Author's note: Note to self: Don't write a chapter-by-chapter fic during the last few weeks of school. You'll never have time to get it done! Ah, well, I've learned my lesson. Thanks for being patient with me! Well, we are at the end of the story. Because this is the last chapter and I wanted to tie the group in again, this chapter will be a little different than the other six. Mary Ann is just so much fun to write. I hope I did not disappoint on the conclusion. Everyone enjoy, and have a good summer!
The Scariest Thing I Ever had to Cook- Mary Ann musings on the Professor
It was the worst of days. It was even worse than a hailstorm during the second hay-cutting, if you know what I mean. Now that the ordeal is over, I can laugh and relax, and pretend like I knew what I was doing all along. But really, in all honesty... I was terrified.
I'm just an ordinary, plain girl. I knew I was plain ever since I started to work as a clerk in Winfield's General Store and the boys never even blinked when ordering their seeds. I knew I was ordinary when the first boy I'd ever dated won the school award for being the most likely to set the barn on fire. I knew I was destined for a life of mediocrity... and that's why I had to have one last adventure before I settled down on the farm.
A three-hour tour with a movie star, a millionaire, and a professor is not ordinary! Rather, it was what I had been looking forward to ever since my carefully planned and budgeted trip to Hawaii rolled around. I was ecstatic- this would be something to write home about! Finally, I would have a story to tell! (And boy, if I ever get off this island, I will have stories to tell.) I was not expecting the story to be a permanent one, however.
The thing is, when you are roommates with a movie star, you tend to feel... I don't really have a word for it. Under-appreciated isn't the right one, but it describes as close to the feeling as I can get. Maybe unworthy. It's not that Ginger hasn't been nice to me or anything; on the contrary, all the people on the island have been swell! Everyone's been so kind to me, and I feel very grateful for it, because I feel out of place in a lot of other ways.
You see, everyone around me is, well, kind of superhuman. You have the Skipper, who is like the strong hero of the island. The Professor can make almost anything out of bamboo and coconuts. The Howell's will always be millionaires, and will always be treated as such. Ginger can make anyone's spirits rise with just a well-timed glance, and she is marvelous in so many other ways. Even Gilligan, with all his faults, is the soul of our little group, holding us all together. And I, I hang on the outside of a world I fear I can never enter. I was always afraid I'd let the group down somehow, though how I would I didn't know. Then, the event I dreaded most came. I had to do something heroic, and it was either succeed... or fail.
The days in which the Professor was sick kind of go by in a blur, probably because we were all so worried. He had entered camp one evening looking very pale, and an unhealthy gray glow to his skin made us all the more worried. He said he was tired and just needed rest. None of us paid him any mind; after all, he is the Professor. He always knows what's to be done. It was the next morning, when he didn't look any better, that we began to worry.
Fortunately, the Professor had the where-with-all to know what he was suffering from. Unbenounced to us, he had spent the whole night preparing the written instructions for a serum; apparently he had come down with a rare disease from a bug bite. I can't remember the name now, all I remember is how frightened we all were. You see, the Professor is more than just a teacher to us; he is our doctor, adviser, counselor, chief engineer, general problem solver, and our coolest head on the island. If he died, it would be like loosing our provider! After all, even though the Skipper and Gilligan do most of the heavy work, it's the Professor's inventions that keep us living in comfort. The Professor always knows what to do. Without him, what would we do?
I was afraid. So was everyone else. The Professor was always so strong and healthy; no one ever even thought that he'd get so ill so quickly. That next day, the Professor tried to complete his own list of ingredients so that he could make his serum, but he became too ill. Gilligan, in one of his finer moments, found all the rest of the ingredients from plants around the island. Then the Professor tried to mix them, but even with Gilligan and the Skipper propping him up he couldn't do it. So, he took to his bed, and gave the instructions... to me.
"It's just like fixing a recipe, Mary Ann," he explained kindly. "I have complete faith in you."
I was shocked he gave the instructions to me. After all, all of the other castaways were in the room as well. Why not give them to someone better? I tried to tell him I couldn't do it, but then the Professor's eyes caught mine.
The certainty in them struck my heart. "I know you can do this," his eyes seemed to say. "You have to do this."
Ginger smiled as well, an encouraging, sisterly smile, and looked up at me from where she sat, mopping the Professor's brow. "You always were better at cooking than me," she stated.
"Yes, Mary Ann," Gilligan chimed in, "If you can make a coconut creme pie, you can definitely make syrup!"
"It's a serum, Gilligan," corrected the Professor with a pain-filled groan. "And it's a little harder than baking a pie... but I know you can do it, Mary Ann."
I squirmed as all eyes in the room focused on me. "Please, Professor," I began, "I'd do anything to help you, but what if I mix this wrong? It could kill you!"
The Professor sighed, and for a moment I thought he was not going to answer. Then, he replied, "If you don't make this serum, I will die. Either way, Mary Ann, my life is in your hands."
Nothing can describe the fear that haunted me as I worked alone in the Professor's lab, following his instructions to the letter. (The boys had moved the Professor into their hut so that I could have some privacy.) As I worked, I kept getting flashes of what the island would be like without the Professor. He had always added so much to our lives; each day trying to figure out a way for us to be more comfortable. If he died, a part of our hearts would die with him. A part of my heart would die as well, I reflected. I had always thought the Professor a little too prideful, even for all the good he'd done. There were times when I wanted to see him taken down a peg or two, so he'd see what it'd be like to be a normal human like me. But as I worked, I realized that though the Professor was prideful, his pride was fully in his work. And his work was not only gadgets and things made from bamboo and coconuts; his work was his students, in this case, us. He cared enough for us to keep fighting, and he trusted me above all the others to save him. I would not let him down!
Finally, the serum was ready. The Professor looked awful! He was no longer conscious, and his skin had become terribly pale. In fact, he looked paler than snow! I gave the serum to Ginger, who used the Professor's bamboo needle to give him the shot, and we all took vigil by the Professor's bedside, waiting. Finally, near daybreak the following morning, the Professor stirred. Ginger, who had been the one awake at the time, woke us all up with a surprised gasp, and in a moment everyone was awake and watching the Professor tensely.
"Mary Ann," the Professor whispered through cracked lips.
I slipped out from behind the Skipper, feeling a little self-conscious. "It worked," I stated simply.
The Professor opened his eyes and looked at me with warmth and pride. "Thank you," he whispered, before relaxing back down and falling asleep. Silently, we all left the Professor for his nap (save for Ginger, who always liked being the nurse).
When we were outside the Professor's hut, a great cheer went up, and all of a sudden the Skipper had lifted me high up in the air, "Mary Ann is a hero!" he shouted, and everyone down below agreed. I looked at all the faces of my friends, faces filled with love, kindness, and respect. How I ever thought that these people looked down on me for just being me I'll never know. After all, it was my cooking that saved our Professor, though I must admit that that serum was the scariest thing I ever had to cook!
