LIONWORLD

By William E Justin

Ethan Vulerummer
Big-E White’s Last Lion Head
Coco’s Big Day

Coco’s Big Day

Maxim had told Coco the news in a lowered voice. “You didn’t hear it from me! He’ll tell you him-
self…aw…if it’s true”. He said this last part with an exaggerated shrug as if he didn’t quite believe what
Big-E had told him in the previous hour. But Max knew it was true and relayed this to his little sister.
All of them were coming down to their final season in the Lion-fighting sport. And the intensity Big-E
displayed as Maxim walked up to him out back suggested it would be a very bad year for the alpha-male
lions that happened to cross paths with the Le Muffett battalier.
He wanted to tell Coco the news because this was a special day for her and it would make her shine
even brighter. Plus, with Big-E, the task of telling her could easily go for days and days as he mulled it
over.
When her brother left her room, Coco instinctively grabbed her dog Little B who was lying on her
bed as she got ready for the party. “Oh baby we finally gonna to get out of this nasty lion-fighting busi-
ness”. She repeatedly kissed him on the top of his head and he made a faint little “aw” sound as she held
him close. Little B was a “Mama’s dog”. He seemed to enter a high state of tranquility whenever Coco
held him. She gave him one last, big kiss and laid him back down where he had been. She had to finish
getting ready. Across the house, she could make out the sound of her second oldest brother Merle as he
arrived with Betty-Ann and the kids. The whole family would be there soon. Except for Coco’s dad.
The father of the four brother and one sister was Claude Le Muffett, the late French Lion-fighter and
building contractor. He had didactically named his first two boys Maxim and Merlin and called them
Max and Merle for short. When they were little kids, he developed some coded vocabulary for managing
the two. When the oldest boy was running around out of control Claude would say, “Merlin! Go get
Max”. When the younger boy was off wandering around he would say, “Maxim! Go find Merle”. Born
only a year apart, he decided to give each boy an equal chance to become the alpha male. Use of code
words and expressions was his method of helping them sort this out.
By the ages of three and four their personalities moved in distinctive directions. Maxim began to
show all of the signs of being great while Merle became his opposite. Merle was slower in everything
and Claude took him aside one day and told his second son that he had to always look out for Max—that
Max was wild and needed him to always make sure he stayed out of trouble. Merle promised his daddy
that he would always look out for Max and take care of him.
Claude had brought Max, Merle and their baby sister Coco to Paris for three years in a row during the
summer. He had business interests there. Along with his business partner and lover Jean D’Sole, a local
designer, he revamped old buildings. And he was a professional Lion-fighter as well, acting as a spear-
man on a moderately successful French crew. The children’s mother Lynette remained at the family
house in The Oak Land and was happy to get a break from the kids. Then one day when Coco was six,
and the boys seventeen and eighteen, Claude Le Muffett had gone up to the third story of a building to
talk to his work crew. He made a wrong turn and walked into the abyss—stepping out an open doorway
into an area where a porch had just been removed. He died behind a high-pitched trailing scream of
sound that his workers heard over the music of a radio that was playing. His youngest son Ronnie was
the womb.
In many ways, it was Merle who became the
backbone of the Le Muffett family. And this de-
spite what school teachers had called his “special
needs”. He was slow and very quiet and people
would often say out of earshot that he was
slightly retarded. But nobody ever thought of
saying such a thing if Lynette or Maxim were
around. That wasn’t the way they thought.
Merle wasn’t able to get much of his school work
done but they passed him anyway. The school
people just thought that because he had such a
strong, supportive family, he would find a place
in the lower C Class; perhaps as a janitor.
Unlike his older brother who often frustrated
the school people with his high energy and wild
antics, Merle was easy to deal with. He would
even help them contain Maxim and quiet him

down, or go bring him in.

Out in the huge front room of Big-E and Coco’s house Maxim was gathering up his nieces and nephews to
take them out to be with his own twelve offspring. He didn’t bring any of the five mothers to events like
this—just the kids. Merle’s one wife Betty-Ann was off to the kitchen to say hello to the women. For a mo-
ment, he was alone in the house’s huge front room that had been set up to stage the sixth-year celebration of
Big-E and Coco’s marriage agreement.
He sat down and looked at all of the tables and chairs that were in place. By counting them he would
know how many people would be there for the dinner. He let his eyes roam around the room and sectioned
off the chairs into sets of ten. As he did this a blank spot in his mind began to populated with numbers. After
about two seconds, he had a final figure of 123 chairs. Then he wondered how many knives, forks, spoons,
glasses and napkins were laid out with each of the three plates and one bowl for each table setting. 984 was
the number that came instantly into his mind when he executed the equation. The last time he sat in the room
he’d counted how many of the 2.5 square foot pavers were set into the floor.
He remembered it had been 1127. It occurred to him that if you laid out one of the knives, forks, spoons,
glasses, napkins, plates or bowls on each of the pavers that there would still be 143 pavers left. He looked
over at the various vases of flowers to see if there were enough to cover each of the remaining spots. He
couldn’t quite see all of the flowers but knew that there were more then enough for the job.
Merle was going to count how many panes of glass were in the variety of French windows surrounding the
room—he had forgotten. But then he heard a familiar voice coming from the entry and jumped to his feet.
He hadn’t known that Dr. Ben was coming and it made him very happy that he was here. Everybody would
be happy that Dr. Ben had decided to make the trip down from San Francisco Bay!
It was Dr. Ben Akiyama that first got Merle interested in counting everything. He was the family dentist
back when they were all growing up. Merle had told him one day that people said he was slow and not very
smart. Akiyama was indignant. “No, those people are stupid. You’re very bright. Everyone learns at their
own pace. How many ducks are here between my hands?” He had used his hands to section off a strip of
wallpaper pasted up in front of the dental chair where Merle sat. The paper featured a staggered row of dif-
ferent types of ducks in several places amidst a scene with a pond and tall grasses. Merle could see five
ducks between Dr. Ben’s hands that enclosed a single vertical strip of paper. He’d moved his hands to mark
another section. “How many?” Merle saw another five. Akiyama went halfway around the room isolating
each vertical strip of wallpaper as he counted. “10, 15, 20, 25…”
Merle was impressed just how well and how fast Dr. Ben had counted all of the ducks. From that day for-
ward he would count things everywhere he went, sectioning off the various numbers and tallying them up in
his mind. At a busy burger grill he would count the patties, the buns, the cups in each stack that sat near the
soda machine. He was constantly counting. He liked to count words on written pages, then try and reduce
the count by getting rid of words that didn’t seem to need to be there. In science class once when a big poster
of our solar system was unfurled, Merle enthusiastically shouted out the total number of planets and moons
before the teacher could ask the children to count how many heavenly bodies were present. The more Merle
practiced sectioning off things for counts and seeing the various patterns, the more he was able to use these
skills in other areas. In History class he had no trouble aligning events with dates because as soon as he saw
the chunks of dates, he could begin to make out the sequential forms in the particular history lesson.
 Today Merle liked to count up the total amount of rents he received from the compensation company for
the many rooms he owned in The Oak Land’s lower C Class neighborhoods. At the top of each hour of each
day, he would hear the imaginary sound of so many coins filling up a metal can. In his mind each coin repre-
sented a hundred dollars and he knew exactly what he had made in that hour and how much it added to what
he already had.
Of course it was Lion-fighting that had allowed him to get those rooms he rented to the compensation
company. And it was Dr. Ben Akiyama who had been instrumental in that as well. In addition to practicing
dentistry, he also ran a small martial arts studio. When Claude and Lynette Le Muffett had seen how he had
aided their second-youngest son, they enrolled both the boys in twice-a-week classes that quickly became five
days a week. Merle proved to be quite athletic and Maxim—like something from out of this world. When
Claude Le Muffett died in the construction accident, Dr. Ben became the surrogate father to the boys and also
to Coco and the younger two.
Merle was shaking his hand vigorously when Maxim came in and saw his mentor in the house.
He rushed up to him. “Dr. Ben!” He hugged him and shook his hand, and gave the aging dentist a big bicep
squeeze. “You got any power left in those paws, man?” Max and Merle were almost bursting with affection.
They wanted to know why he had stayed in Japan for the last two years.
“There’s a lot to see” replied Akiyama. “My wife is still there tending to her old mother. But I had to get
back to California for a while”.
“Oh, Dr, Ben…”. Coco was running across the house with tears in her eyes. “You did come!”
She draped her arms all over his shoulders and took in the site of her “second daddy”.
Now Lynette Le Muffett appeared with her three sisters and Merle’s wife Betty-Ann. They had a plate of
sushi and a bottle of Afternoon Warrior beer imported from Japan. Dr. Ben greeted them all and couldn’t
resist the opportunity to say something funny. “Say, is that tuna Sushi?” he said, pretending caution.
There were big smiles all around and Coco blushed a little. Dr. Ben was subtly referring to the time, as a
teenage girl, when she had made her first batch of sushi and wanted to try it out on Akiyama. She brought
him four pieces of the pressed rice each covered with a strip of fresh tuna. But the third piece of sushi didn’t
have a strip of tuna but a strip of lion heart made to look like it. Lion heart sushi was a quickly passing fash-
ion at the time and Dr. Ben ate all four pieces. He was hungry and hadn’t been paying attention. He wolfed
down all four pieces very quickly. But when told about the lion heart sushi, he became queasy for a while
before he gave an inner command for his “stomach mind” to calm down and return to normal. Later he
scolded Coco about playing “food tricks” on people.
“No, this is all fresh tuna” Lynette assured him. “Nobody serving lion heart today! Only prime rib and
lobster on the menu, so don’t you worry.”
He smiled warmly. “Happy sixth, baby”. Akiyama gave Coco a squeeze and promised that Mrs. Akiyama
would come with him the following year for the seventh-year gala event that would seal her marriage to Big-
E White.
“Well, we gonna have a lot of fun this year as well” promised Maxim. “Dr. Ben, did they tell you our
oafy Samoan Luani showin’ up?”
“You bet” replied Akiyama. “That’s another of the reasons I wanted to be here. I’m going to get a picture
of the three of you. I can make a fortune selling them in Tokyo”. He said this with a gush of robust cheer—
which was his personal style.
But they all knew that if he were to really take any pictures of the three greatest Lion-fighters, that he
would likely hand them out to the kids at what had now become an international chain of Akiyama Martial
Arts Studios. His history as mentor of the Le Muffett crew brought The Oak Land dentist great name recog-
nition. Following Maxim’s third, earth-shattering season in the sport, they launched the business. Later in the
day, a portrait photographer was scheduled to take the official picture of Maxim Le Muffett, Big-E White,
and Samoan Luani, but Dr. Ben had free reign to make his own photographs.
Coco excused herself and went back to her room. Little B had dozed off on the bed but sat up when she
rejoined the task of getting ready for the simple sixth-year ritual. It consisted of a simple toast and devotional
words by her and Big-E that their marriage agreement was stronger then ever and both were ready to “drink
up the seventh year cup” of their lives together. Knowing now that the next year would bring about the end
of their involvement in Lion-fighting made her even more intent on proclaiming her love for her man to her
family and friends. Coco loved big-E so much. She always had. She thought of him as her perfect man.
She was 100% certain that he had never strayed during their six years together. That was remarkable con-
sidering how popular Big-E White had become. Crazy women were always sending him letters proclaiming
their love for him. Some had become fixated on him—an unattainable desire that could never be realized.
The center of the public eye was a strange place to be. Coco got it from men too. Dr. Ben explained to both
that it had little to do with them personally but rather the position they had gotten into that made them focal
points. “These people don’t really care about you” he told them. “They can’t really. They don’t even know
you two. You’re just pretty pictures they bring into their worlds to decorate with. The normal people
just like what you do and are satisfied with that.” Akiyama told them something he had once read. That
fame was like a beautiful dead woman.
Big-E hadn’t needed much instruction on how to handle celebrity. His dad had told him when he was
very young that he didn’t have to take any shit from “assholes”. His own instructor—like Dr. Ben—was
a very educated man who taught physical culturing and martial arts as an aid to overall learning about
the relationship between the mind and its outposts in the body. So he lived in a place between compul-
sive attraction and automatic aversion. Big-E had turned off the area in him where attraction for other
women would morph into infidelity. He once told Coco that even the thought of losing her in this life
was too painful to ever consider cheating.
That was the big difference between him and her oldest brother. Big-E and Maxim were complete
opposites in that regard. Max fell in love twice a year! He loved every kind of woman and would give
each one a baby if they thought they abide by his stringent set of rules. Several years earlier he asked
his brother Merle how many more children he thought he could afford. After a minute of mental calcu-
lations he told Maxim that the final figure would be in the range of 22 to 26 if he stayed in Lion-fighting
for a few more seasons and his investments didn’t drop. And that included wife payments, B Class
dwellings, nannies, schools, vacations, and all the little things. Max liked the sound of that. As Big-E
lived for Coco and personal training, Max saw his own role in the world as killing Lion in fair competi-
tion and replacing them with Le Muffett children sired in fair relationships with good and hot women.
The best thing that the Le Muffett women could say about the larger-then-life Maxim, was that he
loved his children and spent a lot of time with them. They were first for him—before women, Lion-
fighting, money, or anything else. His father Claude had set a fairly good example and then just disap-
peared. Max planned to surpass his old man in every way. And he almost had.
But Big-E didn’t need variety in women. Coco provided all of that. Her own mentor was his father’s
business partner and lover Jean D’Sole who was herself actually married to another man in Paris. Jean
appeared regularly in Coco’s life even after her Claude had died. She wanted her to be in a position to
claim that part of her that was French. And so among other things, she groomed Coco in the art of being
at the center of a man’s desire. She told her many special secrets. Big-E didn’t need other women be-
cause Coco was all other women. She did everything for him he could imagine and surprised him with
many more things he hadn’t even conceived of. Things they would never mention to anyone! She
learned each of his many switches. Just like he had learned hers. They each took care of every little part
of the other.
Coco did share part of her private world with somebody else. And that somebody was scheduled to
be there very soon. Coco’s oldest and best friend in the world. The person she had the most in common
with. That was Sydney Luani—her girlfriend since the age of thirteen. They had been inseparable for
years until each entered into a marriage agreements with a world-class lion-fighter. Sydney had gone to
make her home in Hawaii beside her man, but they spoke on the phone first thing in the morning on
most days. Coco and Sydney hadn’t been together for nearly eight months—the longest ever. Four
months before, they had their first real fight and didn’t even speak on the phone until Coco called to say
how much she needed her to be at their six-year party. They both cried that day and would likely cry
again when they saw each other. They were closer then most sisters and in the last few years were able
to help each get through the weekly trauma of knowing their men would be fighting lions that wanted to
rip them apart.
When Sydney Luani did arrive, a half-hour later with her famous husband, Big-E still hadn’t returned
home from picking up his dad at the train station in town. He called to say that his old man insisted on
stopping off for a quick drink before making his appearance.

Buster White bolted across the street into a small lounge within walking distance of the car. “I just
need to warm up a bit”. His voice became more guttural in tone with each passing year.
Big-E knew better then try and fight him. The old man just did what he did. While many had hung
up on him over the years—none managed to control him for even a second. Buster would be coming to
the ceremony today—in his own mind at least—as the star attraction. Forget about the fact that the three
greatest Lion-fighters of all time would be there among many very successful people. Buster figured he
was doing everyone a service just by showing up and injecting a bit of “real life” into their stuffy, mun-
dane worlds.
It had now been a full eight years since Buster was “banned for life” as a pay-per-view Lion-fighting
color commentator. The vocal bomb he dropped that day resulted in a full thirty seconds of speechless-
ness or on-air “dead time”. The other two broadcasters just sat there stunned while the director speaking
into their earpieces kept saying: ”I’m trying to think of what to say next…ah…give me a moment”.
”I’m trying to think of what to say next…ah…give me a moment”. The veteran broadcast director’s
head was spinning. Finally Buster got up and told “the folks at home” he was “going out to take a big
crap”. He walked right out of the studio door laughing.
On that day, if Buster White had said something about a popular, noble, beloved woman such as: “if
a raggedy old goat had a few good belts and swallowed a handful of stiff-dick pills ….he still wouldn’t
fuck that nasty old bitch!”…If that had only been the comment made on-air that day by Buster White, it
still would’ve been ten times softer then what he actually did say! The company that produced the Lion
-fighting matches ended up having to pay several million dollars in fines and spend several million
more trying to hold on to their pay-per-view license agreement. They tried to sue Buster but the old
man spent every dime he had ever made as he moved from place to place. For several years afterwards
he worked as a crusty MC at a wild strip show in Nevada. Then Big-E put the old man on an allow-
ance—which Buster constantly complained wasn’t enough to support his lifestyle. His older children
from other women wanted nothing to do with him.
But now, past the age of eighty, he was finally beginning to seize up. While he wasn’t apt to get
totally drunk and utter really fowl remarks—he had learned that lesson—he still spelled trouble. Coco
told Big-E that he really needed to keep the old man away from one of her aunties— whom Buster had
displayed a deep hankering for during a previous get-together. “She gonna take him Big-E…take him
upstairs and pop his old heart jus ‘cause everybody know he deserve to die that way!” Big-E knew she
wasn’t joking either. He and the rest of the crew would try and contain Buster. They’d try and get him
off to bed safely. But that was a bit like trying to herd a senile, but still powerful rhino, away from a
water hole it was intent on pursuing.
In the bar, Big-E was surprised when his dad only ordered a single shot of smooth tequila. “I got a
big long day and night ahead” he told his son somewhat cryptically. Then the old man happened to
spot a bottle of Big-E’s DRINK sitting up on the shelf. “Hey, what’s that crap doing in here?” he
quickly asked the bartender. The man knew Big-E White and only smiled politely. Big-E’s DRINK
was developed and bottled locally by Coco through the family company. Its fresh, wholesome taste
was widely enjoyed all over California and the whole western section of America.
Buster glanced about surreptitiously at his “audience”. Big-E had seen this countless times—the old
man was going into his windup. He looked at the only other patrons in the lounge—two younger guys
who had been watching them. “Do you ever guys order… Big-E’s DRINK?” he tilted his head and
cocked a crooked smile when he uttered this second part. He quickly glanced at his son then floated his
gaze back over the three others. “You know, it was proven recently that this fruity, sugary, piss-water
will actually make a man’s tits grow!”. The four men—including Big-E—couldn’t help but laugh at
Buster’s joke. It seemed for a moment that he was going to order another shot of tequila and knock out
a full stream of them. Instead, he turned to his son and said they should be getting out to the house.
“It’s his sixth year marriage party” he informed the other three. They congratulated Big-E.

Coco’s Big Day continues in Part Two

About LIONWORLD
In late 2008 I decided I wanted to make an animated music video for an old pop music track
I’d done. I had this clip of lions on the prowl. I also had this Big-E White character.
The song itself had something to say about men and women so I had a few elements to work
with. I came up with Coco Le Muffett to go along with Big-E.

Animated videos take huge amounts of time so I settled on a kind of hybrid of still and moving
pictures. I had a lot of fun! If you ever saw the movie Plan Nine From Outer Space, you
might get a kick out of When The Big Wind Blows which is located at www.youtube.com/wej7,
www.sevenload.com, www.metacafe.com, and various other places.

I did another, quick music video to explain the first. The Big-E White Story.
Now I’m writing the LionWorld story out in full. These things take up a lot of time. My first
book Episodes Of Truth—available at www.amazon.com—took years to complete. The final
parts of Coco’s Big Day are finished and will be available to read fairly soon.

WEJ