THE DEEPENING
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
Thomas Merton
Ralph Lyon was doing one of his favorite things since retiring from the presidency – sitting in his comfortable chair in front of the television in their retirement home. Mildred, his main lioness, was sitting with him. They were watching the entertainment segment of the evening news on WMM-TV. A video clip of Roy Lee Simba on the set of his new film Spartacus was being aired.
“Millie, do you think Roy Lee has had some cosmetic surgery? He looks about six and he’s my age.”
“You look wonderful too, dear,” was his wife’s sanguine answer.
“I don’t look like him, Millie. I look worn and he doesn’t.”
“Why don’t you check with Dr. Todd Tigeres if you want a few nips and tucks, dear?”
“Oh no indeed, Millie, that’s not for me. I was just curious - that is all.”
Superstar Roy Lee Simba looking younger than he is?
Alexandra Delamere was restless. She hadn’t heard from Shane Simba in a week. She completed her book work on the family holdings for the day and went for a ride on her favorite mare. The day had been exceedingly warm for the highlands and evening was approaching.
She returned to the house and took a long tepid shower. She dressed in cool linens and went to her veranda where she played her guitar for a bit. She couldn’t keep her mind off of Shane. She knew she had come down too hard on his requests for being serious as well as proposing marriage. She realized she had been rude, almost insulting, in her refusal and disdain for his offers. She picked up her phone and dialed his cell. He answered immediately.
“Where have you been, Alex?” he asked, his voice husky with what she knew was desire for her.
“I just wanted you to know that I’m not as immune to you as I appear to be, Shane.”
Her heart beat wildly at this bit of surrender on her part. She held her breath. The hand that held the phone to her ear was trembling badly.
“I know that. If I thought you were I’d have been devastated. When can I see you?”
“Do you have a free weekend?”
“I can make one.”
“Why don’t you come to my place in the valley and we can talk some more. It’s away from all the madness and paparazzi.”
“I’ll be there Friday evening.”
The minute I entered Shane’s office with some papers that he needed to inspect, I could tell a difference in his demeanor. He had seemed depressed all week. Now he had a lilt in his voice and his step was light. His green eyes had a light in them that had not been there for almost ten days. I knew without actually knowing that it had something to do with Alexandra Delamere. I had to admit that she was so startlingly attractive in so many ways that I could understand his infatuation for her – or what I felt was a dawning love which could shake the very foundations of Shane Simba’s existence. I believed that she had the power to turn him around as Catherine would have if she had lived. Alexandra had that same intense strength that had powered Shane’s late wife, Catherine Cheetah Simba. Alexandra was so reminiscent of the late Catherine even though the two were not the same species. It wasn’t just the long supple limbs, nor the gracefully lean and very athletic body – rather it was something from deep within that the two had in common though one was human, the other cheetah. If someone had told me, without proof, that Alexandra Delamere could run 72 miles per hour, I wouldn’t have doubted it for a moment.
One of the things that charmed me about Alexandra was the fact of her winning intelligence and grace. She never failed to ask me about myself and my family when I was around her which had been often these days with my role as Shane’s Chief of Staff and accompanying him on trips where he had brought Alexandra. She actually drew me out in conversation and seemed interested in what I had to say (which, by the way, is a winning trait in anyone). Although I was also around Johanna Delacroix a great deal, she remained rather petulant and introverted, treating me more as one of Shane’s lackeys than an important member of his staff. Johanna, despite my role in her lover’s life, had never addressed a sentence to me personally. It may be a bit of ego on my part but Alexandra’s treating me as an equal and charming the absolute socks off of me and everyone she met, made a huge difference. Alexandra’s gorgeous blue eyes were alive with wit and intelligence which, despite their icy color, caused them to take on an aura of warmth. I plead guilty to just plain liking the young woman.
Just in case you cite disloyalty to Betty on my part, I have never thought Shane or Betty were good for each other. They never seemed to get on an even footing with one another– when one was up, the other was down and vice versa. They never, despite three quickly gotten children, seemed to settle into each other for more than five minutes. In discussing these things with Lachlan in the evenings, he tells me it’s time I trained for a career in psychiatry.
“Put some of that inheritance money to good use, Maury. Go to school and become a shrink. I need help at the center more than you know,” he laughs.
Bertram and me in OKAPI'S for an early lunch.....
Bertram Baboon and I lunched at OKAPI’S the other day. He is back in the Mara and dickering madly with Jack Tarzan for the film rights to his best selling book. Roy Lee has smiled on the project and Bertram is as excited as a toad in a mosquito filled pond. He simply beams in spite of himself.
“I can just taste another Palm d’Or or Oscar in the offing, Maurice,” he almost shouted causing Ossie Okapi to grimace and swing his head in our direction.
“I hope it works for you, Bertram. You are a very special talent,” I said, taking the last gulp of my martini and summoning the waiter.
“I rather like this Jack Tarzan fellow, Maurice. He’s not as rough as Gloria indicated he was although he did come in on her while she was in the middle of her bath in Tanzania.”
I gave a private gasp at poor Jack and the view he must have gotten of Gloria in her tub. It couldn’t have been the most scintillating sight in the world. I thought of Shane Simba gazing on all of these glorious bodies and the ill-fated Jack getting a gander at the Naked Ape.
“Lachlan and I simply adore him. We fish together. He bought Lach’s house in Mombasa. He is quite a nice chap,” I agreed.
“So you and Lachlan have finally decided to share a beach home too?”
“It’s about time, don’t you think?” I asked, finishing my final martini.
“Yes, indeed I do, Maurice. You seem to have met your soul mate at last. I couldn’t be happier for you despite the fact of his being a lion.”
“Oh let’s not go there, Bertram. Just remember that a lion is a large part of your bread and butter,” I reminded him, alluding to his lucrative partnership with Roy Lee Simba.
“Right you are dear chap.”
She met him at the airstrip on her tea plantation in the Great Rift Valley. She was standing by her Land Rover and waited until he exited the small aircraft before going to him. He looked glamorous in a linen shirt and dark slacks. When his luggage was in her car, he said goodbye to his Masai and drove off with her in the direction of the great house.
“I have to rethink myself where you’re concerned. I am no patsy but I find you intriguing,” said Alexandra, biting into a lime that had been wedged in her gin and tonic.
He stood close, stroking her face.
“Intrigued Alex - Is there not more to us than that?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I trivialize us but I’m still so wary of you and your track record, Shane. You haven’t said much about that girl who is pregnant by you. My understanding from the media is that she lives with you.”
“She is pregnant naturally by me, Alexandra. I know that’s hard to believe but it’s been verified by dozens of international physicians…..and here I am telling you and I’ve managed to keep it from the media. The world assumes she underwent the French Procedure like Betty.”
“I also assumed you had her undergo that procedure which would have denoted real intent on your part…..I would have understood it to be a commitment.”
“It’s not the case, Alex. Does that change anything for you? I am just sticking by her because she doesn’t really know what it will be. It has my DNA but appears human in the ultrasound images. It’s a boy. Now, I’ve bared my secret. If this got out to the media, life would be too hectic to survive. I would have to vacate Kenya.”
“It changes a great deal but you still have the little problem of tiring of everyone you’ve been with. I’ve followed your tracks through news reports. You’ve managed quite the reputation as a player of the keenest variety. Now you’ve started on girls.”
She pronounced the word like most upper class Brits - gills. He laughed softly.
“I love that high society British accent of yours,” he said, kissing her lightly on the forehead.
“Why don’t you have one? You have all that schooling in London and were born and raised in Kenya. Of course I realize that you are a lion but Ralph Lyon has a British accent and so does your brother, Roy Lee. I always managed to see his films.”
“When I was in Canada, the people I met there told me I had their accent…it's almost American. I don’t know why I never picked up the Limey chatter. I see a guitar, Alex, do you play?”
“Yes, it’s my hobby. I write music on the side and do a bit of wonky singing,” she laughed with her throaty chuckle.
“Sing for me, Alexandra, please….
Shane listens as Alexandra plays the guitar in her house in the Great Rift Valley...
She settled on the long couch with Shane sitting next and sang to him in her husky, sexy voice in four languages, French, Italian, Spanish and English. Her long fingers were strumming across the strings of the guitar with flexible skill. Shane thought he had never felt anything like this, sitting enthralled while this amazing young woman sang only for him.
Ashley Lyon and his new wife, Lucy Cougar Lyon, thanks to Betty’s intervention, were doing much better. Lucy, being included in her social occasions on Leoparde Drive, had relaxed greatly. She and Ashley reciprocated with barbecues and fun bashes at his new bush home. The couple began to settle into their marriage. Ashley read the riot act to the officious Imani, scolding her for giving his new bride a hard time. Imani reciprocated by spending more time at the home of her new best friend and cousin, Lee Simba. Lee, since Staci Simba had wed and moved to her new home with her husband, Juma, had decided to take the younger Imani under her wing. There in the townhouse Staci had left to her, Lee lorded over her younger cousin. Imani was all worshipful attention at the knee of Roy Lee’s daughter by Chloe Cougar.
Ashley and his new wife, Lucy Cougar Lyon.....
The weekend Shane spent in the Great Rift Valley in the home of Alexandra Delamere put a new slant on their relationship. They realized, though Alexandra still didn’t care to confess just yet, that they were wildly in love with each other. Although Alexandra didn’t declare hers, Shane sensed that she loved him as well as he did her. An unspoken promise had been made between the two very passionate lovers – they would move on to the next phase and see what happened. Shane, rather than tiring of the dazzling young woman, was more in love than ever as his plane lifted off the tarmac of the plantation’s landing strip. Alexandra, still waving at the ascending aircraft, knew she had turned a corner. She was in love with the lion president and would have to walk softly and carry a big stick as an American president had so succinctly put situations of this type.