The highly controversial marriage of our young lion president and his human wife continued to be the focus of attention among some in Kenya.  It wasn’t the immigrant or native animals that spoke against it nor did the immigrants from countries like India and Somalia.  The indigenous peoples of Kenya were delighted with Shane and his continuing focus on the plight of the needy.  It was those rich and decadent families of English descent whose ancestors had colonized Kenya and still lived well off their purloined land and miseries of others.  They felt that animals governing was a threat to their grandiose and extravagant lives.  It was easy to see that Shane Simba’s focus was on relieving those whose lives consisted of struggling for livelihood and food on their tables.

 

    There were still daily outcries in the Kenya Post about Shane and Alexandra.  That particular newspaper was owned by humans who still toadied to the likes of the Delameres, Colvilles, Broughtons and Hays who wanted to remove animals from power in Kenya. .  Not that all of the post colonial families had hearts in the wrong place, some were content with the status quo and were engaged in good works. 

 

            Shane Simba had a ruthless side to his character that Ralph Lyon lacked.  This is why I always suggested and was glad to see Shane confer with our former president before striking out at the greatest of the offenders.  He confiscated two more plantations when the owners continued their attacks on Shane and his wife.  He ceded the land in question to native or poor animal families that lived nearby.  Ralph backed him on each seizure.  Shane and Lewis Lyon loaned Bob Bushbuck the money to buy the Kenya Post in Nairobi.  That silenced the voices that had cited bestiality in their quest for Shane’s removal.  Shane went on television with an address to his nation. 

 

“Today Kenya is a country where animal society is as important as human.  With this comes the inevitable right of freely engaging in marriage and other relationships between consenting humans and animals.  President Ralph Lyon revoked the law which made homosexuality illegal in Kenya and allowed gay marriage.  Now I am going one step further.  There is no such thing as bestiality between consenting humans and animals of legal age.”

 

Shane and Alexandra watch his son Solly play soccer.....

 

“You look terribly tired, Shane,” noticed Alexandra one night when her husband was collapsed on the sofa with his usual drink and cigarette.  “You have been taking a great deal of heat over your marriage to me.  Do you still think I am worth the grief?”

 

“Always, Alex, you are worth anything it takes to keep you by my side.”

 

The crowds in Nairobi cheer Shane as he enters the Parliament building...

 

            When I accompanied him to Nairobi for his bi-weekly speech to parliament, he was mobbed by Kenyans cheering,  waving banners and signs of approval.  “We love you,” shouted the enthusiastic crowd that lined the streets and thronged the front of the Parliament building as we made our entry. 

---

            It was not too long before Ralph Lyon, noticing the paparazzo's pictures of his son Ashley with Chloe Cougar, decided to take action.   He called Ashley and asked him to come to their home in the Lyon pride compound.  Thinking that his mother Mildred, who simply idolized her second born son, would be there, he gladly accepted.  One can imagine Ashley’s surprise when his mother was out of town for an AIDS clinic ribbon cutting and only his father, who had never gotten along well with him, sat complacently in his easy chair and offered Ashley a seat in the one next to him.  Ralph asked for a bottle of Chivas Regal to be brought by the houseboy.  When it arrived, Ralph poured three fingers neat for his son and him. 

 

“Ash, you have been mistreating the daughter of our best friends,” began Ralph with which statement rendered Ashley squirming in his chair.    

 

“Dad, Lucy is set up very nicely all over my bush house with her three spoiled brat cubs by Alexander Simba.  You would think she was one of them.  She’s acting as spoiled and rotten as they are.  She’s cross, bitchy and spends her days and nights whining her ass off.  Naturally I have sought the delights of her easy sister, Chloe.  At least I’m keeping it in the Cougar family.”

 

Ralph attempted to restrain a guffaw but failed miserably.  “I never thought Lucy Cougar was for you, Ash.  You would have made it easier on yourself if you’d kept your fly zipped or used condoms.”

 

“That’s a fact that you and I both know with hindsight, Dad.”

  

“Dad, Lucy is set up very nicely all over my bush house with her three spoiled brat cubs by Alexander Simba.

“Let’s have a drink and watch the Playboy channel on the satellite.  I can’t watch it when your mother is home.”

 

Ralph switched the channel to a scene of writhing bodies engaged in heavy copulation. 

 

"Dad, that's a porn flick," exclaimed Ashley.

 

:"I know that, Son.   They're my favorites next to soccer games and westerns," was his father's answer.

 

He and his son watched it to the end.  There was no further discussion of Ashley’s dismal marriage to Lucy Cougar.  After the sex movie ended, Ashley brought up an entirely different subject. 

 

“What do you think of Shane Simba taking all that land from those English families?” he asked.

 

“He conferred with me.  I told him to go ahead.  He’s doing my dirty work for me.  I should have put some of those arrogant bastards out of Kenya during my time in office.  It is those same people and their ancestors who decimated the wildlife population as they called us in those days,” answered Ralph pouring his son four more fingers of Scotch.  “I guess I was too chicken or felt it was too soon to make a move on them.  Shane has stainless steel balls and a ruthless streak that will serve him well.”

 

Ashley Lyon with his father, Ralph, at his parent's home....

---

                        Shane Simba was about to have more on his plate.  His recently wed daughter, Staci Simba Mnyama, had called and asked to see him alone.  Staci and her father were extraordinarily close.  His late wife, Catherine, had been killed in a car crash when their two cubs were still quite young.  Shane had devoted his time to them, having moved to Botswana for a ministry assignment under President Ralph Lyon.  He had become both father and mother to Staci and her younger brother Sean Simba.  His daughter remained devoted and close to him to this very day.  He arranged to have some time alone with Staci at his bush home.  Alexandra, who was fond of Staci, was happy to give her husband time with his oldest child.  

 

            Staci and Shane were seated in the great room of the recently built bush home. 

 

“Daddy, Juma and I are not getting along very well,” admitted Staci, taking a gulp of her white wine. 

 

“Do you want to come home?” he asked, lighting a cigarette.

 

“Just until I can get my bearings, Daddy.  I don’t want to interfere with your life with Alex though.”

 

“Alex loves you, Staci.  She won’t mind at all.  I think you like her too.  Would you like to be here at the bush house?  You can be wherever you like though.”

 

“Daddy, I would love to be here.  I can ride Elizabeth each afternoon and it’s near my work at the Mara River facility.”

 

“You’re sure?  You still have a room at the mansion, you know.”

 

“I love this house, Daddy.  I love riding with Alex when you two are in residence.”

 

“Good, then this house it shall be.  What about your nursing career?  You sort of geared it to work with Juma.”

 

“I’m thinking of going to medical school in Nairobi, Daddy.  It’s just a thought but I’d love to be a doctor like Sylly Lyon.”

 

“Hold that thought, Staci.   You know I will back you on anything you want.  I’m very proud of you.”

 

“I love you, Daddy.  You’re the world’s best father.”

---

 

Juma confronts his wife, Staci, in their kitchen....

 

 

“Go ahead, Staci, run home to daddy,” snarled Juma Mnyama.

 

“Juma, you are just deadly serious and I’m sorry but also – deadly dull.  And very, very rigid also.”

 

“I have a serious life, Staci.  I deal with dying people all day.  AIDS is not curable in the long run.  It must be nice to be the spoiled daughter of the President of Kenya and deal with these victims only when you feel like it.”

 

“That’s not fair, Juma, I deal with them all day as you do.  I am by your side as your nurse when you are there, remember?  It’s just that I don’t want to take it home with us in the evening.  You are totally morose and very stubborn about things.”

 

“I think it’s because you know ‘daddy’ will send you to medical school.  This is something that’s not necessary, Staci.  It should be enough to be my nursing assistant,” argued Juma. 

 

“Why do you fight my being a doctor too?  Are you threatened by it or is it because you are a male lion and a chauvinist at that?” she shouted, her temper flaring. 

 

“You should certainly know male chauvinism in a lion, Staci.  You grew up at the master of that realm’s knee.  That's on top of being the worst 'daddy's girl' on earth.”

 

            That evening, she packed her Land Rover with her things and headed for her father’s bush home deep in the savanna. 

---

           Betty stood behind the podium listening to one of Pete’s stirring speeches.  He was a perfect asshole, to her way of thinking, behind the scenes but when he spoke to the animals and people of Tanzania he morphed into a firebrand with brilliant thoughts on the presidency pouring forth.  He was certainly winning hearts and minds.  He had spruced up his wardrobe and was now speaking in assemblies and major political rallies in Dar es Salaam and other major centers of population in Tanzania.  At the end of this rally, they jumped in Betty’s plane and headed for the final leg of today’s campaigning. 

 

            Betty landed on the beach on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, taxiing her small plane to where her house stood.  Memories of Jack Tarzan flooded her.  She could almost see his boat pulled up on shore.  Betty had bought the chalet for the use of her Aunt Fifi who had resigned from Shane’s office recently.  Her distant cousin Pansy was staying there with Aunt Fifi.  Betty had phoned the two just before she landed.  Now they ran to greet her.

 

“Why are these monkeys running toward us?” asked Pete.  

 

“They are my relatives.  I lived here for a time.”

 

Betty, Fifi and Pansy drank wine while Pete was offered a beer.  He paid the chimpanzees little heed, going over his speech for the next day.  He was very disgruntled on learning that Betty planned to spend the night with her relatives.  Pete could have the upstairs guest bed.  Betty would sleep on the sofa.  That’s when she had to get feisty.

 

“Pete, I am going to spend the night with Fifi and Pansy and if you don’t like the company, you can sleep on the beach or in the plane.”

 

“Why do we have to sleep here tonight?” he continued to argue. 

 

“Because it is a thirty minute flight to tomorrow’s rally and because I want to do this and I have the keys to the plane,” she told him.  “And even if they were in there, you can’t fly the damn thing.”

 

“Shit,” he griped stomping upstairs to the guest bed. 

 

Betty and Pete in her former home in Tanzania.....

 

            The next day as they flew to their destination, she told him very upsetting news. 

 

“Pete, you are going to have to find another manager.  I don’t want this job any longer.  You are rude and boorish.  The citizen’s of Tanzania might find you charming, I find you anything but.”

 

A look of horror and consternation crossed his leonine face and the yellow eyes softened. 

 

“Betty, please don’t abandon me.  I know I’m an asshole but you are the one that can change all that.  I don’t know what I would have done without your help.  I don’t usually beg, but please Betty, stay.”

 

“I’ll stay until I can find someone that will be a good replacement for me,” she told him. 

 

“There won’t be anyone like you,” he muttered.  “You are like no other.  No wonder Shane Simba won the presidency of Kenya.”