this new piece. She closed her eyes, remembering the tempestuous and thundering night that she made love to Sloane in Mombasa. Caitlin had never imagined the ecstasy she had felt at the touch of his paws and the feel of his tongue over her body. When he entered her with a cry she had felt she might black out from the intensity of sensation, both mental and physical, that coursed through her. She finished her cigarette and returned to her studio.
Staci Simba’s teeth were gritted as she got in Arlon Lyon’s car after school.
“Arlon, I want to go to RUNNERS and see my grandparents,” she told the perplexed lion.
“Don’t you want to get some Big Macs and go home?” he asked.
“No, I don’t want to see my father.”
"Is it that article in the Enquirer, Staci?”
“Yes,” she said, pulling a handkerchief from her satchel and dabbing any tears that might flow. “I hate Daddy.”
Then she did burst into tears. Big ones gushing forth and down her cheeks that bore the black cheetah marks that African legend says were created by the tears of a mother cheetah that had lost her young. Arlon patted her clumsily on the back. He was not an age which was adept to dealing with female emotion. He drove her to Cynthia and Dorian’s fitness center and let her off there, telling her to call him if she needed a ride home. When she made her way in to Cynthia’s office the lovely cheetah saw the tear stains on her granddaughter’s face and wrapped her arms around her. Holding her close, she murmured soothing words to the young female that had undergone so many traumas in this year’s time.
Arlon walked in to his house, tossing his book satchel aside and taking his McDonald’s sack in the breakfast room. Betty came to see if they home from school and found Arlon alone at the table.
“Where’s Staci? Did she have practice?”
“No, Mom, she’s pissed with Shane about knocking up her aunt. She wanted to go to RUNNERS and see her grandparents.”
“Oh my God, poor Staci,” said Betty.
“I think she’s afraid you’ll leave him, Mom. Staci really loves you.”
“Oh, Arlon, when you’re finished eating, let’s go get her. I’ll assure her that I’m not leaving her dad.”
Betty walked into Cynthia’s office and found her with her arms around her granddaughter. Cynthia looked up at Betty, distress etched on her pretty face.
“I’ve come to tell Staci that everything will be the same at home. She doesn’t have to worry. We’re all staying together – as a family.”
Staci got up and threw her long arms around her stepmother.
“We’ve been so happy with you, Betty. I hope you’ll forgive my daddy. I really hate him,” cried Staci.
“No, you don’t hate him, Staci, you love your dad as I do. Let’s go home now. Babs has made a pot roast with everything you like. I love you, Staci. Please don’t worry about things,” said Betty.
Cynthia stood up and patted Staci on the shoulder.
“Go home, sweetheart. Betty’s right on everything,” and looking directly at Betty’s injured face. “You are some wonderful female, Betts. I’m so glad you’re in our family.”
That evening the wounded family sat at the dining table over a pot roast filled with everything the diners loved most, a large beef shoulder, succulent potatoes, sweet carrots and onions in abundance. They made tentative conversation at first, feeling the sting of what had been wreaked by Shane’s brash one night stand with Caroline. Then, because they were a loving and dedicated family carved out of many incongruent factors, they settled into a real discussion that went a long way toward healing the lesion that Shane had caused with his recklessness.
Later in their bedroom over short glasses of cognac, they lay side by side, their arms entwined. Shane blew his cigarette smoke toward the ceiling.
“Fifi, you are the greatest gift that has ever come my way,” he told her as he rolled over and placed his head on her bosom.
“I do so love you and have loved you, it almost seems, forever. But now I also love your children. When I saw Staci today at RUNNERS, I knew I could never break up our family, Shane.”
“Betty, I will make this pain up to you, I swear it. You are such an exceptional animal.”
She leaned over his supine length. She rubbed her hands across his chest and licked his lips with her tongue. He sighed and took her with such gentleness and devotion she thought she would weep.
The next day at home, he phoned Caroline Cheetah and asked her to abort her litter if it was a reality and truly his. Betty was at his side. Caroline told him she would do no such thing.
“Then, when you give birth, Caroline, I will demand a DNA test. I will not marry you nor be any part of rearing your litter. You will go it alone.”
“So be it, Shane,” she said and hung the phone up with a bang.
The war was on. The gloves were off. Caroline wept into her drinks that evening. Having phoned Sloane for sympathy, she was totally rebuffed as he slammed down the phone on his end in a show of downright repugnance.