Staci has a birthday....
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.
Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, 1996
A deliriously happy Betty attended church with Shane and their children the first day she was allowed from her home and bed. The Reverend Saul Serval, having been notified that the first family was going to attend, gave a sermon especially aimed at their prospect of parenthood together. It was flowery and overly long, causing Lachlan to squirm restlessly in the pew beside me. Lachlan, being an agnostic, attends only to be with me - something I appreciate greatly. At the end of the service we all walked out and greeted the first family.
The first couple of Kenya attend services at the First Church of the Ascending Predator......
Betty lay on a table in the examination room of the Exotic Animal Clinic. She was frightened but yet hopeful. Frank Tigeres and Sylly Cougar Lyon had taken the blood work to the lab to check the results themselves. Betty lay under a thin sheet and shivered with anticipation. She had waked up nauseated this very morning and had called Frank. She had then gone in the official Rolls to be examined at the clinic. After what seemed a lifetime, Sylly and Frank entered the room.
“Congratulations, Betty. You are to be the mother of Shane’s cub. The implant took and everything looks good,” said Frank.
She went home with many more instructions than the average expectant mother. The doctors told her to take it easy at all times, eat fresh foods, stop smoking and limit her alcohol intake to a glass of wine a day. She also had many prescriptions. There would be no more AIDS junkets until after the birth of the cub in three months. A nap was prescribed for each day after lunch. Betty dressed and almost floated from the clinic, tossing her quarter pack of Kool cigarettes in the nearest trash receptacle. For this cub she would go the whole route. She rode home in a near dream state.
Caroline Cheetah read of the news of Betty’s attempts to get pregnant. She lit a cigarette and blew the smoke toward the ceiling in furious fashion. She was lying on the sofa in Sloane’s bush house. He was in a chair near, his legs crossed on an ottoman.
“If she does get pregnant and has a boy, I hope she won’t have the audacity to name him Shane Simba, Jr.” fumed Caroline.”..
“It is whispered around the State House that she is already pregnant and quite frankly it took audacity for you to register little mister illegitimate by that name. Betty’s son will be the real Shane Simba, Jr. with all the trappings of marriage surrounding his birth.”
“Sloane Simba, you can be such an asshole,” hissed Caroline, throwing the newspaper at him.
“I thought you had moved past all that bullshit about Shane, Caroline.”
“I have, Sloane, I just want my son to have the birthright that’s due him.”
“You don’t even take him to visit his regular weekends, so how do you expect him to have the advantages of being Shane’s son?”
“Will we ever have children, Sloane?” she asked, out of the blue.
“Not out of wedlock.”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were the prim and proper sort.”
“I am not, personally, but I think it’s hell on kids when they are illegitimate. You and my ex-wife think nothing of popping out little bastards.”
With that statement, Caroline went to Sloane’s chair and attempted to hit him. He held her arm in a vise like grip.
“Be careful, Caroline. Remember your brother is now occupying your flat.”
“Fuck you, Sloane,” she snarled.
He jumped from the chair and picked her up bodily.
“That’s the best idea you’ve had all day and it usually cools your jets for the evening hours,” he laughed heading for the bedroom.
There was much celebration in the home of Shane and Betty that evening. Betty had quit smoking cold turkey and had only one glass of the champagne that Shane had the servants bring from the mansion’s cellar. The one that seemed the most elated was Staci who drank the bubbly until she was quite tipsy. Shane seemed amazingly happy with the thing he had not wanted heretofore. Betty and Shane talked for hours in the darkness of their bedroom. At last he slept and she listened to his easy breathing feeling that they were morphing into a whole new phase of their marriage. She placed her hands on her lower belly where his son lay.
A week later the Simbas celebrated Staci’s birthday. Betty invited Lee Simba, Delilah Dik Dik and Imani Lyon to dinner. A large cake was brought out of the kitchen. More champagne was served with the cake. Staci opened gifts from her friend, cousins, brothers and Betty. Shane handed her a beautifully wrapped but very small box. She opened it to find a set of car keys.
“Oh Daddy!” she shouted in excitement.
“Shall we go to the driveway?” asked Shane as all got up from the table, making their way toward the elevator.
There in the curving drive stood a BMW convertible, sleek and beautiful.
“Oh, Daddy, is this mine?” squealed Staci.
“It sure is. Take everyone for a ride. You’ll probably have to do it in turns,” laughed Shane.
Staci drives her birthday gift from her father......
The next morning at the breakfast table in the Lyon home on Leoparde Drive, Imani piddled with her breakfast eggs and biscuits.
“Dad, I want a new car,” she said.
“What?” asked Ashley dropping his fork on the plate.
“Staci got a new Beamer last night for her birthday.”
“Imani, you’re not old enough to get a car and you are so sullen you will have to clean up your act before I get one for you and Kitty,” admonished Ashley.
“You mean me and Kitty have to share a car?” wailed Imani.
“Kitty and me,” corrected her father.
“Whatever!” screeched Imani, getting up from the table and leaving the room.
“What are we going to do about her, Leely, she’s obnoxious as hell, a real pain in the ass?”
“She’ll grow out of it, Ash. It’s just a stage,” said Leah, giving a kiss to her husband.
“I sure as hell hope you’re right.”
However, Imani wasn’t finished with her quest to attain a car of her own. She had a grandfather who was particularly enamored of her for looking like her jaguar grandmother. His name was Roy Lee Simba and he lived just down the street. Imani decided to pay him a visit as soon as she could get away after school.
Imani sat primly in her grandparent’s beautifully appointed sun room on Leoparde Drive. Roy Lee and Janice were both curious. Imani didn’t grace them with her presence unless dragged by her parents. Janice and Roy Lee adored this granddaughter who was a throw back to the jaguar strain in their children’s lineage.
“Grandpapa Simba, Uncle Shane gave Staci a BMW convertible for her birthday. I was at the party.”
Imani attempted a pleasant expression which was not normal for her. Roy Lee gave Janice a look that said they realized this grandchild didn’t usually present this way. Janice had been her usual affectionate and loving self as had Roy Lee.
“Imani, that is wonderful. I know it was a lovely party. Did she give you a ride?” asked Roy Lee.
“Grandpapa, I want Dad to give me a car and he won’t.”
“You may be a bit too young, sweetheart,” offered Janice. “Staci is in her last year in high school.”
“I’m just a few months younger, Grandmama. Staci kept skipping grades.”
Roy Lee and Janice weren’t about to go over Leah and Ashley’s heads in this matter. They fed their granddaughter a good dinner and Roy Lee walked her home. No commitment was made as to a car.
However, Imani had another lion grandfather she could work on and a lioness grandmother that she knew was partial to her dad. She would try to get to the Lyon Pride Compound very soon and hit up Mildred and Ralph. She hadn’t concluded this matter by any means.
Shane had to make an official trip to South America. Rio was on his agenda and a talk with the Brazilian president concerning conservation. Of course, Betty was unable to go, still being in a tenuous stage of early pregnancy. Shane asked me to accompany him. The young president and I were becoming quite close but I still wondered at him inviting me along when the real need was for Sloane to attend with him. As it turned out, he invited Sloane, as the combination justice and interior minister to join us but he still wanted me by his side. I was booked in a suite which adjoined Shane’s. When I arrived home that evening, Lachlan was already there – always a good thing for me. We made drinks and took them before the fire Lachlan had prepared and lit earlier.
“Shane wants me to go to Brazil with him next week. Betty can’t go. What’s more, he’s booked me into the suite adjoining his. I’m a bit stumped.”
“That’s a very easy puzzle to crack, Maurice. He wants you to witness the fact that he doesn’t plan to play around on Betty while he’s gone. This guy is improving every day,” laughed Lachlan.
I slapped my hand to my forehead, “Of course, why didn’t I think of this?”
“Because you are totally devoid of any of devious characteristics. You look at everything from a completely candid angle.”
“You’re not devious either but I think you nailed this one correctly,” I giggled.
“I have to treat and counsel a shit load of cunning characters – It's my job to read them.”
Sam Simba came home one evening to find his father-in-law, Old Scar, sitting in front of the fireplace licking his balls. Sam threw down his brief case, hoping the old lion would see him standing there. He did.
“WHAT?” he roared.
“I have asked you not to do this. There are cubs and females wandering around this house. It is obscene to do this to your testicles when not in the privacy of your own room.”
“Oh bullocks, male lions have done this for a thousand years before Kenya got all fancied up and dressed to the teeth like your ass,” snarled Scar, attacking a flea on the side of his head. “You Simbas just think you are hot snot now that you’ve got that litter mate of yours as president. The only decent one of you is Roy Lee.”
“Well it is a Simba that pays the considerable bills in this home which mainly houses the members of your pride these days.”
“And all them cubs you knocked Ali up with,” growled her father.
Sam was about to respond in the same vein when Allison entered the room.
“What’s wrong now, Sam? Dad is just doing what comes naturally. You are always picking on him,” she cried.
“I am leaving and will cool off later. I will be gone for a few days, Allison. There is really no room for me here with your aunts, mother and this old bastard again,” raged Sam.
Before he left the house, Sam went to where his daughter, Shani, lay mewing in her crib. He held her close and nuzzled her small face for a bit, as she put her little paws gingerly on his. He placed her back in her bed, tucking the cover around her tiny body. He left the room and headed down the hall, passing the main living room which was filled with female pride members, surrounding Old Scar. Many cubs, among them his own, played noisily about. He left and headed for the Tigeres compound and the loving arms of Tawny Tigeres.
Shane, Sloane and I visited Brazil for four days. We worked diligently with a committee headed by the Brazilian president. The topics were rain forest destruction and the wild animal pet export trade that abounded in that country. The three of us would lunch with the president and committee, meet again and go to our rooms to shower for dinner. Every night, Shane dined with Sloane and me. Later when we went to our suites, he would call and invite me to his for a nightcap. He would already be dressed in a robe and pajamas. Lachlan was dead on the money. Shane Simba wanted me to know that he was doing nothing by way of infidelity to Betty. We boarded Simba One on a mid day and headed for Kenya and the Mara.
Betty was standing near the helicopter pad when we put down at the State House. She ran to greet us, throwing her arms around her husband. She looked absolutely radiant.
The single females snapped to attention, all being around the bar at the Watering Hole Pub. Having left a long day’s work at Lyon & Associates, Curtis Cheetah and Leland Leoparde decided on a drink at the local pub. They were dressed impeccably in designer suits. In the short time they had been employed in the Lyon’s law firm, they had become fast friends. Curtis was living in his sister’s leased apartment and Leland had rented one in the same building – Lyon Towers. The females batted eyelashes and attempted subtle flirtations. There were Cameron Caracal, Linda Cougar, Amy Chui and Janice Jaguar Simba’s niece, Landa.Jaguar.
That same evening, Staci Simba and her cousin, Lee Simba, were tooling about in Staci’s gifted BMW convertible. They passed the pub which appeared gala in the waning light with diners and drinkers all about the deck and coffee areas.
“Let’s go in,” suggested Lee.
“I don’t think my daddy would approve, Lee,” Staci demurred.
“Oh come on, Staci. It’s not a den of iniquity. There are kids here for ice cream.”
Staci parked her car and the two made their way inside the packed and jamming establishment. Several members of the reporting media were seated at a table and made note of the president’s pretty daughter there with her cousin, the superstar’s daughter. Lee pushed Staci toward the bar area. They bellied up to the bar. Lee ordered a Cosmopolitan being of legal age. Staci ordered a coke. Several males noticed the two pretty newcomers and came over. Staci felt a tap on her shoulder and looked into the face of her uncle, Curtis Cheetah.
“Does Shane know you’re here, Staci?” he asked in a pleasant but concerned way.
“N-no Sir, he doesn’t. I’m leaving now, Uncle Curtis,” promised the shaken Staci.
“This is no place for a pretty young female to hang around, Staci. Not this bar area at any rate. Remember you’re fodder for the paparazzi with your dad as president.”
“Thank you, Uncle Curtis, I’m leaving now.”
Curtis asked for a go cup and poured Staci’s coke in it. She tapped Lee on the shoulder and told her she needed to leave. Lee didn’t want to so Staci left with Curtis following her to the car in case the paparazzi were about. She thanked him and sped toward State House Road and home.
At the bar, Lee met up with the lion bush pilot, Trey Timbo, the reader of Captain Marvel comics. Trey was a good bush pilot but slow on any uptake other than the instrument panel on a plane. He was exceedingly boring, but Lee didn’t mind for he was handsome. He, if one can remember that far back, had lived with Bop Boon for a while. It was Lee’s first attempt at an adult relationship. She drank two more Cosmopolitans and grew tipsy. Trey grew horny at the sight of the pretty and rather smashed Lee. He took her to his bungalow on the grounds of the Leoparde-Lyon Safari Club. There he bedded her. Lee was a virgin but had been anxious to be relieved of that condition. Trey was not much for conversations on any subject matter other than bush flying and Captain Marvel. But he was curious as to whom he had just relieved of her virginity.
“So you’re a leopardess." stated Trey. “Do your parents live in the Mara?”
“No, I’m not a full leopard. My dad’s a lion and my mom is half cougar and half leopard,” said Lee, lighting a cigarette she had bought from the bartender at the pub.
“Who is your dad?”
“Roy Lee Simba,” said Lee, exhaling.
“Oh lord, you mean I’ve taken Roy Lee’s daughter’s cherry?” asked the horrified Trey who is a tremendous fan of the superstar’s action films.
“You sure have,” chortled Lee who was growing more pleased with herself by the minute.
Trey bounded from the bed, gathering his clothes and putting them on in such haste he almost fell down.
“What’s the rush?” asked Lee.
“I gotta get you out of here and take you back to the pub.”
“I don’t have a ride. You can drive me to where I’ll be spending the night though,” suggested Lee, getting up and gathering her own clothing.
They got in Trey’s jeep and drove from the club grounds. Lee told Trey that she would direct him to her cousin’s home. They drove for a bit and then Lee headed him onto State House Road. As they drove toward the gates of the State House and mansion, Trey began to get very panicky.
“Why are you telling me to go here? This is the President’s home and office.”
“I know it is. My cousin is the President’s daughter. I’m spending the night with her.”
“Oh shit, shit, shiiiiiiiiit!” roared Trey.
Lee got out of the jeep and showed the guards her I.D. They opened the massive gates. Lee walked over to the driver’s side where a very anxious Trey sat.
“Want to come in?” she asked him.
“Hell no,” he roared as he backed his jeep and drove away at such break neck speed his tail lights were barely visible before they disappeared into the night.
Lee had no sooner been admitted to the mansion, headed for Staci’s room and gotten in bed there, that she was sharing the details of her deflowering with her wide eyed cousin. They chatted until the sun broke through the room.