Just as Isha was ready to cry with shame, her friend Uzuri showed up. Uzuri’s love for Isha was absolute and unconditional and in her eyes, there could be no taint to spoil the beauty of her cubs. Uzuri looked at each cub, sniffed them gently, and touched them with her tongue. “This male looks like Mabatu when he was that age,” she purred. Isha cringed, but she saw that there was no malice in her words. “He’s very handsome. Sometimes I worry about Baba; where he is, what he’s doing, and if he’s missing you. We must pray for him.”
Isha nuzzled her. “I love you, Uzuri.”
“Why? What did I do.”
“Nothing—and everything. Just because you’re you. You’re my truest friend in the world, and don’t think I don’t appreciate it, girl.” As Uzuri left, Isha brought the cubs to her warm belly and guided them to her milk. She rubbed over them with her paw tenderly as they nursed. “I don’t care what the others think. You are my children, and you are wonderful. You are Mabatu’s children. Our children.” She half closed her eyes. “My little Mabatu. Wherever you are, I hope you know how beautiful they are.”
Later, Taka himself came by. “Look at the little angels,” he cooed. “Aren’t they beautiful!”
“Mabatu’s children,” she said. “That’s what you came to find out, wasn’t it?”
“Mabatu,” he said softly. “I will go to my death grieving for him. He was my son, and he always will be.”
“Then why did you let him go?”
“I don’t have to tell you, but I will.” He sighed. “The seer told me he would meet an evil fate if he stayed here. I love Mabatu. I loved him enough to give him a small chance over no chance at all.” He sighed again. “Everyone I love suffers for it. Even my poor Lannie. Do you think I’m completely unaware? I may have many faults, but stupidity is not one of them.”
There was a truthful ring to his voice. Isha looked at the sadness that clouded his face as he recalled his friend.
He looked at the male cub. “What is his name?”
“Habusu.”
“Habusu, you are son of my son. You will be my heir, and the one true King. I am not a seer, but I predict that you will not be hated as I am hated. You have brought some measure of peace to my heart. That is not an easy thing to do.”
“You honor me,” Isha said, but she looked a little worried. “Please don’t tell the hyenas just yet.”
“Why not?”
“If their seer is so good, let her come tell you.”
He half laughed. “Yes. Let her. But aren’t you a little curious what the future holds for him?”
“Yes. That’s why I plan to be there when it happens. We all have to suffer thorns and bruises, and we all have to die, but isn’t it really better not knowing how and when?”
“Why Isha, you’re a philosopher.”
“All mothers are philosophers.”
Only one week earlier, Beesa had become a philosopher. Fortunately, she only had one cub to worry about feeding, a daughter named Lisani. Perhaps someday Lisani would grow to love Habusu. Perhaps Aiheu in his mercy will provide some future for them all. Perhaps....
CHAPTER: NO ROOM IN THE INN
Isha’s cubs spent a few days blissfully unaware of prejudice. But then Jona managed to waddle unsteadily to the mouth of her cave and look out. It was a strange world that first met her wondering eyes, one with no roof or walls, and a bright yellow eye looking down on her. And playing about were other small, furry creatures that looked just like her. Cubs!
Excitedly, she gamboled back with the news. “There are other lions out there just like us!”
When Isha’s children were old enough to walk a straight line, they would leave the safety of the den and go out to meet those cubs.
“Hi!” Minshasa said to one. “I’m Minnie!”
“I’m Piki! Wanna play tag?”
“Sure. How does it work?”
Piki’s mother stepped forward. “You’re Isha’s little girl, aren’t you?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Well run along now. It’s time for Piki’s bath.”
Piki looked up. “But you just bathed me this morning!”
“Well you’re dirty again. Don’t sass your mother.”
While other cubs were free to make friends at will, there were strange problems for Isha’s children as they sought to be accepted by the parents. Without parental approval, those brief, tantalizing contacts with other cubs went nowhere.
Usually, there was polite avoidance. Outspoken Gobiso gave prejudice a name and face when he came out and said, “My mother told me I couldn’t play with you. Sorry.”
Isha’s children ended up thinking all cubs pretty much stayed only with their mother. They clung to this belief rather than believe there was something wrong with them. Indeed, they looked and felt just like everyone else--they were just more lonely. They played among each other and were an even more closely knit family than usual. Habusu and Jona were an inseparable pair. Minshasa was more withdrawn and would snuggle under her mother’s chin. Ironically, it was Minnie that was more like Isha as a cub. For the first year of her life, Isha was painfully shy. That was a bond between them, and Isha would purr, touching Minnie with her paw and kissing her while Habu and Jona played.
Beesa’s daughter gave them a welcome respite from their isolation. Like Uzuri, Isha showed no favoritism when it came to cubs and treated her niece like one of her own. “Miss Priss” was prim and proper, but she was also a lion cub and subject to lapses in both her dignity and her discipline. Because Habusu was so polite and gentle, he and Miss Priss formed a partnership right away. They were not only cousins but milk brother and sister. When Uzuri came to visit, she showered Habusu with affection and care, sure that someday he would pledge to Lisani and raise a family. “Look at them,” Uzuri would say. “Don’t they make a cute couple?”
While Habusu’s sisters played together, Habusu would follow Lisani around like a puppy. Even Taka noticed this, and he pronounced his blessings on the relationship, a step that Habu did not understand at the moment, but one that made Lisani his betrothed.
But eventually Habusu wanted another male to play with. It was only a natural part of growing up. Uzuri’s twin sons Togo and Kombi heard no dark rumors about Isha and Mabatu from their mother. Uzuri could never see anything in Isha but beauty, though she was aware of her ‘playful’ tendencies. That didn’t matter anymore, for to Uzuri alone Isha revealed that she was saving herself for her young husband. Uzuri understood--she always understood like no one else.
Despite their occasional difficulties, Isha’s family was a happy one, and it seemed with Habusu’s future secured that the happiness would go on forever. Then when Isha’s children were two moons old, Minshasa, who was always a frail and delicate creature, came down with Dol Sani. In most cases, it is a rite of passage. For the undernourished cub, it was a major blow. Helplessly, Isha watched her decline day by day, huddling desperately against her mother as if Isha could protect her against the invisible enemy that was hurting her. Isha would stroke her with her paw and tell her that everything would be all right, and for a while her story fooled the child, and Isha almost believed it herself. Then one week into her illness, Minshasa died in her sleep. Indeed, the pain went away.
The death of Minshasa was a wake up call to Isha’s pride sisters. Little by little they came to see the unmistakable beauty in her sad countenance. It was a beauty that came from within and brought shame to those who gossiped behind her back. Then one moon later with terrible suddenness, pneumonia snatched Jona from her. The same ones who gossiped once would whisper about the noble and beautiful sadness that made her already pleasant features almost godlike. Indeed, she had taken on the awful beauty of Kako, her best friend. In those days, Kako stayed by her side constantly, helping her keep her sanity. It was a kindness that would prove important in the future.