I watched "You've Been Disconnected" a few days ago and I really was not happy with how Gilligan was treated, especially by the Skipper and Ginger. So I came up with this. I hope you guys like it!
Ginger stumbled down the jungle path in the dark, a small notebook held at her side. She brushed banana leaves out of her way and she finally broke out of the trees. The moon reflected off the lagoon, and in the glare she could see Gilligan, his scuba mask pulled up to rest on his forehead, lying on his back by the water.
When the others had gone back to camp to eat dinner, the first mate had stayed behind to search for the telephone wire, either out of choice or orders from the angry Skipper. Ginger had grown concerned as the sun set and the sailor still hadn't returned, so she walked down to the lagoon, guilt weighing heavy in her heart.
"Hi, Gilligan," she greeted quietly as she approached him. He opened his eyes and looked up at her, the moon catching on the beads adorning her white evening gown.
"Hi, Ginger," he mumbled. "Does Skipper want me to go in again?" he asked, sitting up and making to pull the goggles back down over his eyes.
The movie star saw how exhausted he looked and she stilled his hands. "No, Gilligan. That's not why I'm here," she answered, feeling even more ashamed about how they had treated him earlier. "I'm here to, well… talk about how we all acted earlier. Especially me."
"I didn't mean to lose the cable," he said, looking up at her. "I didn't think it'd be pulled out to sea. Sometimes I think no matter what I do, I'll always get in trouble."
Ginger's shoulders slumped as she saw how sad and guilty he felt. "It wasn't your fault, Gilligan. Really." He looked out at the lagoon, and Ginger sat down beside, laying the book in her lap. "Gilligan," she prodded gently, and he looked over to her. "I want to apologize about the things I wrote about you in 'The Ginger Grant Story'."
He looked up slowly, and smiled softly at her, though it didn't reach his eyes. She continued, "You were right. No one is perfect. Not me, or the Howells, or Mary Ann, or the Skipper, or the Professor… not anyone. So it's unfair for us to expect anything different from you."
His smile widened a bit more. "Thanks, Ginger. You're a real friend."
"I'm not finished," she said, and opened the book in her lap. "I wrote some really nasty things, and I know I can't take them back, but I want to get rid of them." She gripped some of the pages and tore them out, as Gilligan's eyes widened.
"Ginger? What are you doing?" he asked, looking from the pages up to her face.
"I'm getting rid of what I wrote," the movie star answered him, and ripped the pages cleanly in half.
"But, Ginger… that's 'The Ginger Grant Story'. You can't rip it up," he protested, but she continued to tear up the hateful things she wrote.
"It's not the kind of movie I'd want to make. I wouldn't want to make a movie where I make myself look better by putting someone down, especially not a good friend like you," Ginger answered, and once the paper was shredded into small enough pieces, she threw them into the lagoon. She watched the scraps float back and forth on the calm tide until the paper dissolved in the water and vanished from view. "You try," she offered, setting the notebook in the sand and sliding it over to her friend.
He took the book in his hands, and looked at Ginger, unsure, hesitant, waiting for her to change her mind. All the she did was give him an encouraging nod. Gilligan yanked out a chunk of pages and slowly, one by one, he shredded them. With each satisfying rip the paper made, he began to feel better. He knew that his fellow castaways lost their tempers with him, but it was moments such as these that reminded him how much they really cared.
Once he was satisfied with the crumpled fragments of the pages, he tossed them into the lagoon, where they rocked back and forth with the tide before disappearing, as they had done before. As the pages sank to the bottom, he looked up at Ginger, who was watching him expectantly.
"Feeling better, honey?" she asked tenderly.
He nodded and smiled at her, beginning to look more like his normal self. "Yeah. Thanks, Ginger."
The movie star smiled back at him, feeling better now that she was seeing the first mate happy again. "Don't thank me yet. There's still more to go."
So together, they sat in the light of the moon, tearing up the offending pages, making the words written on them unrecognizable. Ginger tossed some fragments of 'The Ginger Grant Story' into the lagoon, and was glad to see them disappearing in the calm waters. She vowed that when she did make her movie, it would never be like that. Because that wasn't how her real life was, and it wasn't how the gentle boy across from her was.
Gilligan threw his pages into the water as well, and watched as they slipped under the dark surface of the lagoon. He sat in silence for a few moments, feeling relieved that Ginger had apologized, relieved that she hadn't really meant those things that she had said.
"Gilligan," the redhead spoke, and he looked up as she continued. "If I ever do something like that again, and you don't like it, just let me know, okay?"
He smiled at her, grateful. "Okay, Ginger. Thanks."
"You're welcome," she answered, her heart warming as he smiled at her. "You ready to go?"
The first mate nodded and got to his feet, offering her his hand and helping her up. She tucked the notebook under her arm and the two walked side-by-side back to their camp, both feeling better about the day's events.
"Maybe you can help me rewrite 'The Ginger Grant Story'."