First mate's log:

November 5, 1966

We had a nice Halloween. All the kids were ghosts and I was the Wolfman. And now I'm in a real-life spooky mansion!

A weird doctor named Boris Balinkoff came to the island in a rowboat. He said he could take us to his island, which is about an hour away by rowboat, but only two adult passengers at a time. So the Skipper and I got here first and now he's going back for the Howells. He's got a transmitter, so when we all get here, then he can radio for help. But I guess that won't be until tomorrow, because he'd need to make six trips (Alice and the Brady boys can all fit on one trip, the Martins on another), and that would take a couple hours, going back and forth. There are plenty of rooms, so we can sleep here while we're waiting.

The thing is, the rooms are super creepy. There's even a dungeon downstairs! The Skipper and I have been exploring. We found a dog and a cat that sound like each other! I mean, the dog meows and the cat barks. At the least, Dr. Balinkoff is a mad scientist. The Skipper admits this is strange, but he thinks I've seen too many movies. I wonder what Ginger will think when she gets here.


Carol Martin's diary:

November 6, 1966

Something very strange is going on but I don't know all the facts, so I'm not sure what to do. A man calling himself Dr. Boris Balinkoff arrived on our island in a rowboat yesterday morning and promised to take us all away to his island, where he has a transmitter. Yesterday he took the two sailors, the Howells, and then the two young women. Today he was going to take the Professor and Mike, and then Alice and the Brady boys, with me and my daughters last.

But before Dr. Balinkoff returned this morning, Mike pulled me aside and said, "Carol, I'm dubious about this 'doctor' and I don't want to put my boys at risk."

I nodded. "I was feeling cowardly about not wanting to go, but my girls have dealt with enough frights on this island."

"Yes. I've already spoken to Alice about this, but I'd like you to make some excuse to not go. Seasickness, not knowing how to swim, whatever it takes."

"I haven't taught Cindy how to swim yet. Even if Dr. Balinkoff is honest, I can't risk her life in a rowboat for an hour, in uncharted waters."

"Right. If he's on the up and up, you, Alice, and the kids can wait here until a larger vessel comes to rescue us all."

"How long do you think that would take?"

"No more than a week."

"I think we can survive on our own that long."

He smiled. "Of course you can."

I wanted to hug him goodbye but I hadn't hugged anyone else and it would've looked funny to our children and Alice. (The Professor, who was looking forward to discussing science with the doctor, would've been oblivious.)

Alice and I told Balinkoff not to bother returning today, since she gets seasick and Cindy doesn't know how to swim. He shrugged and said that that meant he'd be able to contact the outside world this afternoon rather than this evening.

And now we're waiting, perhaps a week. Alice and I have talked about what we'll do if the others never return. We'll of course raise the children together, which Mike and I were sort of doing anyway. Even though I'm squeamish sometimes, I'll take over the hunting and fishing. Maybe Greg could help me, since he's ten and mostly sensible. Marcia, Peter, and Jan could gather the plants we need. Alice will be busy enough with cooking, cleaning, and childcare, although she would be my equal, not my maid. We would miss Mike and the others, but we'd survive.


November 7, 1966

Yesterday things got even weirder at the castle. I hadn't slept too well, not just because it was a bed instead of a hammock. Sometimes I would think about all the stuff I could do when I got back to Hawaii, and sometimes I'd worry what would happen to me and the others in the castle.

The Doctor's servant, Igor, served us breakfast the next morning. It was weird knowing that Mary Ann and Alice hadn't cooked it, that I hadn't gathered the syrup or the eggs.

After we ate, the doctor went to get the Professor and Mr. Brady. The Skipper and I talked to the others. Mr. Howell wondered how much the castle cost and Mrs. Howell said she didn't think much of the doctor's decorator. The girls agreed that the castle was spooky, but Ginger said she'd love to do a vampire movie here, and Mary Ann was just scared. None of us knew what the doctor's intentions were, but he was still our best hope for rescue.

Then we found out he has a machine that changes people's minds! I mean, like, Mr. Howell swapped minds with me and said he was slumming in my body. Just like Dr. Balinkoff brought us here in pairs, he had two booths to trade two minds at once. The Skipper got swapped with Mrs. Howell, the Professor with Mary Ann, Ginger with Igor, and Mr. Brady with the doctor's parrot. (But he couldn't talk, just roar, because the parrot had already been swapped with a lion, not Leo, since the Navy picked him up.) We got Ginger to use Igor's body to help us trade back, and then we locked the doctor and Igor in one booth and the cat and dog in the other.

We all escaped in the rowboat, although it was as crowded as in that Hitchcock movie Lifeboat. And I know the Skipper doesn't like me to talk about how fat he is, but he was bringing extra weight on board. We were lucky to make it back to our island, since the boat sunk in the lagoon while the Skipper and I were gathering supplies so the two of us could try to go get help. Anyway, it's good to be home, even if we again didn't make it back to our old homes.


November 8, 1966

Everyone came back from the other island a couple days ago, after a bizarre ordeal. The doctor was a mad scientist who invented a mind-swapping machine. I wouldn't have believed it if Mike hadn't told me he was temporarily in the body of a parrot. I'm so glad the children, Alice, and I were spared all that, although the kids enjoy it as a spooky bedtime tale.

We can't even use the rowboat for an escape from this island, since it barely survived their escape from the doctor's island. Sometimes I think I'll never get off this island, but as Ginger told me, after describing her strange experience as the doctor's hulking male assistant, there are worse islands to be stuck on.