Hi. This series of adventures will focus on Gilligan's life in Honolulu and the friends he made there. I do realize that, when talking about Donny, the term Downs Syndrome was not commonly used in the 60's; however, it is a term I am more comfortable with, so please forgive me for using "poetic license" and continuing with this term. Also, while touring Honolulu and Waikiki, I may mention shops or locations that may or may not have been active in the 60's. They are places I am familiar with, so again, claim "poetic license". My goal is not to offend or upset anyone; only to tell an entertaining story. Thanks for your patience.

Lu

"Hi, Skipper. Hi, Professor. Whatcha doing?" Gilligan was walking around the corner of the hut, and the other two men were up on ladders examining the roof.

"Hi, Gilligan" answered the Professor. "We're trying to fix a little leak that I have developed. Well . . . my roof has" He added, seeing Gilligan giggle at the thought of the Professor developing a leak.

"She's down by her garden area, digging up some taro root." Skipper said.

"Who? What are you talking about?" asked Gilligan.

Skipper laughed. "I saw your eyes scan the clearing. I'm guessing you were looking for pigtails and big brown eyes."

"What? MaryAnn? Why would I be looking for MaryAnn?" Gilligan squeaked, trying very hard to look convincing. Actually, he had been thinking of MaryAnn all day, but wouldn't admit that to them. "Don't you want me to help with the roof?"

"NO" they both shouted.

"Okay, fine. I'll go find MaryAnn then." And he walked away towards the garden, muttering under his breath. "Think they're so smart. Looking for MaryAnn. Who says I was looking for MaryAnn? Why would I be looking for MaryAnn anyway?" He was still muttering to himself as he approached the garden. He looked around but didn't see MaryAnn anywhere. He was about to call out to her when he heard her voice coming from behind a clump of bushes.

"Hi Gilligan. I'm back here"

He looked around the bush, and there she was, on her knees, digging up some taro roots. Her pigtails had come loose, and she had a smudge on her cheek. Gilligan thought she looked gorgeous. His heart skipped a beat. He was a little worried that she could hear it pounding, so he talked loudly to cover the sound.

"Hi. Want some help?" he yelled.

MaryAnn laughed. "Why are you yelling?"

"Oh, uh, I dunno" he said sheepishly, as he tried to slow his breathing down and get himself under control. What was the matter with him anyway?

"I'm just about done here." She said. "I'm going to bring these roots back to my kitchen, and then go over to the waterfall. I want to clean up a little. Would you like to keep me company?"

Gilligan's imagination exploded at the thought of MaryAnn washing under the waterfall. "Uh, sure" He picked up the basket for her and carried it back to the clearing. Skipper saw them coming back and nudged the Professor with a grin on his face. Gilligan saw them watching and shot them a scowl, which only made them laugh. MaryAnn was oblivious to the exchange as she was chattering happily about her garden back in Kansas. He looked back at her and tried to focus on what she was saying, but her brown eyes distracted him and he tripped over his feet sending the basket of vegetables flying.

MaryAnn stopped and smiled gently at him. "Why don't you pick these up and go put them on my work table. I'm going to get my swimsuit on and meet you back here." Gilligan picked up the veggies and delivered them to the work table, then scooted into his hut to put on his swimsuit. He glared at the other men as he walked by daring them to laugh again.

When he came out of the hut, MaryAnn was waiting for him. She had a basket of cleansing items, a couple of towels and a smile on her face at the thought of heading down to the waterfall with Gilligan. "Come on, Gilligan." She said. "I can't wait to wash up." He nodded and avoided the eyes of Skipper and the Professor. He could feel them watching him as he walked away, and he knew that they were chuckling. His ears turned red.

Once they were back in the jungle, Gilligan started to feel a little more at ease. They chatted about nothing and everything as they walked along. MaryAnn told him about a river near her uncle's farm and how, after working in the garden on a hot summer day, she would walk down to the river and go for a dip. Gilligan allowed himself a brief moment to envision that while he walked; of course, that resulted in him not watching where he was going and hitting a low-hanging branch. MaryAnn giggled.

When they got to the little waterfall, she took some shampoo and soap into the water with her. "You coming in?" she asked, looking back at him over her shoulder. Then she ducked under the water and started lathering up. Gilligan tried hard not to watch and just swam around at the base of the falls until she finished washing. The Professor had made a new batch of shampoo containing papaya and coconut. Gilligan thought nothing smelled better as MaryAnn swam up to him.

"MaryAnn, you've been talking about Kansas a lot today. Are you missing home?" he asked.

"Yeah, a little, I guess." She answered. "Will you tell me a story? Something to distract me. I know, why don't you tell me about living in Honolulu. What was that like? Who were your friends?"

Gilligan smiled. He had loved living in Honolulu and had made some very good friends there. "Sure, let's go spread our towels out over there and lay in the sun" he suggested. So they walked out of the water and settled down on their blankets. Gilligan tried hard to think of a story and not how pretty MaryAnn looked, all glistening with droplets of water. MaryAnn tried hard to focus on anything other than how cute Gilligan looked sitting next to her, all glistening with droplets of water.

"I know" he said finally. "I'll tell you about Ice-Cream Show-Downs."

"Ice-Cream Show-Downs?" she giggled. "That sounds fun."

"Yup" he grinned. "Me and Donny would play. Donny and his mom lived in the apartment below me. She had a regular babysitter for him during the week. But sometimes on the weekends, if she picked up an extra shift at the diner, she'd ask me to babysit him."

"That's sweet, Gilligan. How old was he?" she asked.

"He was 12. He just turned 12 right before our shipwreck. We even had a party for him on the Minnow."

"Oh that's right." MaryAnn remembered. "Skipper told us about him. He had Downs Syndrome, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he was a special kid," Gilligan said with affection. "So anyway, sometimes I would babysit him on the weekends. His mom would try to get an evening shift so I could watch him after the Minnow got back to the docks.

So Donny loved ice cream, and he loved games, too. One day, we had gone to the theater over on Auahi Street to see a new cowboy movie. After that, we stopped at an ABC Store and bought silly cowboy hats and pretended we were cowboys all night."

MaryAnn remembered the ABC stores from her short time vacationing there. You could find just about anything in those stores. She giggled at the site of Gilligan and his young friend walking around Waikiki with bowed legs and cowboy hats and talking like ranch hands. "Keep going," she said. "Tell me more."

"So there we were, acting all tough and western," he said, grinning. "And we were passing by Alika's place. He had a little ice cream stand at the end of the beach. So we stopped and each got an ice cream cone. Donny got Strawberry. He ALWAYS got strawberry. I think that first night, I got vanilla.

"So anyway, he had his cone and I had mine, and it just sorta happened. We didn't plan it. He was standing facing me, and we took a couple of steps back – so we were standing about 10 feet apart. He squinted his eyes and I squinted mine. He held his cone out, and I held mine out. Alika was watching us, laughing. So he did a count-down. 5 – 4 -3 – 2 - - 1. And we both raised our cones and raced to see who could finish first.

It was close – Donny was a pretty fast ice-cream eater. At first I was gonna let him win anyway. But then when I saw how fast he really was, I really dug in. He beat me anyway. By the time we finished, we had quite a crowd around us." He was smiling at the memory. "We made it a Saturday night tradition. Sharon, his mom, would come, too, if she wasn't working. A lot of the locals would be there to cheer us on, and if we met tourists during the week and got friendly with them, we'd invite them, too."

"Aww, Gilligan. That's a wonderful story. I hope when we get rescued someday, I can meet Donny."

"Sure you can." Gilligan didn't even consider the thought of not ever getting rescued. He truly believed it would happen. "You can meet Donny and his mom, Sharon. And I'll take you to Alika's ice cream shack. If you feel like hiking, I can take you to the Makiki Valley. That place is real neat. You can hike in there for hours and hours and not see another person. And the zoo – I used to take Donny there, too. We have a friend there named Scotty. He sells plate lunches in the little tent across from the tigers. There's so many places I'd like to take you, MaryAnn."

Gilligan realized what he had just said. He panicked a little and wondered if he said too much. But he stole a glance at MaryAnn and she was smiling dreamily. "I'd like that Gilligan," she said. "I'd like that a lot."