Prologue
It was April 1, 1969, just two weeks after our castaways were rescued from the island they had been stranded on for exactly four years, five months, and seventeen days. Gilligan and Mary Ann had been a couple for the past two years, but now they were parting ways. Mary Ann was going back to Kansas, to her family and friends, to her farm, to what she had called home before being stranded on the island four years before. It was not easy making this decision. She did not want to leave Gilligan, whom she loved very much, behind in Hawaii, but she couldn't stay in Hawaii either. She had already left so much behind in Kansas. And she knew her mother just might break down if she didn't see her beloved daughter soon.
Mary Ann turned to Gilligan and took his hands in hers. "I'll miss you, Gilligan."
"I'll miss you too Mary Ann." Gilligan replied sadly.
"I'll call you when I get home." Mary Ann knew she'd have to go to her neighbor Annie Mae's to use her phone, seeing that her parents didn't own one.
She looked down at his hands with tears welling up in her eyes as she heard her flight being called over the intercom. "Well, thats my flight Gilligan." She paused, then looked up into his eyes which were also filling up with tears. She could tell he was trying to hide it though. Didn't all men?
"I love you, Gilligan." She tried to smile. "I love you too, Mary Ann." He tried to smile back.
Mary Ann pulled him into a hug and sighed against his chest. She didn't want to leave him as he ran his fingers through her hair as he always did.
But they pulled back from each other and Gilligan kissed her on the cheek. Mary Ann gave him a quick kiss on the lips, picked up her bags, and said goodbye. And as she walked away, she couldn't help but want to look over her shoulder at him, but she knew if she did that she would only run back to him.
That day Mary Ann boarded the plane thinking she would never see Gilligan again. Her father would end up finding a suitable farmer for her to marry and they'd live on a farm, have children, she would live a normal life in Kansas...without Gilligan. She knew this would be hard. On the island she had fantasized about her and Gilligan's wedding and their children and her dream house. But that was then. Things would change. Little did she know she was wrong.
