First mate's log:

May 14, 1970

Today we took over some volunteers for the Blenford Friend in Need Society, a charity that Mrs. Smith started for tax purposes. They're doing a book collection drive right now, and so they wanted to get some donations from Brady's Island. Me and the Skipper still don't own a lot of books. Neither of us were ever big readers, and then we were marooned for four years and we hadn't brought a lot of books along. He had his nautical books of course, and I brought my comic books, but we're not going to part with those, and I don't think that that many people would want to buy them. (Well, I guess some people on the Mainland collect comic books, but mine aren't exactly "mint condition," except where I've dropped mint ice cream on them.) Anyway, there are still no bookstores on this island, and we hardly ever go to the ones on Blenford.

The BFINS workers got lots and lots of boxes of donations. They had to go around on foot because there's still no bus on our island. (Mr. Howell promises that that will start this summer, when the final explosion happens and we stop at about 1600. He'd love to keep tripling the population here, but Mrs. Howell objected about the island losing its charm. And the Professor has done studies, showing how far the island resources can be stretched.) The charity doesn't have its own boat, so we were shipping a lot more cargo than usual, but the Skipper didn't charge extra, because it's for charity.

They got two boxes from the Brady house alone. I thought it might be mostly kids' books and books about architecture and whatever Mrs. Brady and Alice read, but I noticed that one brown book on top said "Diary." I figured it was blank because why else would they be donating it? I bought it real cheap, just $1, and I'll use it when this one runs out of pages, probably this summer.

Gopher and the guys teased me about keeping a diary, but the Skipper made them shut up. He once tried to keep one when everyone found out that I keep one, and he and Ginger and maybe some other people wanted to tell their version of when the Japanese sailor was on our island. He admires my keeping one for almost six years. Anyway, the money is going to charity, so I can feel good about that.

Carol Brady's diary:

May 15, 1970

Well, it turns out that I'm not the only one in the family keeping a diary. Apparently when I had Greg and Marcia accompany Peter back to the Blenford Toy Store (where they were unable to dissuade him from accepting Mrs. Spencer's generosity), Marcia bought a diary at the stationery store next door, telling the boys that it was a notebook for school, which discouraged them from looking in the bag. As she described it to me today, the book has a faux leather brown cover and the word "DIARY" in big letters, so they obviously would've teased her about it, as my brother used to tease me about my diary.

We have what I think is a good, open relationship, even though she's thirteen, such a difficult age, but she probably wouldn't have told me about the diary if she hadn't had to. The Blenford Friend in Need Society came by yesterday, collecting for their book drive, and I was able to gather two boxes' worth of books that no one has read in ages, if ever. (Mike's brief botany period, after living among all these tropical plants and animals all these years, led to the purchase of The Flora and Fauna of Northwestern Australia.)

Unfortunately, after I walked away, Cindy found Marcia's diary hidden in the storage shed. She was trying to be helpful by giving it to the volunteer, and she's too young to read a word like "Diary." Marcia is furious with Cindy and is giving her the silent treatment. Jan feels torn between her sisters. Peter and Bobby bought Marcia a notebook at Garst's General Store, but I explained to them that that's not the same thing, especially since Marcia wants the specific memories in her journal. Greg was less supportive, since I overheard him teasing Marcia about writing about her crushes.

I talked to Marcia one-on-one about all this.

"You don't understand, Mom. My most private, personal thoughts are out there, for any stranger to see."

"I do understand, Marcia. I kept a diary when I was your age."

"Did you write about the boys you liked?"

"Yes, especially one I ended up dating in high school, Tank Gates."

She giggled. "What kind of name is Tank?"

"He was very brawny, even at thirteen."

"Does Dad know?"

"About Tank? No, I've never discussed any of my past boyfriends with Mike, except your father of course."

"No, I mean about you keeping a diary when you were young."

I wanted to say that I'm still young, but I know mid-30s is middle-aged, especially to a young teenager. "Well, I think he suspects I still keep a diary, but we've never discussed it." (And I obviously don't write in you in front of him.)

Her eyes widened. "Really, Mom?"

"Yes, many adults keep diaries, both men and women."

"Then you should understand why I'm mad at Cindy."

"I do but I think you should remember that she's just a little girl who means well. Also, maybe whoever buys your diary will put an ad in The Blenford Bugle about it."

"But they'll have to read my diary first!"

Now I was getting a little worried. "You are just writing about crushes, right?" I think of Marcia as a little girl, although more grown up than Cindy of course, but teens today face challenges my generation didn't, and even on our quiet little island, the world is changing.

She blushed. "Well, I did say I want to grow up to be Mrs. Desi Arnaz, Jr."

That little boy I still remember the birth of is now 17, and he's on Here's Lucy, playing Lucy's son. We get reruns on BITV. "I had crushes on celebrities when I was your age, too, like Cary Grant."

"Well, he's still pretty cute for an old guy."

I shook my head, even as I realized that Cary had a brief marriage and his only child with Dyan Cannon while I was marooned on this island, and this fifth and so far last wife is actually younger than I am. "Anyway, I'd like you to at least stop the silent treatment with Cindy."

"Is it OK if I yell at her?"

"No."

When Mike got home from a meeting at Mr. Howell's about the final construction this summer and I told him what happened, he said that he'd go over to the BFINS office during open hours today and ask them about recent collections. However, when he returned, it was empty-handed. He explained that he found out that the charity sells their book donations by the box to the six bookstores on Blenford, which are all both new & used, due to the nature of Blenford's isolation with limited contact with the outside world. (More contact than on our island of course.) Unfortunately, the books are sorted by size and general type first, and they don't keep exact records of where each book came from or went, since the volunteers' time is limited.

He suggested we take Marcia and Cindy with us to Blenford tomorrow, since it's a Saturday and the girls won't be in school but the bookstores will be open. He and Marcia will go to three bookstores and Marcia and I will do the others. There's a good chance that the diary won't have been sold yet. I told Marcia, and she feels a little better, although she's still worried about a bookstore owner reading her diary. At least she's promised to be civil to her baby sister on the boat ride over tomorrow, but I'm not too optimistic about the ride back.

May 16, 1970

Wow, what a surprising day! It started with a conversation with Gopher on the outgoing Saturday run.

"Hey, Gilligan, can I talk to you about something that Mary Ann told me?"

I sure hoped it wasn't about all the times Mary Ann and I used to kiss. "Uh, sure."

"It's about your diary."

I tried not to panic. I mean, Mary Ann knows I keep a diary, from that time where she found it and read it to everyone to prove I was writing nice things about them. But she doesn't know about the really nice things I've written about her. "My diary?"

"Yeah, sorry for teasing you about it the other day, but I think you bought Marcia Brady's."

"Marcia's?"

"Yeah, Mary Ann says that Candy, the little one—"

"You mean Cindy?"

"Right, Cindy. Well, Mary Ann told me that Marcia confided in her about being real upset that her little sister accidentally gave away Marcia's diary to charity. And Mary Ann only told me because she thought maybe the BFINS volunteers used our ferry."

"You didn't tell Mary Ann I bought the diary, did you?"

"No, no, I didn't want to get her or Marcia's hopes up in case it turned out to be a different diary. But can you check when you get home?"

"Yeah, sure."

Then on the way back, we took another celebrity, Desi Arnaz, Jr.! I remember being a little kid when his mom had him and Lucy had Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. He didn't play that baby, but now he's her son on her new show. He's going to appear on a bunch of shows on BITV next week, from Ginger's talk show to her soap opera, sometimes as himself and sometimes acting. Mary Ann told Ginger that Marcia is a big fan. If I were Marcia, I might not want to confide in Mary Ann anymore, because she's not very good at keeping kids' secrets. Then again, if Mary Ann hadn't spilled the beans, then I wouldn't have been able to have Desi Jr. stop by my house before going to visit the Bradys' and he wouldn't have been able to return Marcia's diary. (I just peeked at the first page, where she was complaining about Peter's swelled head.)

May 22, 1970

It's been a week since the situation with Marcia's diary was resolved, but I've been too busy to check in with my own diary. We didn't have any luck with the Blenford bookstores. None of the owners remembered selling or even seeing her diary. She was indeed back to giving Cindy the silent treatment on the way home. Mike suggested the diary might've just been thrown out, which Marcia didn't find comforting, although that might at least mean no one read it.

Then when we got home, Alice said she had a surprise for Marcia, and escorted us all into the family room. Desi Arnaz, Jr. was standing there, holding Marcia's diary! He got it from Gilligan, who you may recall has been keeping a diary on the island as long as I have. Gilligan swears he bought it thinking it was blank and he only read the first page, and Desi said he didn't open it at all. He was planning to visit anyway because he was going to spend the next week (this current week) doing guest shots on BITV. Ginger met Lucille Ball when Ginger returned to Hollywood after our rescue and did a cameo on Lucy's show as herself. (It's a good episode and we all got a kick out of it of course.) Anyway, Desi thought it'd be fun to go to a tropical island and play a bunch of different roles for a week.

BITV didn't promote it right away, just in case something came up and he couldn't make it to the island. But I guess Ginger found out that Marcia is a fan, although I don't think she knows the extent of Marcia's crush. So Marcia is a very happy girl, especially since Desi was very sweet to her and even, after Mike and I left the room (although we and Alice listened from the kitchen, and the other kids watched from the back yard), gave her a kiss on the cheek! She's more star-struck than ever and still hasn't washed that cheek.

And, yes, I'm keeping you extra well hidden after this experience.