Maurice & Friends

Shane Simba and I looked up simultaneously. We were in his office going over a speech to be televised. I thoroughly enjoyed the expression on his face- gaping jaw and all.

“President Simba, I am the computer technologist you hired to revamp your computer system and net working.”

She held out a hand that enclosed his extended paw. I reminded him that I had called and asked the government offices in Nairobi to find someone for that task.

“Yes, of course and your name is?”

“I’m Tulip Tan. I shortened my last name from Orangutan. I am from the rainforests of Borneo and came to your Kenya when the new age began under President Lyon.”

“And you are our computer expert?” he asked.

“Yes, indeed. I know computers like the back of my hairy hand. I was living in Nairobi but will find a place in the Mara while I revamp your system. After I rework yours, the darling mayor of the Mara has asked me to work hers over.”

Betty came to the office about this moment and realized a fellow ape. She extended her hand to Tulip.

“I’m Betty Simba,” she greeted.

“Oh, yes indeed. I’ve read of you Mrs. Simba. You are a chimpanzee and you’ve married this handsome lion. How very quaint. I would love to meet a handsome lion while I’m here,” giggled Tulip, in a jolly fashion.

She went with Betty to get the particulars in her office and probably join the first lady and Bernice Bear for coffee. I couldn’t resist a slight ribbing to Shane.

“She wants to find a handsome lion of her own,” I said, repeating Tulip’s last statement.

“Not bloody likely,” he laughed, forgetting that his own wife was a chimpanzee with a decided cosmetic twist.

Tulip Tan, computer expert....

Tulip quickly became a fixture at the State House. She was effervescent, uninhibited, not minding at all to goose the president when she felt the urge. Betty and Bernice Bear fell in love with the native of Borneo. You could hear her loud voice reverberating along the halls and in the various offices. I think she intimidated Sloane Simba. Once she found he was unattached, she flirted outrageously with him, tickling him whenever he was around. He even dropped his coffee one morning at a particularly invasive goosing. Caroline Cheetah, being the mischief maker, egged Tulip onto various staff members. The best morning of all was when Ralph Lyon arrived unexpectedly at the State House to attend some business in his office. Tulip was introduced and she pronounced him to be her hero, giving him a familiar pinch to his seat. Ralph Lyon, never one to be taken aback, pinched her backside. I think Tulip must have floated on that dubious honor all day. I noticed that Shane would quickly remove himself to behind his desk when she entered. He was leery of the butt pinching she would inflict from time to time. The thing that kept her going, despite these habits, was her genius with computers. One of her great friends became Shane’s baboon secretary. She, being a spinster, was happy to give Tulip a spare room in her Watering Hole Condo. Tulip accepted the offer with alacrity. After that, the Watering Hole Pub was privy to her particular brand of charm and playful aggression.

I noticed that Shane and Sloane Simba were becoming very close. Daniel Lyon, the vice president, had a very good relationship with our president but it lacked the intimacy of Shane with Sloane. I suppose one could chalk it up be being brothers and fellow pride members. Sloane would come to Shane’s office and talk for ages when we weren’t pressed.

I had become rather friendly with Caroline Cheetah, finding her remarkably like her late sister, Catherine, who had directed my arts center. Caroline was amazed at the closeness between Shane and Sloane.

“He didn’t like Shane for a long time,” reported Caroline over coffee in my office one morning. “Now, it’s Shane, Shane, Shane.”

I had to admit that Caroline as an organizer of press conferences is paw over hoof compared to Wilda Wildebeest. Caroline has the same marvelous mind of her late sister. She can plan and organize with one paw tied behind her. I noticed that Shane had relaxed with her, realizing that life was made much easier for us as far as the media was concerned, with Caroline as our anchor. When I discussed the matter at home, I noticed Lachlan knitting his brow in worry.

In another arena regarding personal matters, Lachlan moved in with me, keeping his condo in case, as he stated, ‘should we get too much in each other’s pockets. Then we have an escape hatch’. Nonetheless, it was a divine thing for both, I think. Some nights he would work late. I would prepare something edible and quite delicious for him, the hearth and fire burning brightly. He would do the same for me when I would be kept late with affairs of State. On evenings when we are both held up by our demanding careers, we grab a bite where we can. I never saw Lachlan in a grumpy mood. On occasion, he would be worried, a small fold creasing his forehead – but never bad tempered. I am also not prone to bad temper, so the two of us realized we had truly met our matches in one another. We decided to keep both of our homes in Mombasa. We were taking it slowly, not wanting to take any missteps in a relationship that, for my part, is the love of my life. Yes, readers, he is. I know you are shocked that I have displaced Lawrence as such but the facts are that Lawrence was a moody and rather cruel animal. I sustained more hurt from him than from any other relationship in my lifetime.

Staci Simba, loving her stepmother, would practice tennis with Betty. Staci was much the superior player but she wanted to get Betty to the point where she could play Shane, which was the ultimate point of her tennis lessons. The tennis pro had been surprised at the purpose and grit demonstrated by one whom he thought was too old to learn the game and be an adequate player. You have to catch them early, he had opined to his student. Betty had smiled and ignored his warning. Now she was not a very elegant player, lacking style, but she seemed powerful, lobbing balls accurately across the net to Staci. She had upped her sessions with Gerald Giraffe to three mornings a week. He was strengthening her arms with progressive barbells.

If it wasn’t enough to have the first male lion in Kenya to marry a human, Steven and Dina Simba added additional shock value to the game by announcing that they were seeking the French procedure at the Exotic Animal Clinic. Their fifteen minutes of fame was only open to the couple because he was the half brother of the president. Three weeks later, they announced a successful implant of a lion cub in Dina’s womb. The stirrings within the Mara were loud and immediate. Charlotte Elephanti phoned me.

“Maurish,” she trumpeted already three sheets to the wind for the evening. “I can’t imagine a lion marrying a human female.”

“This is a new day, Charl,” I responded. “After all, whoever heard of an elephant marrying a cape buffalo?”

This put the cap on that subject. She ended up inviting Lachlan and me to a party at her barn.

Caitlin Cougar sat at home with her new son and young daughter wondering what had gone wrong with her life. She had frozen Steven Simba out of her existence and now he never called or visited his son. Sloane, her divorced spouse, was busy with a high profile job and active social life. He would collect their daughter, Georgy, every other weekend but had few words for Caitlin and little time to linger in her presence. On a particular Friday night when Georgy had been taken by her dad, Caitlin got a baby sitter for young Carlin and set out for the Watering Hole Pub. She made her way to the bar and ordered a Cosmopolitan. She lit a cigarette and gazed about her. Down the bar she saw Luke Leoparde, her old squeeze. She waved and he joined her.

“Long time, no see, Caitlin,” he said, raising his glass to her. “What’s been going on in your life?”

“Just single parenting,” she lamented.

He got the scoop on her failed marriage with Sloane Simba, her pregnancy with his brother, Steven and the resulting cubs. Luke was not a cub oriented animal. He had two sons by Simone Serval that he shared with her but it could not be said of Luke that he was all about having kids and family. He listened politely. He ended up in her bed, after she had nursed Carlin. He used a prophylactic, realizing that Caitlin was quite fecund. He left early, begging an early safari flight.

Chris Simba gazed in his bathroom mirror. He saw an amazingly handsome lion staring back at him, full mane and all. He went to the den and poured a double Scotch. For the life of him he could not figure out why his life had always lacked excitement. He had a dynamite job heading Sylvia Cougar’s memorial to her father: the Nathan Leoparde Memorial Foundation. He had, ever so long ago, been engaged to Chloe Cougar who had deemed him dull and given his ring back. He had then married Christine Cheetah, not so much out of passion but a sort of kinship they felt being the less colorful members of their families. Christine had made a major change, divorced him, become the head of the arts center and married actor Micah Mbube. Chris, on the other hand, had not accelerated to the point of his desires. He decided to spend less time in his apartment and more in the pub. Getting out and about would, hopefully, provide the key to a more exciting future.

Shane Simba was the only one left in the State House – he thought. He was working on material for tomorrow’s press conference. He looked up to see Caroline Cheetah in the door of his office.

“You need help with that?” she asked.

“I just need to get the question allowed in line for tomorrow,” he answered.

She came and leaned over his desk, reading the material. He smelled her perfume – the same as Catherine’s. His eyes focused on her sleek fur. He placed his paw on hers.

“It’s okay, Caroline. I think I’ve got the gist,” he told her, standing up.

They were standing not two feet apart. She reached out and touched his shirt front. That’s all it took. He led her to the executive bathroom off his office. He lifted her to the sink cabinet, removed her thong and took her there. It was quick, passionate and furtive. After, he straightened his clothes and showed her out the door. He left for the mansion with a heavy heart. At dinner, Betty noticed he was very quiet. She decided his day had been long and difficult.

Caroline Cheetah

The Saturday after Caroline Cheetah had sex with Shane Simba in his executive lavatory, Sloane Simba called to invite her to his bush house, saying he had his daughter, Georgy, with him. She drove there and entered the library where he sat on the sofa giving his young cub a bottle. She put young Shane, Jr. on the floor and sat across from him. Suddenly she felt a sensation completely alien to her makeup. She felt badly that she had sex with Shane Simba. Caroline had her first ever attack of conscience. She lit a cigarette quickly, exhaling the smoke toward the lazily whirring ceiling fan. She realized that for the first time in her life she was in love – with Sloane Simba. Her son went to the couch where Sloane sat with his daughter in his lap. He patted the seat beside him and Shane, Jr. jumped up and snuggled next to Sloane. Caroline went to the bar and made a drink. She returned to her surveillance point and observed this male she had suddenly recognized she loved. Caroline had many relationships in the past including a brief marriage. She had never felt anything but sexual stirrings for them. She had hungered after Shane Simba the same way. Now, she realized she felt something more profound for Sloane. She had been sharing not only dynamite sex with him but also a developing friendship.

Betty Simba, having given up her home she had built on Leoparde Avenue because of her husband’s presidency, now had another home of the heart. The bush house that she and Shane had built for his getaway was growing dearer to her. Here she could relax and enjoy the succor and peace of the savanna. She had come here early on Friday to ready it for the weekend. She lit a cigarette. She had not been smoking around Shane to make it easier for him to quit. Now she made a drink and sat on the terrace with a panoramic view of the bush. She lay back on the chaise and remembered a time before her makeover when she had been at peace with her life and self. She remembered Montecore who had convinced her to get the makeover and ultimately wed her. Her mind continued its rambling review of her days. Then there was Ashley and Sam. She realized that Sam was probably the one that was entirely faithful to her. Her focus shifted to Shane, whom she adored beyond reason. Tears slid from her eyes. She knew that he was centered on some other female at the moment. She knew him so well, having made a point, in her devotion, to study his every gradation. She knew that very small distance so well. It was something she could feel in her very marrow – that slight disruption of his attentions toward her. The light green eyes not quite focused when he was still. She wondered who it was. She had no reason to suspect Caroline Cheetah for she had noticed that Caroline spent most of her time with Sloane while in the State House. The hours of her reverie passed. She startled at the sound of Shane, his guards and the children entering the house. She heard Babs and Miss B bustle to the kitchen with crackling bags of groceries. Then he was standing over her, leaning down and kissing her.

“Why are you out here all alone, Fifi? You don’t even have a guard with you.”

“I didn’t want one, Shane. I wanted the solace. I have been sitting here day dreaming,” she said, smiling.

The house boy brought Shane a drink. He took it and sat next to her. He stared into the distance.

“Are you getting tired of being first lady, already, Betty?”

“No, Shane. I love being the first lady.”

“Something is making you unhappy, Betty. Whether you realize it or not, I am very aware of your moods.”

“I’m quite alright, darling. Don’t worry about me.”

“Betty, I love you. I want you to be content.”

The next morning at the sporting club, she surprised him by playing a very adequate set of tennis with him. He jumped across the net and held her tightly against him.

“Fifi, that’s so wonderful that you’ve learned tennis. Now we can play every weekend when we’re in the Mara.”

Later in the privacy of their boudoir, he pulled her on the bed.

“Fifi, I am so impressed with the measures you’ll take for me. That’s a great thing, your learning tennis. I know it wouldn’t have been a thing you would have mastered except for me.”

She was quiet in response so he began removing her clothes. He made love to her with all the ardor and focus of their honeymoon.