First mate's log:
August 1, 1968
Well, our island has more people and a new name, not that it ever really had a name, at least not maybe since whatever the cavemen who made the stone tablet called it.
A lot of the new people live in the Howell mansion, which is finished now and looks great, although smaller than the one I saw in Santa Barbara, which I guess isn't even one of their biggest. The Howells have not just two but now twenty servants and employees, including an accountant who talked to Mr. Mason, the lawyer who's moved here with his wife, Della, and I don't understand all of the financial and legal stuff, but Mr. Howell technically doesn't own the island, although he is invested in it by developing it.
See, the thing is, there were seventeen people on The Minnow, although one, Mrs. Brady, died so her share went to her husband and three sons. But even before our shipwreck, there were people living here, three if you don't count the Japanese sailor, who may have arrived after we did. So Mr. Howell hired detectives to track down Wrongway Feldman, the Jungle Boy, and Dubov the painter. Mr. Howell was going to buy out their shares, but it turns out they all want to live here, Mr. Feldman with his native wife and their two little kids, one just a baby.
Meanwhile, the Howells had two nephews. The older one, Perry Howell, inherited everything when the Howells were presumed dead, but he and his wife died in a skiing accident the winter before we were rescued, so the estate went to her family, and the Howells are still working on reclaiming everything. The other nephew, Chip Wentworth, was orphaned soon after the shipwreck, so he was sent off to Swiss boarding school. The Howells have decided to adopt him and raise him as Thurston Howell IV. He'll probably like that better than I did, since he's used to being rich, although the Wentworths aren't as rich as the Howells. I haven't met him yet but he's fourteen and will be one of the oldest students at the new school that starts in September.
The Jungle Boy, who now goes by Kurt, is about sixteen but he'll be in ninth grade, too, the highest grade we'll have in the school the first year, because he's still catching up after growing up on the island with no education until three and a half years ago. He was living in an orphanage in Honolulu and he's happy to be coming back to the island, even if he can't run around in a loincloth and swing from trees all the time anymore.
Anyway, to make a long story short, this is now "Brady's Island." The majority, ten out of seventeen (or out of twenty) people on this island in '64 were or someday would be connected to the Brady family. Mr. Brady isn't crazy about having the island named after him, but he doesn't think it should be "Howell's Island" either. I joked that it should be "Gilligan's Island," since I'm the first person from The Minnow to set foot, well, my whole body, on it, but the Skipper just shook his head.
Mostly we call it "the little island," because Mrs. Smith's island, which is officially called Blenford, after her barondom, is the "big island." That engineering project that the Professor is supervising involves drains and dams, to make Dr. Balinkoff's old island a lot bigger. Mr. Brady isn't so sure about this, but he doesn't always agree with the Professor, even though the Professor is going to be his best man at the wedding. Anyway, the baroness's plans for her island come out to keeping the population about ten times ours, so she's shooting for 1600 by the fall. This drives Mr. Howell crazy because he's so competitive, but Mrs. Howell says she likes the "unspoiled charm" of our island, although she does like to go shopping in Blenford every week.
Let's see, who else has arrived since I last wrote? Oh, my ex-slave, Kilani, is here with her husband, Ugundi, and they work in Mary Ann's Diner. It was a little awkward for me at first, but they're actually both pretty nice. The Professor sent Mary Ann a Matoban phrase book he put together, and she's also teaching the two natives "restaurant English." So now I can go in and tell Kilani "Adam and Eve on a raft," and she'll know what I mean (two eggs on toast). Ugundi does the heavy lifting and is a bouncer when the construction guys get too flirty with his wife and Mary Ann, who he treats like a sister as well as a boss.
Oh, I should explain about money. We hardly used it on the island before, except like when Mr. Howell was bribing people. We probably won't have a bank until next summer, which makes Mr. Howell sad, but we still barter and sometimes use credit. A lot of the people on the island are the construction crew, and they get paychecks, which they deposit at the Blenford Bank, and then they can take out cash and spend it, mostly on having fun on Blenford.
There are also four families who will do farming and fishing. The Andersons and Olsens will farm, and the Knights and Williamses will fish. They have a total of nine school-age kids, who will be in kindergarten through eighth grade. And more families will be coming, but the Skipper and I needed help getting food for the diner, as soon as possible.
So the population's at what now? Almost one hundred, something like that. With about sixty more who will be here by early September, including the Martins, who will be Bradys by then, because Mr. Brady wants to adopt the three little girls.
August 2, 1968
The wedding is now a month away and I'm starting to get responses to the invitations. My father's sister, Aunt Mary, can make it if she's feeling all right, but as she's usually coming down with or recovering from something, I've put her in the maybe column. My mother's sister, Aunt Jenny, is traveling in India but she wishes us much joy and promises to send our wedding gift, which will be "a little large," to the island. Jan hopes it's an elephant.
My equally colorful grandmother, my mother's mother, Connie Hutchins, writes from Owensboro, Kentucky, "Kiddo, I would love to be there but I'll be busy on the farm. Are you sure you two can't wait to get hitched on Christmas after all?"
Mike doesn't have much family, but his widowed grandfather, Henry Brady, a retired judge, will be there, although not to preside. My parents' minister, Reverend Alden, will not only officiate, but he actually wants to relocate to our island! His children are grown and he and his wife think it would be wonderful to live on a tropical island. I've told them some of what we endured there, but they still want to go, and Mr. Howell is happy to make them part of the 160 settlers for this first year.
Even more remarkable, our island will soon be officially known as "Brady's Island"! Mike writes that it's partly a tax dodge but Mr. Howell, Mr. Howell's accountant, and the lawyer, Mr. Mason, who's now living on the island, all recommend that name. Mike has as much ego as the average man, but this isn't something that he ever sought. Still, he thinks it would be a good legacy for our children, even if we end up leaving after two years.
He wants to adopt my girls, and I want to adopt his boys. We of course want them to remember (or in Bobby and Cindy's case know of) the parents they've lost, but Mike wants to be a real father to my daughters, and I want to be a real mother to his sons. We won't be able to make it official right away, but he's talked to Mr. Mason, who's willing to file the paperwork in Blenford, which will soon have a courthouse.
Blenford is the island Mrs. Smith bought from Balinkoff, and she's enlarged it through a project that even the mad doctor didn't consider. The Professor's dubious expertise has allowed her to use a system of drains and dams to expose more of the land, which she's quickly recruiting people to fill. So far the water is being held at bay, no pun intended, but it makes me nervous to think of the Skipper's ferry going back and forth twice a week, especially remembering the time the Professor thought our island was sinking. Mike, as an architect, has concerns, but he says Blenford seemed secure enough the one time he's visited so far.
Still, Brady's Island may end up being the safest place of all.