Maurice & Friends

Alexandra Simba arrived in the Mara on a bright sunny day, landing neatly in the official helicopter on the State House lawn. Her children ran into the arms of their father who was awaiting his family. Shane greeted Alexandra with a hug and peck to the cheek. All assumed they would make glad on a more auspicious occasion within the walls of the mansion.

Shane greets Alexandra......

“Are you sure you don’t think this move is nepotism on my part?” asked Dr. Lachlan Lion of his boss at the Mental Health Center.

“Lachlan, I always respect your judgment. If you think your brother is the one to employ and take some of your casework, I honor that decision,” replied Sylvia Leoparde Cougar who had founded the center originally and still ran the board of directors.

“Thank you, Sylvia. I will call you to meet with him when he arrives. He is still abroad where he completed his psychiatric studies.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” was her response.

With that meeting behind him, Lachlan rushed to meet realtor Jerrilyn Jackal Scar and me at the building that Lachlan might lease for his new restaurant endeavor. It has been renovated by Lewis Lyon Construction and is on the edge of the Mara’s business district – a locale that portends success for an eatery.

Dickey Simba left the State House and was driving home when he decided to place a call to Betty Chimpo.

“Can we get together?” he asked her when she answered.

“I’m reading student essays. Why don’t you eat supper with me? Babs left some pasta,” she told him, trying to ease her excitement and anxiety at seeing him again.

“Be there in a few minutes once I clear this traffic.”

Rory Lion, the brother of Lachlan, likes to say that their mother is a truly devoted reader of Scottish literature – hence her son’s names: Lachlan and Rory. Rory, a rather witty chap, also likens his name to the noise his species make when calling out to distant prides. “I have been called, simply, Roar, he will note with a look of glee in his amber eyes. I met Rory very briefly on one of my visits to Tsavo West with Lachlan. He was still in residence in psychiatry in America and home for a short stay with his mother and dad.

To make a long story short, he is being hired by the Mental Health Center as one of the psychiatric staff in order to lighten Lachlan’s case load. He will stay with us briefly while my good friend and neighbor, Jerrilyn Jackal Scar finds him a place to dwell.

“Do you think everyone in the Mara will assume I’m gay because I’m your brother, Lach?” he asked over drinks one evening with a mischievous wink in my direction.

Lachlan gave a snort of laughter. “No, Roar, once they catch your drift, if I may use that phrase, the word will be out that you are not only a heterosexual but an obnoxious one at that.”

The brothers from Tsavo, though given to jibes are devoted to each other.

Bertram Baboon sat tapping a soup spoon on the table as I arrived late for a lunch meeting at Simba’s Bistro.

“Whatever kept you, Maurice?” he asked. “This place is noisy and insufferable. I can’t wait to eat and get out of here.”

“My, my, aren’t we in a festive mood today,” I said, giving the waiter my order for a double martini.

“Thank goodness, there are imported wines in Kenya once more,” he stated, ignoring my mild scolding. “I just ordered a wonderful bottle of Shiraz.”

“The traffic is intense. I had to first go see a building that Lachlan is going to rent for his new restaurant,” I told him, taking a mushroom and dipping it in butter and garlic sauce. “That is why I am a bit tardy.”

“What in heaven’s name is Lachlan thinking to go into the restaurant business?” he asked so loudly that the Simba sibling who manages this bistro turned his face in our direction.

“Lachlan loves to cook and invents all sorts of wonderful and savory dishes.”

“That DOES NOT A RESTAURANT OWNER MAKE!” screeched Bertram. “One must exercise good management skills.”

“Lachlan has those as well, Bertram. He manages the entire Mental Health Center and very well at that.”

I was getting a bit hot under the collar as I always do when the love of my life is being even slightly criticized. This was coming from a film director that runs a major movie studio like a non-profit dog pound. Bertram took warning from my fiery eyes peeking over my glasses rim and backed off. The rest of the lunch was hectic but pleasant.

Bertram Baboon and I lunch at Simba's Bistro......

In addition, going more deeply into that same major movie studio, Roy Lee Simba, partner and superstar, decided that they had ignored his ex-wife, Chloe Cougar and actress Bop Boon too long and decided to forestall a future lawsuit from same. The studio heads, consisting of Bertram Baboon, his wife Gloria Chimpo Baboon and Roy Lee, dusted off an old Hollywood script which was a major feminist film and decided to place a call to the actresses in question. At the ensuing meeting, Roy Lee spoke first.

“Chlo and Bop, we are going to remake Thelma and Louise. Want to play those roles? You can decide yourselves which to play or we can make the decision for you,” he told the baboon and leopard-cougar mix. The actresses were thrilled. This was a major chance to rebuild sagging careers that had gotten their latest lifts from stage roles. Since Bop and Chloe had become firm friends, living in penthouses adjacent to each other, the former rivals happily took the scripts to Chloe’s apartment and over stiff drinks, made their decisions as to which roles they would take.

Later the two actresses, already bombed to the gills, made an appearance in the sports bar at the Watering Hole Pub, embarrassing greatly Chloe’s football playing son, Troy Simba.

Athletic jock in question, Sean Simba...

Sooner or later, being the brother of Junior Lyon, professional coach par excellence, it got around to Ashley Lyon that his brother-in-law, Sean Simba, was in danger of fucking up in a major way as a highly paid quarterback for the newly established Masai Mara Lions. Ashley and his current wife, the president’s oldest daughter, have become not only married partners and mutual parents but best friends as well. It came up in a discussion one night as the couple was having drinks after putting their cubs to bed.

“Junior tells me that Sean is all about whoring and hitting the bar scene,” noted Ashley having no idea that his wife would go to her father with this bit of information.

Now Staci Simba Lyon is very much in love and totally compatible with her second husband, Ashley but she is also her father’s girl. Staci has been close to her dad, Shane Simba, since the day she was born and he brought her home from the hospital while her mother, the late Catherine Cheetah Simba, was still incarcerated in the local funny farm. Her mother dying when she was still young only strengthened the bond between Shane and his oldest offspring.

Shane Simba was having an iffy week at best under his own volition. His wife, Alexandra, and children had just returned to the mansion from a spell of estrangement. Shane was edgy and decidedly nervous when Staci dropped the bomb on him in regard to his star athlete son, Sean. It happened at dinner in the bush home when all had gathered with Ashley and Staci being invited to lighten the mood of the evening. Sean, naturally, had declined the invitation, choosing to get drunk and partying in the home in the bush that he shared with cousin and fellow athlete, Troy Simba.

“Daddy, Ashley tells me that Sean is in danger of becoming a major fuck up on the football team,” announced Staci, taking a hearty helping of vegetables from the proffered silver tray.

Shit, thought Ashley to himself. Not the time or place to drop that bomb. Ashley loosened a collar that suddenly seemed far too tight. Ashley cast a glance in Alexandra Simba’s direction and realized she liked this tidbit even less than he. He should have chosen to look at Shane Simba instead. Shane’s green eyes became so glacial that the ice floes in the North Pole might have been considered tropical in comparison. Before he could say a word, Alexandra deflected the subject onto the twins and their reading achievements. She meant well but Shane regarded this as one more of her controlling mechanisms that had rubbed him the wrong way. He sighed and said nothing. However, that did not mean that the subject was forgotten – far from it.

She led him to the den where a tray of drinks awaited them. He lit her cigarette along with his.

“I think you believe that I am back with Shane…..”

She was stopped by a finger on her lips.

“Enough of that, Betty,” said Dickey Simba. “I came here because I miss your company.”

“May I explain….I need to do that, Dickey…”

“Whatever,” he sighed.

“Shane and I slept together only that once at my house. In Mombasa he had another woman with him.”

He turned to face her.

“I slept with Cutty so that’s no contest, Betty.”

“Can we start over?” she asked, stopping herself from the hand wringing that was involuntary.

“Why?”

“Because I damn well love you, Dickey……I really do.”

“Prove it,” he breathed into her neck.

“No, I won’t prove a thing. I just know that I do. I’ll make love to you with great joy if you want that.”

“I admire that response,” he said, picking her up and heading for her room.

Dickey Simba with Betty Chimpo......

Shane Simba sat with best pal Lewis Lyon. Lewis and Gina were dinner guests for a Sunday night repast in the presidential bush house. Alexandra and Gina had gone to the veranda to have nightcaps. It left the two male lions alone to have the conversation that had preyed on Shane’s mind since his daughter had spilled the beans about her athlete brother.

“I hear Sean is not worth the money you paid for his contract, Lew,” began Shane, pouring more Scotch in his friend’s glass.

“Who told you this, Shane?”

“Staci gave it up Friday night. I assumed Ashley must have told her.”

“Junior is worried about his drinking and sex life…..it seems to be rather a full time deal with Sean,” admitted Lewis.

“Sean is a chip of the block but without the intellect that curbs that sort of behavior. Do you want me to speak with him, Lew?”

“No, don’t, Shane. Let Junior handle it. He’ll let me know if it reaches parental guidance proportions and I’ll let you know. How are you and Alex getting on?”

“It’s not the same but we’re trying like hell to get back on track.”

Ashley and wife Staci are a most compatible couple....

This situation engendered another discussion in the laid back household of Ashley and Staci (Simba) Lyon.

“Did you have to tell your dad about Sean, Staci? I sort of told you that in a weak moment. I had no idea you would blabber to Shane,” admonished Ashley.

“Ash, you know I tell Daddy absolutely everything, don’t you?” responded a shocked Staci.

Ashley gave a good natured shrug. “Actually I wasn’t aware that you ‘tell Daddy absolutely everything’, Staci….glad you clued me in.”