AUTHOR'S NOTE: I can't tell you how much I have always loved Gilligan's Island . There are some that saw this program as just some comedy. Not me. I always admired how this group of seven scrappy castaways, didn't just sit on the beach and cry, when rescue was not imminent. They picked themselves up and made a life for themselves on this island. And there is a closeness between these people that cut across their various backgrounds. I always saw real love between them all. Now for the backstory...

BACKSTORY: This tale takes place after the Ms Castaway contest. Gilligan, Skipper, The Howell's and Ginger, have fallen back into the routine of the island. But for Mary Ann and The Professor, that contest has left them feeling out of sorts. The Professor, who has had little time for any serious relationship in his life that didn't involve a bunson burner, is finding feelings awakened in him with regards to Mary Ann, that he had never felt previously. Or had he?

And as for Mary Ann, her feelings for the Professor are a little more hidden. What has been awakened in her is a strange yearning for home that she knows no one will understand. Mary Ann keeps her thoughts to herself and only has time to be one with them, when she visits the other side of the island, to sit and contemplate.

Little do any of the castaways know, that someone from Mary Ann's hometown will end up on the island for very personal reasons and under dangerous circumstances. The events that follow, will bring about not only a bevy of emotions, but a rescue that not everyone will be ready for....

THE STORY

David Bruce Banner steered his small house boat into what looked to be a lagoon. He continually rubbed his face as he slowed the vehicle down, finally to come to a stop near the shallow edge of the water.

He didn't know who's boat this was. He barely remembered anything before the last transformation.

David let go of the wheel and looked down at himself. As per the norm, he was only wearing ripped jeans. He had not bothered to look around the boat for clothing. Maybe that was because he didn't want to know who it belonged to. Maybe...oh God...maybe he had finally done what he had feared.

Maybe he had killed someone.

David closed his eyes. He had to think. Just think for a moment. Why was he on this boat? How had he ended up on a boat? And a houseboat at that? Where were the owners? Where...

David nodded to himself. Yes, he had been reading up on a particular herb that could stop his transformation into the creature. An herb that was supposedly found on islands in the Pacific. David felt like he had to take the chance of searching for it, even if he came up empty. This couldn't keep happening. He couldn't keep living like this.

David peered out of the windows. This island looked deserted. Good. There would be nothing here to make him angry. And even if the metamorphosis did happen, no one would get hurt--hopefully.

He rubbed a hand over his face again. Now, he was going to find some clothes and a few provisions. The sooner he began hunting for that herb, the better.

****

Gilligan and the Skipper made their way down a dirt hill and towards the lagoon. They were planning on catching fresh fish for lunch and the lobster traps had to be checked. Gilligan liked this part of the day. He always hoped that he would catch something interesting, like a crate, filled with stuff they could use around the island.

"Skipper?"

"Yes, Gilligan?" the Skipper asked absently, stopping to make sure he didn't trip over an especially big branch.

"Where do you think Mary Ann goes?"

The Skipper seemed confused by the question and as he turned to look at him, Gilligan tripped over the branch, sprawled into the Skipper and they tumbled a short ways down the hill to the lagoon! The Skipper was the first one up with his cap off, ready to whack Gilligan over the head with it!

"Gilligan! Why don t you watch where you re going?!"

But Gilligan's eyes were transfixed by the houseboat! The Skipper's back was to it and he continued to yell at Gilligan, while Gilligan kept pointing. Giving up, the Skipper folded his arms.

"What is it, Gilligan?"

"Skipper, look! It's a boat! A houseboat!"

"You're telling me if I turn around, I ll see a houseboat in the water."

"Yes, Skipper!"

The Skipper sighed heavily, turned around, then did a double take!

"Gilligan! It's a houseboat!"

"I told you! I told you!"

"Yes, little buddy, you did! We're saved! We're saved! Let's go and find the Professor and the others!" the Skipper exclaimed. Gilligan nodded and slammed into the Skipper. The Skipper tried to move around him, but still managed to slam into Gilligan anyway. It wasn't until he took off his hat that Gilligan managed to move in a direction that didn't coincide with his superior's.

"Professor! Ginger! Mr. and Mrs. Howell! Mary Ann! Professor!" Gilligan yelled at the top of his lungs. So immersed in excitement was he, that Gilligan had forgotten that Mary Ann would probably not be with the others when they returned to the huts. For his question to the Skipper would have been, where does Mary Ann go when she disappears once a week ?

****

The Professor peered at a leaf, then decided it was not the one he needed. He was looking for a rare leaf that had the same ingredients in it that a sleeping pill had. Apparently, The Howell's were running low on their supply.

The Professor smiled to himself. If either of them put in a full day's work like everyone else, they wouldn't need pills to get a good night's rest.

He sighed and peered at another plant, that oddly enough, had spots on it that were the same color as the blouse Mary Ann had been wearing at breakfast. The Professor shook his head. He had to stop thinking like that! He had to! Mary Ann was like a little sister to him. And he was sure she saw him as an older brother or something.

The Professor, determined to keep his mind on the study of botany, peered around. He needed to look in another direction because there was nothing around here of any use. He hoped his trip to the other side of the island had not been wasted. It took almost a half an hour to get over here.

He moved in an easterly direction, paying careful attention to various plants, until at last, he saw the one he knew he needed. The tree it was attached to was right before a small clearing. The Professor reached up for a plant leaf and gently snapped it off. As he was about to peer at it, his eyes focused on something else.

Mary Ann was lying on a blanket with her eyes closed. She looked completely at ease.

She was also completely naked.

The Professor could not have turned away even if he wanted to. Mary Ann had one knee raised and both hands were clasped behind her head. Her olive skinned body glimmered in the sunlight. The Professor's eyes took in her young breasts and dared to travel lower...

He turned away and swallowed! Mary Ann could not see him here! He felt like a peeping Tom or something! And isn t that what he was? Mary Ann had obviously come to this side of the island for privacy, which is something they all needed everyone once and awhile and now...

The Professor crept away. He could come back on a day that Mary Ann was not here.

****

Mary Ann opened her eyes and sighed.

The sun felt good on her body and this was the only place where she could bask in it, without having to worry about being discovered. There was always the danger of head hunters, but she was willing to take that chance. Especially as of late.

It would do no good to confide her thoughts and fears to anyone else. Everyone had them. The thought of spending the rest of their lives on this island. The thought of never getting to live the life they were meant to live. And she knew she was destined to stay here on a deserted island for the rest of her life.

And yet...Mary Ann also began to think about things that she never had before. Like the idea of fate. Had she been fated to end up on this island with these particular people? Mary Ann sighed and sat up. Now she was beginning to think like the Professor. She smiled. Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.

She looked around for her clothes. Mary Ann suspected that the rest of the gang was counting on her to make lunch. Maybe not counting, but hoping, since Ginger's cooking still needed some work!

****

David, having found clothing in the form of a khaki shirt and matching shorts, carried a cloth bag as he began to search for the herb that could cure him. While looking for the plant, his eyes were in search of signs of inhabitants.

He had passed some sort of well a few yards back. A well that had obviously been built with human hands. David continued easing through the jungle, on the hunt for the herb and any signs of people, when he heard a scream!

David parted a bush and saw two men that looked to be head hunters, grab a red headed woman in an evening dress and carry her off! David rushed out of the bushes yelling!

"HEY! HEY!" he yelled to stop them. The head hunters stopped and turned to face him. Ginger Grant's eyes widened! Hmmm, who was this?

David struggled to identify which natives he was dealing with, in his mind. Some head hunters could be talked out of the heinous act of beheading someone, but only in their own native tongue.

But David took too long to remember.

The men grabbed him and dragged him off with the red head.

****

The Howell's and Gilligan and the Skipper, each had news for one another.

"We're going to be rescued!" Gilligan and the Skipper said in unison.

"We thought we heard Ginger scream!" The Howell's said in unison.

The Professor came upon them.

"What's going on? What's happened?" he asked. Gilligan turned to the Skipper and pleaded with him.

"Please, let me tell him, okay?"

"Fine, Gilligan." the Skipper said, struggling to hide his impatience.

"We found a houseboat, Professor! It's in the lagoon!" Gilligan said, jumping up and down. The Professor's eyes widened!

"A houseboat? And no one was in it?"

"Not that we could see." the Skipper piped in. Lovey Howell was beaming!

"Thurston, darling! Did you hear that? Someone has left a houseboat in the lagoon!"

"Yes, my darling. I did indeed. What kind of houseboat was it, Gilligan?"

Gilligan looked confused. He eyed the Skipper before looking back at the Howell's.

"I do' t know. Just a regular houseboat."

"Yes well you see, my dear boy, Lovey and I won't just travel on any boat. It must have first class accommodations. We almost didn't get on the Minnow..."

"Now see here, Howell!" the Skipper snapped. But the Professor put his hand up in a halting motion.

"There's no time for this! Let s find the girls and..."

"Oh yes!" Lovey remembered, "that was the other thing. Thurston and I were taking our daily stroll, when we thought we heard Ginger scream."

"The boat will have to wait then." the Professor said.

The Skipper nodded his agreement.

"I'd feel better if all of us could look at this boat together. We'd better make sure Ginger is alright...and Mary Ann."

The Professor said nothing to that as he felt his loins tighten slightly. Mary Ann, he was sure, was quite fine where she was.

****

David and Ginger were tied to a tee-pee with their backs to one another. The head hunters were sharpening their machete blades over a large pot of water.

Ginger tried to crane her head around at the stranger, that she had remembered was handsome.

"Im Ginger. Ginger Grant."

David remembered her and had even seen some of her movies. He also remembered that she supposedly disappeared or was lost at sea, wasn't she? Lost on the same ship that a girl he had known from his hometown of Kansas had been on...

"I'm David...David Brown."

"Nice to meet you, David. Though I wish it was under better circumstances." Ginger said in a soft voice.

"We're going to get out of this, don t worry." David said. But one of the head hunters walked over, untied Ginger, then pulled her by her hair over to a chopping block! Ginger began screaming at the top of her lungs! David could not get out of his binds and he could feel his frustration heighten to anger, as he realized he was going to watch this beautiful woman die...

"NO!" he screamed as he began to transform.