Sylvia tried to extricate herself from the situation as carefully as possible, so as not to wake the tiger up.  Just as she was starting to pull her legs out, the man let out a groan and rolled over away from her.  She immediately pulled herself free and rolled to the opposite edge of the bed.  As she looked over at the tiger, he was looking back at her with groggy, half open eyes.  “Who are you and what’s going on?” the man sleepily asked.

Sylvia was unsure as to how to take this.  It seemed as if the man was not in his “child-like” state, but was still confused.  Perhaps the truth would help.  “I am Sylvia Slipsunder, Mr. VanAnkat.  You are at the Water Wings Resort.  Don’t you remember?”

“Uhm, it’s coming back to me, but I feel so groggy!  Oh yes.  I remember coming here now.  But what are you doing in my bed, madam?”

 Now the tiger was starting to sound like the man she had known.  “You weren’t feeling well last night.  You asked me to stay with you.  Are you feeling better?”

“I feel fine, except for this fogginess in my mind that doesn’t want to clear.  What happened?”

“Well, what is the last thing you remember from yesterday?”

“Let’s see,” he said as he raised himself up to a sitting position against the headboard, “I remember going jogging for a while after sleeping in, and coming back, and,...and,.... Gods!  I can’t remember anything else!”

Sylvia was starting to get concerned.  Just as he seemed to be coming back to his normal self, he was starting to get agitated.  She had to get him calmed down.  “That’s quite all right,” she said as calmly and reassuringly as possible.  “I had them bring some dinner over.  I am sure that you are very hungry, as you haven’t eaten since yesterday.  Why don’t you take a nice shower, and I will cook us up something to eat.  Maybe things will start to come back to you after you get some food in your system.”

James thought about this for a moment.  He took a short “whiff” and realized how badly he smelled.  What the woman said did make sense.  “All right.  That sounds logical.”  He slowly got up from the bed and opened the dresser, removing some clothes, and made his way to the bathroom.

“Do you feel strong enough to do this?” Sylvia asked as she came up behind him.

 “Yes, I will be fine.  I will call you if I need anything” he said matter of factly.  With that he closed the door to the bathroom.

Sylvia went to the kitchen and opened the door to the refrigerator, finding the sandwiches and soup left in there.  She removed them, set the table for two, and went about preparing the food.  As she reached for the plates, she found a large bowl of breadsticks, and set it on the table.  By the time she was finishing up with the food she heard the sound of the fur dryer running in the bathroom.

Within minutes the tiger emerged and came into the kitchen.  He wore a pair of black pants and a black shirt that made the white of his fur stand out even more.  As she sat at the table, Sylvia once again marveled at how large the man was standing in front of her.  “Please, sit down and eat.”  The man just nodded, and did as she instructed.

James ate voraciously, having not had anything for such a long time.  “There is some wine in the refrigerator, and some glasses in the cupboard” he said to Sylvia.  She got up and retrieved the glasses and the wine.  Looking over the label, she saw that it was from the Old Country, and from a very good region.  She opened the bottle and poured them both good amounts.

Sylvia marveled at the richness of flavor in the wine, and how smoothly it went down.  “Very impressive!” she commented.

“Yes, I brought some of my favorite vintage with me.  I have yet to taste any better.  I have cases of it in storage back home.”

Sylvia noticed the man’s voice and mood falter as he finished.  “What’s the matter?” she inquired.

“I really don’t know” the tiger responded.  “For some reason, I just can’t shake this growing feeling of sadness.  It seems to hit me in waves, somewhat periodically.  It seemed to start as soon as I retired from my job, but has grown worse since I arrived here.  It comes and goes.  But I am still concerned about yesterday.  For the life of me, I can’t remember anything that happened after my run yesterday, until waking up with you this morning.  And when I showered, I removed the bandages on my knees and hands, and they are covered in painful cuts - very fresh ones that I KNOW I did not have when I returned from jogging!”

“Oh, I forgot about those - do you need me to redress them?”

“No, madam, I found the first aid kit and took care of them after drying off.  The ones on my hand just needed a few minor bandages,” he said as he turned his hand over showing his efforts to the relieved woman.  “The ones on my knees are rather extensive though.  Might I ask how they came about?”

Sylvia was just finishing up her food, and thought that this was probably as good a time as any to explain things to the man.  She took a deep breath, and began the story.  “Well, what I am going to tell you, you may find it rather shocking, or unbelievable.  But I assure you, it is the truth, and can be corroborated with witnesses.  It all began yesterday, as you returned here after your jog, finding my daughter, Bethany, here cleaning up....”  She went on to describe in accurate detail to the man the events of the last day, up to the point of him awakening this morning.

The tiger finished eating as she told her story.  By the time she was done relating the episode, he was amazed, but his senses told him that the woman was telling him the truth, which surprised him all the more.  “Madam, do you have any clue as to what could have triggered this..., this turn of events?”

“Well, actually, I have an idea, but please, would you stop calling me “madam” Mr. VanAnkat, or should I refer to you as Baron VanAnkat?”

James froze in mid-sip of wine.  No one had referred to him as that in YEARS!  She knew!  He had hoped, no, actually prayed that no one here would have known who he was.  He now realized what a vain hope that truly was.  “Is there nowhere on this planet that I can go to escape my past!” he cried out to Sylvia, almost as if someone was stabbing him.  He set the wine down and dropped his massive head into his hands and started sobbing once again, almost uncontrollably.

Sylvia didn’t know what to do.  It seemed to here that nearly anything and everything was setting off the man’s volatile mood swings.  There had to be a pattern, if only she could see it.  She thought a moment.  The photo of his father and the medals, the photo of him and his mother, the mention of home, and now the mention of him being a Baron.  It had to be something from his past at home that was causing or triggering these episodes.

She moved her chair next to the tiger and attempted to console him, wrapping her paw around the man and telling him how sorry she was.  James looked at her through tear filled eyes.  “I know it is not your fault”, he replied, “but I am having such a hard time fighting these emotions!  This has NEVER happened to me before.  Why is it happening, here..., and now?!?”

“I am not sure”, Sylvia responded, “But I have an idea.  Each of these events seems to have been precipitated by some mention or reference to your past or home.  The answer has to be there!”

James had stopped crying and stared emotionlessly at the woman’s eyes for the moment.  Sylvia felt that “creepy” feeling come over her once again, as she looked back into those huge blue eyes that held her riveted to her chair.  After what seemed like an eternity, he spoke.  “They warned me that something like this could happen, but I told them it never would.  I told them I was far too strong for something like that to occur to me.  Strength of character and mind ran in the family.  I was nobility for heaven’s sake!  There was no way it would happen - I assured them of it in fact.  Yet the events of this week would seem to prove them correct, after all of these years.....”

“Whatever are you talking about?” asked Sylvia impatiently.

“Have you ever heard of Delayed Emotional Trauma Syndrome, or DETS?”

“I think I have.....Yes - isn’t that what they say many of the veterans and survivors of the Transoceanic War have?”

“Yes, that’s it.  As you probably know, both my parents....died in an accident.  My father was a great man, and a war hero.  By the time I had made it back from school, the government had taken over control of the situation and orchestrated this grand media event and circus of a funeral for them.  I tried to protest, but since the royalty and nobility’s power was nearly phased out by this time, there was little that I could do.  I was forced to participate, like an actor in a movie, following someone else’s script.”

Sylvia sat in shock as she listened intently to the tiger tell his tale.  “I was so upset at the situation, that I never really got a chance to grieve for them.  They wouldn’t even let me see them, saying the accident had disfigured them too badly.  But as they were put into the hastily erected mausoleum in the capitol, I was left alone with the caskets for a minute.  I had to see them, just to make sure.  It was them all right, but even with all of the funeral directors hard work, I could barely distinguish them.  That horrible image was seared into my mind at that moment for all time.”

“I must have been in shock after that, and remembered very little of the rest of it all.  I just tried to forget it all and put all the images and problems out of my mind.  I was still extremely upset at the politicians who had orchestrated the entire event.  Hell, my parents hated the capitol, and would never had wanted to be buried there.  There was a family cemetery on the county lands the family owned where VanAnkats have been buried for centuries.  They belong there!’

“The government officials told me that it was still an emotionally bad time for the country, as it was still coming out of the great post-war depression.  They felt that the public funeral for a great war hero would help to bind the country together and “heal” it.  Well, perhaps it may have done that, but at what cost to me and my soul?!?  At what cost to me.....”  James’s words trailed off as he once again broke down, sobbing loudly into Sylvia’s shoulder, nearly wailing.

“Those bastards!” thought Sylvia to herself.  “How could they do such a thing to such a young and innocent child!  They public was never told of this turn of events, of that I am sure.”

It was at this same time that Hardrock was walking by the cabin and heard the wailing, even from outside.  He ran to the door of the cabin and flung it open, already in puma form.  He saw the “great white tiger”, the infamous Mr. VanAnkat, crying like a baby in Sylvia’s arms.  He froze in place, staring at the event unfolding in front of him.

Sylvia, though intently trying to comfort James, saw Rock burst through the door to the cabin.  She glared at him with a look that would stop a tank.  With one hand she motioned for him to silently leave.  He stared at the strange tableau for a few more moments, and then silently nodded his head and exited the way he came.

As he left he thought to himself “What the HELL was that all about??  Can this be the same man that has caused so much havoc over the last week?”  These thoughts stayed with and nagged at Rock as he resumed his wolfen form and went on about his tasks.

In the cabin, Sylvia was grateful that the tiger was crying so hard that he did not see or hear her son enter.  As fragile as things seemed, she did not want further complications.  After ten minutes or so, James’s crying had died down to mere whimpering.  He disentangled himself from her and said “Madam, I am so sorry to have burdened you with my problems.  I should be strong enough to handle this on my own....”

“It is no problem, and please, call me Sylvia, ‘Your Highness’.”  Sylvia knew this was an improper form of address, but it had the desired effect, as it caused James to chuckle a bit.

“I am NOT a ‘Your Highness’!  That is strictly reserved for royalty, NOT nobility!  I will try to call you by your given name, if you will call me by mine.”

“And what might that be?” she inquired.

With a “regal” tone he said “Officially, I am James John Michael VanAnkat, the 23rd Baron VanAnkat.  But you can call me James.”

“Well James, I think we know what the problem is now.  The question is, how do we go about solving it?”

“Right after the funeral, the school counselors called me down to their offices.  We had a discussion, and they were surprised at my state of mind at that time.  DETS was prevalent then, and they told me that if I didn’t grieve properly for my family, if I just continued to bury my feelings, that at some time in the future, I could have a breakdown.  It looks as though they were not lying to me.”

“Did they give you any suggestions for how to deal with it?” Sylvia asked.

“No, not really, other than I had to come to terms with my parent’s death, which over the ensuing years, I thought I had.”

“That might not be too easy, as you are so far from home.”

James responded uneasily, “Well, that might not be as difficult as you think.  Do you see that large chest over there?”  Sylvia nodded and James continued, “It contains momentos and belongings from my parent’s home.  When I sold the place to my Uncle, I had it packed up.  I have not opened it since their death until this week, and then I just removed a few photos.  I didn’t have the strength to go any further than that”

Sylvia stared at the chest, than returned her gaze to the tiger next to her.  He was almost trembling.  “You know what we have to do, don’t you?” she said.

“Yes”, he responded weakly, starting to sniffle a bit.

“You are going to have to go through the chest, and your parents belongings” Sylvia said firmly.

“I..., I don’t think I have the strength!”  James exclaimed, once again on the verge of tears.

“Well, James, then use me for your strength.  I will stay here with you and help you get through it.”

“You......will?  Why?”

“Just consider it one of our ‘guest services’.”

“Mad...uhm...Sylvia, that is certainly going ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty.”

“No, not really.  You would be surprised at how many guests come here that end up being assisted by one our ‘staff’ members.  People come here from all over the world, thinking that a tropical resort is a great place to get away from your troubles.  Unfortunately, most troubles tend to follow right along with them.”

“Sylvia, I represent that remark!”

“James!  You....you made a joke!”

“I....I guess I did.  Perhaps I am feeling a bit better.”

“Good.  No time like the present then.”

James suddenly got quite nervous.  “What do you mean?”

“I think that we should go over to that chest and open it up, examining the contents thoroughly.”

“I....I don’t know if I can!” the tiger said, starting to tremble at the mere thought of it.

“Yes, you can”, responded Sylvia as she took his large paw into hers.  “And I will be right here to hold your hand and help you through it all.”

“I really don’t deserve this, you are being far too kind and generous.”

“That’s just me.  Come on, let’s do it!”

Grabbing his wine glass James threw the last of it down his throat with one gulp.  In his mind he thought “I am the Baron VanAnkat.  I can DO this!”  He looked at Sylvia and sighed, a long, heavy sigh.  “All right”, he said, “lets do it.”

The two of them stood up from the table and walked over to the far side of the living area.  There, in front of them lay the trunk.  With a trembling hand, James reached down to the lid.  He stood there, hand on the lid for a moment.  He looked over to Sylvia.  She saw the tear well up in his eye and begin its journey down his cheek.  She reached one hand down to his, and put the other on his shoulder.  He nodded to her and opened the lid......