Mary Ann was hard at work washing dishes in the bamboo sink, but the heat lay on her like a heavy blanket, making it difficult to concentrate. As she dunked a plate in the water to rinse it off, a fat bead of perspiration slid down her cheek. She tipped her head sideways to wipe her face on her shoulder and another bead of perspiration promptly went into her eye. She huffed in annoyance and the plate slipped out of her hand and fell into the water with a splash. Blowing the hair out of her eyes, she fished around for it in the bottom of the sink, muttering quietly under her breath.

"Say, what's a beautiful girl like you doing in a place like this?" came a smooth voice from behind her.

Mary Ann dropped the plate into the water again, sending soap suds flying. She put her hand on her chest to still her heart, then swatted the First Mate's shoulder. "Gilligan! You made me jump, creeping up on me like that!"

"I'm sorry," Gilligan grinned. "It's these shoes."

Mary Ann put her hands on her hips. "Maybe we ought to tie a bell around your neck."

Gilligan gave a theatrical leer. "You can ring my bell any day, sweetheart!" he hollered.

Mary Ann shook her head in mock exasperation. "Tell me again why you're here?" she sighed.

Gilligan puffed out his chest and adopted a pose like Superman. "Put all your worries aside, Mary Ann, because your favourite First Mate is here to help you with the chores!"

Mary Ann picked up a clean towel and thrust it at him. "Then get drying, Loverboy," she smiled.

Gilligan took the towel and began wiping plates, but then he stopped and looked at Mary Ann, curiously. "You look tired," he observed, "although it doesn't do anything to lessen your ravishing beauty."

Mary Ann wiped her face on her arm and flapped the neck of her blouse. "Thanks for the compliment, Gilligan, but it's this heat- it's unbearable. I'd love to just sit under a tree with a cool drink right now."

Gilligan's voice became full of concern. "You poor little thing. Here, let me help." He lifted the end of the towel and began to wipe away the perspiration from Mary Ann's face. She closed her eyes while he dabbed gently around each one, then he stroked the towel slowly over her cheeks and chin and down each side of her neck. He took his time and he was very thorough.

"Feels nice," she murmured, blissfully.

"You know I'd do anything for you, Mary Ann. All you have to do is say the word."

Mary Ann cracked one eye open. "Because I'm winsome and delightful?" she teased.

"The Jewel of the Midwest," Gilligan agreed. He 'beeped' Mary Ann playfully on the end of her nose, then he put the towel down and brushed the hair away from her forehead with his fingertips. "Better now?" he asked, tucking a final strand behind her ear.

"Much better!" Mary Ann said, brightly. "Oh, Gilligan, you don't know how much nicer it feels not to have sweat running down my neck."

"I bet it feels pretty good," he grinned. "You look a lot happier now, anyway."

Their eyes met and a spark flew between them, making Gilligan blink and Mary Ann bite the inside of her lip. Then Mary Ann lifted a clean plate out of the water and handed it to him. "I'm happy because you're here, Gilligan, corny pickup lines and all. With the two of us working, we'll have these chores finished in no time."

As they worked, Ginger came sailing by. No longer in her nurse's uniform, she fixed Gilligan with a petulant glare.

"I'm surprised he hasn't chased you half way around the huts by now," she said to Mary Ann.

"Why would he do that?" Mary Ann asked, her eyes wide.

"Because that's what he tried to do to me," Ginger replied, and swanned off with her nose in the air before the other two castaways could say anything.

Mary Ann stared at the First Mate, who didn't look in the least bit perturbed. In fact, he was smiling proudly.

"Gilligan? Is that true?"

"Maybe so," he replied, nonchalantly wiping a plate and placing it on top of the stack.

"But why?"

Gilligan pushed his hat to the back of his head. "Well, she was hot to trot and dressed like a nurse and I'm just a normal, red-blooded guy, in case you hadn't noticed."

Mary Ann shook her head. "But that's just it, Gilligan! You're not a normal, red-blooded guy!"

Gilligan's eyebrows shot up. "I'm not?"

"No! Well, up until today you weren't! You don't chase girls around the hut, no matter how they're dressed. You're kind, and shy, and sweet, and caring, and not in the least bit...red-blooded." Blushing, and feeling very confused, Mary Ann reached for a towel to dry her hands. "Just how hard did those coconuts hit you, anyway?" she wondered aloud.

Silence descended into the space between them while Mary Ann dried her hands and gazed out over the trees, with Gilligan's eyes upon her all the while. Then finally he spoke.

"I think we left a spoon in the sink," he said, casually.

Mary Ann put down the towel and slipped her hand back into the water. "Are you sure?" she asked, feeling around but not finding anything.

Gilligan pushed his sleeve up and slid his arm into the water. His fingers brushed lightly over Mary Ann's and she gasped at the sudden tingle that buzzed up her arm. Then Gilligan closed his hand around hers before she could pull it away.

"I guess I was wrong," he said, softly. "It must have been a trick of the light."

Mary Ann could see for herself that there was no spoon- Gilligan had done this on purpose. She stared at their interlocking fingers below the drifting suds. The image looked peculiar and distorted, not quite real- yet the feel of his hand around hers was very real indeed. Tingles ran up her arm and down her spine and a fresh bead of sweat trickled down the nape of her neck and into her blouse.

"There's something I want to tell you, Mary Ann," Gilligan continued in the same soft tone. "Something I think you should know." He shifted his weight, which brought them fractionally closer together, and cleared his throat as though he were about to make a speech. "Do you remember when Mrs. Howell tried to set us up?"

"That was a long time ago, Gilligan, and I've tried hard to put it behind me," Mary Ann murmured. "I don't see why you have to mention it now."

"Just listen to me, please," Gilligan insisted. "What I'm trying to say is, I haven't been fair to you, Mary Ann. I should have told you then that I liked you, but I didn't. There were other times too, but I was shy and scared and I thought if I ignored the feelings they would just go away. But they didn't. And now I'm getting those same feelings all over again. Except now, I know what they are."

"Gilligan, if you're trying to distract me from thinking about you and Ginger..."

"No, Mary Ann, forget Ginger. I'm saying that I like you. That I've always liked you, and I think it's time I told you, that's all."

Mary Ann couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was Gilligan making a declaration of love? Did he even realise the magnitude of what he was saying?

"Gilligan, please, you've had an accident," she told him. "You're not yourself today."

"I'm tired of being told I'm not myself," Gilligan said, earnestly. "Maybe it's the opposite way round. Maybe I wasn't myself before I got hit on the head. Maybe this is how I'm supposed to be. I'm a man, Mary Ann, and for the first time in my life I feel like a man. A real, red-blooded man."

Mary Ann blinked and swallowed hard. "I...I don't know what to say, Gilligan. This is all so sudden."

Gilligan squeezed her hand gently, and then let go. He pulled his arm out of the water and Mary Ann pulled her hand out of the water and then she stared at it, at the water dripping off her fingers onto the sand, wondering why it didn't look any different when the rest of her body felt like a mass of warm jelly.

"Will you at least think about it?" he asked, watching her intently.

"I don't know if it's you talking or the bump on your head talking," Mary Ann admitted, unable to look him in the eye. "And I don't know if you do, either."

Gilligan reached for her hands, holding them gently in the space between them both. "I promise you, Mary Ann, it's me talking," he smiled. "I think the bump on the head did a good thing, because it finally made me see what I've been missing."

"Are you serious?" Mary Ann heard the tinge of hope in her voice and wondered if he could hear it too.

"Scout's Honour," Gilligan smiled.

Mary Ann finally looked up into his eyes, which seemed brighter and more alert than she'd ever seen them. "All right, Gilligan," she said, at last. "If it really is you talking, then I will. I'll think about it."

Gilligan sighed with audible relief. He let go of Mary Ann's hands and reached up to straighten his hat. "You've made me a very happy man, Mary Ann," he told her. "I know this is all very sudden- it's sudden to me, too. But since I got hit on the head I feel like I need to make up for lost time."

Mary Ann watched Gilligan fix his hat and straighten his collar and smooth down the front of his shirt. "And is that how you make up for lost time?" she said, shyly. "By chasing Ginger around the huts?"

Gilligan caught the look in her eye and pretended to study his fingernails. "If that's what it takes," he said airily, and then ducked nimbly away with a very Gilligan-like yell as Mary Ann flicked him with the dish towel.


Mary Ann found Ginger in the Girl's Hut, sitting at the vanity and sorting out her jewelry box. "You'll never guess what Gilligan did," she sighed, flopping down onto her bunk with a dreamy smile.

"He turned into a wolf?"

"No, he did not."

"Then I'm all out of guesses." Ginger picked up two large, dangly earrings and placed them carefully into the box.

"For your information, Ginger, he finally confessed his feelings to me! Isn't that wonderful? After all this time. To think I'd almost given up hope!"

Ginger swivelled around and stared at her friend in disbelief. "Mary Ann, are you sure you didn't get hit on the head, too?"

Mary Ann's mouth fell open. "Ginger, how could you say such a thing? Aren't you happy that Gilligan's finally growing up?"

"Honey, you know as well as I do that Gilligan isn't growing up. He's suffering from a concussion that's making him chase after women and as soon as the Professor finds a cure for it, he'll forget everything he ever told you." Ginger smiled sadly, and became concerned for her friend. "Please, Mary Ann. Don't get too hopeful- I'd hate to see you hurt all over again."

"I don't think that's it at all," Mary Ann retorted. "Firstly, I think you're comparing Gilligan to the kind of men you used to meet in Hollywood."

"If you'd seen the way he was behaving earlier, you wouldn't doubt it," Ginger said, wryly.

"And secondly," Mary Ann went on, "Maybe you don't want to see me happy."

Ginger's green eyes widened. "Of course I want to see you happy, Mary Ann! But honey, this isn't Gilligan talking. Don't you see?"

Mary Ann got up and stalked towards the door. "Well, I'm sorry you don't believe me, but it is Gilligan talking. He promised me. He even said Scout's Honour! So there!" With that, she flounced out of the hut and shut the door so hard that a cloud of dust drifted down from the ceiling.

"Oh, well, if he said Scout's Honour, then it must be true." Ginger shook her head and dropped all of her remaining jewelry into the box with a clatter. "Oh, Mary Ann. I hope you know what you're getting yourself into!"