Despite the ramifications of having Chloe Cougar in close proximity, Christine Cheetah Mbube was excited at the prospect of staging A Streetcar Named Desire in the Catherine Simba Memorial Theater of the arts center.  She spoke with me about the matter and I, too, shared her enthusiasm for the project.  Little did we know that it would be a bone of contention with her lion actor husband, Micah Mbube.  It was not that Micah objected to staging the prestigious Tennessee Williams play.  It was the thought of Christine using the new lion actor to play the coveted male lead of Stanley Kowalski, Blanche Dubois’s taunting brother-in-law.  Micah felt it was a wonderful role to have as his next vehicle for the stage.  However, Christine put her foot down.  She didn’t want her husband anywhere near Chloe Cougar.  With that hefty bone of contention at play in the already wobbly marriage, the couple was at odds points. 

Christine Cheetah Mbube, director of the arts center....  

     In the main gym at RUNNERS, Chloe attempted one of her marathon get-fit-quick sessions.  Gerald Giraffe, chewing on a long, leafy snack branch with his prehensile lips, was having a fine time of torturing the petulant and tempestuous Chloe. 

“Get your ASS in gear,” he shouted, placing a hoof on the tread mill, turning it up a notch or two. “You’ve got at least twenty kilos of extra lard to get off that hefty butt.”

“Shut the fuck up, Gerald,” she screeched, perspiration running into her eyes from the exertion. 

Gerald was interrupted from his session by his partner Cynthia Cheetah beckoning to him from the sidelines.  He left Chloe on the treadmill at 35miles an hour and went to see what Cynthia needed. 

“Betty Simba is pregnant again and she wants a private session of yoga each day.  I’m up to my ears in classes and you’ve been so good with the yoga sessions, will you take her on, please Gerald?”

At Betty’s name, Gerald pricked his ears. 

“She just lost a cub recently and was all over my precious Montecore after that.  What the hell is that female about, Cyn?”

“She’s pregnant again AND the President’s wife. She can’t be ignored, Gerald.  You know this.”

“I guess it’s best for her to keep healthy through this one so Shane Simba won’t kick her ass again and bring her running to Montecore’s side.  Yes, tell her I’m free at ten in the morning.”

“Good boy, Gerald, I knew you’d be a love about it,” said Cynthia patting his tall shoulder. 

“I can’t stand that bitch,” griped Gerald, returning to the one he disliked most after the first lady.

            However, it wasn’t Montecore that Betty turned to in the escalating distance from her husband.  Micah Mbube, who had been her lover at one time between her Simba husbands, was on the board of the Arts Council that she headed as the President’s wife.  She called him on the ruse of conferring on some matter pertaining to the arts and he gladly came running.  Where Shane was all silence regarding his private affairs, Betty badly needed a caring ear or shoulder to air her grievances.  Micah, who was miffed at his wife, gladly complied.  They met in the library of the bush house where Betty spent a great deal of her time.  Betty poured out her most intimate marital woes to an astonished Micah, who had thought, wrongly, that Betty had reached the pinnacle she had craved – marriage to Shane Simba.   When she had done spilling out the sordid details of their Machiavellian deal about the new cub and Jane, he sat slightly stupefied.  He had thought he and Christine had been through the wringer but it was nothing compared to the intrigues of the first couple.  He stood up and made his excuses to leave.  A disappointed Betty showed him out.  He beat a hasty path to Christine’s office where he embraced her and insisted on taking her to dinner at the romantic Klip ‘n Dodi’s restaurant.  There, he told her that he would never lay another paw on Chloe if she would give him the coveted role in Streetcar. 

“You can watch from the wings during rehearsals, Chrissie.  I promise, I have nothing left for her nor did I care that much while I was banging her.”

“I will have the other lion understudy you, Micah, and at the first sign of a flirtation, I will give him the part.”

“That’s perfect, darling Christine. I do love you so,” he told his wife kissing her paw. 

            They returned to their new home on the savanna and made love more passionately than they had in quite a while. 

            Alexander Simba was pruning some azaleas when he looked up to see his ex-wife, Lucy Cougar, admiring the geraniums in the Simba Garden Center. 

“Luce, you look lovely.  How are the cubs?”

“They’re fine, Alex, and looking forward to a long weekend with you.  I need some new geraniums.  I’ll take these.”           

He took the pots to the cash register.

“What are you doing these days?  You look amazing.”

“I am in nursing school in the Mara.  The kids are getting older and I badly needed another interest.”

“That’s wonderful, Lucy.  You will make a great nurse…..all the males will love having you at their bedsides,” he teased.

“Really, Alex?”

“Of course they will, Luce, you are very beautiful.  Would you have dinner with me one evening?”

“Of course, I will. Call me.”

He helped her to the car with her plants and watched as she drove off in a cloud of dust.  He realized that in spite of her controlling personality, he missed her. 

            Chris Simba was making headway with the very pretty Cate Ocelot.  They were on their second date.  Chris had brought her to his apartment and made love to her on the first evening they met, hearing her tales of woe over his half-brother, Sloane Simba.  He had reciprocated with horror tales of his first two marriages and the callousness of his wives.  They had ended up in bed with a large bowl of pasta and garlic that Cate had whipped up in his kitchen.  Their next date was to be a grill at her town home near the watering hole. 

            The duo of Caroline Cheetah and Sloane Simba had made no further progress in tamping down their very volatile differences.  For these particular lovers, life was one big wrangle interlaced with heady sex.  Caroline would join Sloane on the weekends in his bush home with her son, Sunny Leoparde.  Sloane was very fond of his lover’s out of wedlock cub with Shane Simba. Sunny had been adopted by Caroline’s ex-husband, Leland Leoparde.  Leland, also doting on his adopted son, had the delightfully happy cub every other weekend at his lovely bush home near his brother, Luke’s.  Georgy Simba, Sloane’s precocious little daughter, would giggle to herself and later quote some of her father and Caroline’s more spicy exchanges to her mother and her new boyfriend, Homer Leo.

            Not all the Simba males were in romantic disarray.  Sam Simba was reveling in his family and live-in-lover, Tawny Tigeres.  Sam and Tawny had recently added three new cubs, in addition to the eight Sam had with Allison Scar Simba and his two sons by Betty, who preferred his household to hers.  Sam had contracted Lewis Lyon to build another addition to his already extensive home on the Mara River.  Within those wall existed a very happy family.  Allison Scar Simba, who was not divorced from Sam, had gone back to her nursing career full time leaving her children to Sam most of the week.   Sam managed Simba Brothers with Tawny at his side during working hours then it was back to the topsy turvy but very blissful household.  One big plus for Sam was the rapprochement with his estranged litter mate, Shane.  Shane had begun the healing process with gifts for Allison and Sam’s new cubs which he brought himself, rolling into the drive in his official Rolls.  Solly was with him and set to playing with his many cousins as Sam, Tawny and Shane chatted over drinks.  At the funeral of his stillborn son, it had been Sam who supported the grief stricken Shane at the graveside.  They also shared a still unspoken bond, having both been married to the very erratic Betty Chimpo.  The brothers had not yet shared the peccadilloes of being wed to Betty and having children by the strange method known as French.   Since both Shane Simba and his litter mate seldom spoke of their personal lives, neither had compared notes at this time.  However, there was turf to cover should they begin to do so. 

Sam Simba with one of his liger cubs with Tawny Tigeres...

“What did you just say?” asked Luke Leoparde, spewing a bit of his wine in surprise at the words Staci Simba had just uttered. 

They were in a grassy bit of savanna in the Serengeti, close to the border Tanzania shared with Kenya.  The beautiful weather had caused them to put down the small aircraft and enjoy the picnic basket Luke had packed for the occasion. 

“I said I dream about you a lot, Luke…..I really do,” giggled Staci, dabbing a bit of wine from his arm.

“You do?” he asked, surprise rampant in his clear green eyes.

“Why are you surprised?” she asked, rolling on her side and watching him intently.

“You are so young and beautiful, Staci, I just can’t imagine you dreaming about an old warhorse like me.”

“You’re not old, Luke.  I’ll bet you’re not as old as my dad.”

“I’m Ashley Lyon’s age and he’s at least a couple of years ahead of Shane.”

“Ashley is still a young, hunky dude…….just like you, Luke,” she giggled. 

“Are you flirting with me, Staci Simba?” asked Luke, filled with a zany kind of hope and elation. 

“I think I might be, Luke.  Would you mind if I was?”

“Not at all…..”

His sentence was cut short by Staci placing a very big kiss on his lips.  He only thought for a split second before he reciprocated with a much more experienced one.  They both rolled over, Luke on top of Staci.  He remembered her full bodied response to him and realized that he was the one that stopped the show from a final curtain call.  He jumped up, rearranging his clothing, picked up the picnic basket and headed for the plane.  She followed.  They both got in, Staci in the pilot’s seat. 

“Are you mad with me?” she asked.

“No, not at all, Staci, just please rev up the engine and lets get in the air.  At least that way my body will be on a level with my mind,” he laughed, giving a kiss to her cheek. 

Luke and Staci in the Serengeti....

            The furtive baboon, high in the tree above the bush headquarters of ANIMAL ENQUIRER, busily monitored a cell phone conversation which was going on at the moment.   He had monitored several from the same source for the last few nights.

“Monte, he has made this bargain with me about letting me get pregnant if he can still sleep with that fucking lioness,” said the female voice. 

The conversation continued in the same vein as the previous calls.  The female voice had not been at all subtle in mentioning names.  Shane and Montecore or Monte were in full play throughout the conversations.  The only name omitted was Shane Simba’s lover.  The baboon scurried down the tree and went to his laboratory in the ENQUIRER headquarters and pieced the details together, verifying the callers.

            The current issue of ANIMAL ENQUIRER hit the stands with blaring headlines that read:  THE PRESIDENT’S LOVE PACT WITH HIS PREGNANT WIFE.  It sold out before the sun set over the Mara. 

            Shane was in his office when it fell to me to hand him the scandal rag which his secretary had found on the newsstand during her lunch hour.

“Maurice, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to give this to him,” demurred the harried female.

I had to agree with her and now was standing before his desk as he read through the article.  He stood up slowly and took the magazine under his arm. He headed out the door of his office, probably heading for the mansion where the culprit lay unsuspecting.

            Betty was lounging on a chaise on the balcony off the family room when her husband’s shadow fell across her.  He held a magazine.   He pulled a chair close to hers and sat down. 

“Been on your cell phone a lot lately, Betty?”

His eyes were dangerously fierce with tiny black flecks in their pale green depths.

“Of course, darling, I keep in touch with my friends, you know that.  Look at what I’m drinking, Shane,” she said, raising a delicate glass of mango juice which he promptly knocked from her hand, the shards scattering everywhere as it crashed to the floor. 

“And you have managed to talk nineteen to the dozen about an issue that was very personal to us - shared the details with your ex-husband, Montecore,” he roared, throwing the scandal rag at her. 

Shaking like a leaf, she managed to open the ENQUIRER to the appropriate page which happened to be the first article.  She read in horror as her conversations with Montecore unfolded in print with all of their intimate and sordid details. 

“Betty, I want you out of my sight.  You can go to Montecore if you like.  After all, he is the only one of your husbands that is as undignified as you are.  However, if you harm one hair on my cub by bad dietary habits, I will have you banned from Kenya and exposed as the lousy creature you are.”

 

“Shane, we made a bargain….” She screeched, rising from the chaise and clinging to him.

He removed her arms from their grip around his waist.  “You broke it with your damn overworked mouth.  Your propensity for having to cry and whine on everyone's shoulder.airing your dirty linen for the world to see and hear.  Just get out of my sight for now.  I’ll make arrangements to stay in the bush house for the time being.”

He called to Miss B and Solly’s nanny to go to the bush house with his things and to take him from kindergarten to that residence.  Betty spent the rest of the day in their room with the shades closed.  That evening his butler took his clothes and other personal belongings to the bush house.