Maurice & Friends

Finally and thankfully freed from any patriarchal pressure to govern Kenya with the exception of his flamboyant role as Minister of Tourism, Ashley Lyon has finally caved into his inner bohemian. Long a devotee of funky male fashion, he has relaxed into a daily dose of sartorial semi-squalor. This doesn’t bother his wife, Leah, in the least. It seems as if the more Leah revels in highly sophisticated style, her hubby does the opposite. His shabby chic attire is copied throughout Africa and Europe. Janice Jaguar told me recently that her men’s styles replicating her former lover turned son-in-law are in heavy demand. The male fashionistas are divided between Shane Simba’s urbane look and the loose and youthful characteristic of Ashley Lyon’s attire. It seems we are shifting fashion icons along with our government. It used to be Roy Lee Simba and President Ralph Lyon who guided the male look. Now it is the younger brother and son that set the fashion standards. The old takes a back seat to the new. That is the way it has always been, for better or worse.

Ashley and Shane exhibit their sartorial styles which are often mimicked......

Roy Lee Simba bought Janice Jaguar what may be the most beautiful ring in the world. He had it designed by Cartier. It is a platinum band with a jeweled arrangement of emeralds and diamonds encrusted on it. It bears the inscription, to my love forever, from Roy Lee. He gave it to her on a moonlit evening when his divorce from Chloe Cougar was a done deed. He had spoken with Sylvia and Bernard Cougar several times. They had told him to proceed with his marriage to Janice. He still chatted in a friendly manner with his ex-wife, Chloe. He had always had something of a paternal relationship with her. She was going to marry Charles Mountain Lion, her brother, Carson’s best friend. Her plans were to stay in Montana with him.

Without guilt or disapproval from his former and much loved in-laws, Roy Lee Simba married his ex-wife, Janice Jaguar. The ceremony was held in the back yard of Roy Lee’s home which boasts a garden of great beauty. The attendees were numbered. Roy Lee invited his mother, Sarah Lee (who was thrilled at the re-alliance), his brothers Sam, Shane, Sefu, Chris, Stuart, Bubba, sister, Tookie and their mates. He left out Leander and her sons. He also invited Sylvia and Bernard who declined saying that it was his night but sent their love and blessings. Lee, his daughter with Chloe, was an attendant, Janice having designed and created a beautiful dress for her. His son, Troy (with Chloe also) stood by his dad’s side. Small, Lucretia and Tarek were flower bearers. All of his children with Janice attended the brief and simple wedding. Later, throughout his lovely home, a casual reception took place. The very strange Stuart Simba had brought his five lionesses that all looked quite lovely in designer frocks. They banded together in a corner and sipped champagne. Betty and Shane seemed jubilant. I got to attend with Betram Baboon, Lachlan and Gloria Chimpo. A band cranked up around ten causing most of us to get the dancing bug. I noticed that Shane and Betty danced a great deal to the many show tunes offered by the musicians. Shane then morphed into a boogie by himself. It seemed to reflect the dances of his school days in London. Betty clapped as he put in a very good performance. We were all a bit surprised but realized that he was rather tipsy and about to take over our nation so we applauded his sense of fun on the eve of his inauguration.

It was one of those parties that click. Betty bonded further with her second time mother-in-law, Sarah Lee. Bertram and I noticed her dancing with her ex-husband, Sam Simba. Stuart Simba stood talking with Lachlan, Bertram and me. He is a very odd bird with a pixilated way of speaking. We were all rather charmed by him. The two that seemed in absolute heaven were the newlyweds. We went to Bertram’s house later where we drank until dawn.

The following week, the paparazzi followed Chloe Cougar to a small mountain chapel where she became Mrs. Charles Mountain Lion. The couple’s only witnesses were the minister and his wife. No one had been advised of their pending nuptials. It was also the ending of an era at Baboon-Simba Studios where Roy Lee and Chloe had long been a successful co-starring husband and wife team. So many things were changing in our world.

Betty and Shane went back to the State Mansion from Roy Lee and Janice’s wedding party. They fell into a drunken tumble on their new bed.

“Darling, I thought you hated to dance,” giggled Betty. “You were superb.”

“That will probably be the last time I can shine my ass and get by with it,” he laughed. “I just had to do that thing that was going on in London when I was in school.”

“I loved every minute of it.”

“Sooo glad,” he said and promptly passed out.

Amy Chui pulled her mini skirt to what she felt was an appropriate level for an interview. She had heard that Baboon-Simba Studios was testing for a new starlet. She didn’t want to do the complete “Basic Instinct” effect. She had on no panties. Her last clean pair was still in the washing machine from last night’s orgy at Sidney Simba’s house. She had gotten off early from her job as Christine Cheetah Mbube’s secretary at the arts center. She had something of a hangover but knew she still looked first-rate. Roy Lee and Bertram pinned her with their intense gazes. She re-crossed her legs, exposing a great deal. Bertram raised his brows and looked at Roy Lee who nodded.

“Let’s test her,” suggested Roy Lee.

“By all means,” responded Bertram.

“I have been interviewing my least favorite things for ten days now,” reported Bertram to Lachlan and me. “Females!”

We were having drinks at my house after work. The evening was rainy so I had a small fire in my living room. We sat in a circle around it.

“You have always had an eye for the best of female pulchritude despite your gayness, Bertram,” I giggled.

“Yes, I have discovered some of our studio’s best,” he admitted. “Including Chloe Cougar.”

“Was Bop Boon one of yours?” asked Lachlan with a laugh.

“Yes. She still has a certain sex appeal. Bop’s problem is an inability to get along with her male leads.”

“And physically attacking the Simba males,” laughed Lachlan.

Maude Lyon stood in the State Mansion. She had been sent by Sylvia Cougar to finish some details of the family’s living area decor. Tina Thompson Gazelle stood nervously by her side. The elevator door opened and Shane exited. He was home for the evening. Maude raised her brow.

“Is this the Simba that is supposed to become our new president?” she growled.

Shane stopped and turned around.

“Yes, mam. It’s me, Shane Simba,” he said, extending a paw.

Betty and Tina looked at each other with alarm.

“Your brother, Roy Lee, sprayed my door and dug up my yard,” she snarled.

“Recently?” asked Shane.

“No, a few years back.”

“Would you like compensation for that?” he asked, wryly.

“No. I just want to say that you Simbas were among the trashiest prides in the Mara,” stated the old lioness.

“That we were, Madame. We were awful,” he said, kissing Betty and making his way to another room.

“He seems to be one of the more reasonable ones,” declared Maude.

Bop Boon was feeling lonely and disenfranchised. Back in her home on Leoparde Drive from France, her one new film project had been shelved for the moment. She went to The Watering Hole Pub for a drink. There she spotted a male lion of great handsomeness but very much in his cups. Wally was standing over his booth trying to rouse him from what appeared to be a semi-stupor. Bop had long had a thing for male lions with little success. She went to where Wally was unsuccessfully making gestures to the lion whose face was literally in his food.

“You got a problem here, Wally?” asked Bop.

“Yeah, this is one of the Simbas. He has a big drinking and drug problem.”

“Let me see what I can do,” said the baboon sliding into Sidney’s booth.

Bop managed to bring Sidney to his feet. She led him out of the pub and to her home where she bedded him. When Sidney arose the next morning, finding a baboon by his side in a strange home, he got up quickly, leaving the sleeping Bop. He hailed a taxi and admitted himself to the mental health center again.

Since Christine and Micah Mbube had vacated her house and moved into the one built by Betty Chimpo before she married Shane Simba, Caitlin Cougar was free to move into Christine’s next door to her uncle and aunt. Caitlin’s new home has a history. Having been built by the late Lawrence Leoparde to house us when we first got together as a couple, it had been sold to Janice Jaguar after her divorce from Roy Lee Simba. There Janice had lived part time with her young lover, Ashley Lyon, who had arrived in the Mara after his English education. Janice sold it to Chris Simba after she lost her second husband, Judge Durwood Gorilla. Christine got it in her divorce from Chris. The house does indeed have a history - and a quite sensual one at that.

Caitlin Cougar exited the Exotic Animal Clinic having gotten an ultrasound which told her that she was pregnant with a single cub. She drove to the Lewis Lyon Mall and went baby shopping for her nursery. She picked a lovely crib, chest of drawers, rocking chair and changing table, telling the clerk to deliver them. She picked out one of Christine’s cub’s former room which had been freshly painted and embellished it with a wall paper border with a child’s motif. She went to her studio which was quite large and adequate and began a sculpture to place in the corner of the room near the window. The phone rang, the caller ID said it was Sloane. She didn’t answer.

Christine and Micah, with her cubs, moved into the house they had rented from Shane and Betty Simba. They found it to be perfect for their needs.

Micah Mbube opened in the title role of Macbeth at the arts center. It was a sell out. The actor finessed even his finest performances and the curtain closed on multiple call backs. The cocktail supper in our new banquet room was elegantly catered by OKAPI’S. As Lachlan and I made our way down the corridors to the party, framed billboards hailed the upcoming musical Pajama Game to star Simone Serval in her first stage venture. Micah stood next to the pregnant Christine gathering kudos for his performance. It was to be an exciting year for the arts center. We had many projects on the fire.

Many in Kenya wanted to repeal the gay friendly laws that Ralph Lyon had put on the book. Before him, the human leaders had deemed homosexuality illegal. Ralph had made it not only legal but had also allowed legal gay marriage. It remained to be seen what Shane Simba would do with that particular issue once he took office. We had no reason to think he would not uphold Ralph’s laws.

Carolyn Cape Buffalo’s suit against the Kenyan government for compensation for the buffalo killed by lions before the new age waited on the dockets to assault Shane after his inauguration. The impala had wanted to follow suit with their own compensation but Irving Impala, being very influential among his kind and the head of WMM-TV, dissuaded them from this action that he felt would not bode well in the new administration.

And speaking of Irving, he allowed Caroline Cheetah’s cooking show to once more be produced after she got out of rehab at the mental health center. Every morning around ten, Caroline’s slender and elegantly clad form held forth with great recipes and accompanying culinary skills and once more it rose to a top rating. Caroline, with a loan from her parents and her salary commencing, retained her newly rented apartment in Lyon Towers. There she worked nights completing her cook book. She declined invitations from Sidney Simba to party down at his bush house. She wanted to stay clean in order to torture Betty and Shane over her son who was in their home. She continued submitting articles to Animal Enquirer under a new pen name: Partridge Pear.

As inauguration day drew closer, Shane Simba lost his jitters and took on a new countenance. He was relaxed at home, filling the evening hours with his family with wit, humor and warmth. He and Betty went to the major events around the Mara. He spent time with his daughter, Staci, who missed her stepbrother, Arlon and her major crush, Tigger Tigeres, both having gone abroad to school. He and Betty took long walks on their property in the Savanna overseeing the progress on their retreat home. They would take Sean and baby Sonny with them. Staci Simba was promised an overnight party of her friends at the State Mansion the night of her father’s inauguration. She had invited Delilah Dik Dik, Lee Simba and several other very close school pals.

In the office, where he worked with Ralph on last minute items, I sensed a new purpose in the young lion that was to take over the reigns of Kenya. We three worked feverishly trying to pull together all issues that needed addressing. He was funny and relaxed as we plodded along, desperate to leave no stone unturned in the scheme of things. I felt confident that he would make a great president as had his predecessor.