First mate's log:

May 22, 1972

Late yesterday afternoon, Bobby Brady told me that he bribed his classmate Tommy Jamison to pretend to be the secret admirer, and Tommy actually thinks Cindy is "pretty neato for a girl." That definitely worked out better than it did for the Howells.

He dropped by to invite me to see a reconstruction of the boat accident his mom had with Mr. Duggan.

"My dad thinks that if we act it out, then we can figure out what really happened. And since you kinda saw the real accident, we want you to watch this one."

I had a little time before the next ferry left, so I brought my bag of pretzels with me, and Bobby and I split them on the way back to the lagoon. The Bradys have two boats, so Greg was going to steer one of them to pretend to be Mr. Duggan. Mrs. Brady would of course be on the other boat, with Marcia, Bobby, and Cindy. Greg invited Peter along, but he didn't want to have anything to do with Mr. Duggan, even in pretend. But I climbed on board when Greg invited me, so I had a much closer view than I did with the real accident.

I couldn't tell exactly what was going on on the other boat, but it looked like Bobby and Cindy were arguing about something. I later found out that they were arguing about whether Bobby spilled ice cream on Cindy, because that's what happened the day of the accident. It turns out that they were so distracted by their fight, they weren't really paying attention to what their mother, or Mr. Duggan, was doing. So it seems that they wouldn't be very good witnesses, but that does mean that they won't have to worry about causing further trouble for their poor mom.

There was almost another accident, because Mr. and Mrs. Brady were yelling back and forth about this discovery and not paying attention to what Greg was doing, but I got him to stop before he rammed into the other boat. The worst thing that was happened is I lost some pretzels overboard. Then the Skipper bellowed, "Little Buddy, what the heck are you doing? The ferry's about to leave!"

So Greg took me ashore and I had to hurry off. I didn't find out about the ice cream until I talked to Bobby again today. I'm still not sure if I'll have to testify, but at least now the youngest Brady kids definitely won't have to.

Carol Brady's diary:

May 24, 1972

Well, we did a reenactment of the boat accident. And it turns out that Bobby and Cindy didn't witness anything, since they were squabbling about the ice cream. I wish we'd realized this earlier, but I do feel better about my steering and everything. And, yes, we're going forward with the court case. We'll let Bobby and Cindy, as well as Marcia, have the day off from school, even though they won't be testifying. It'll still be an educational experience.

Marcia did a wonderful job in bringing out the best in Molly Webber, who's now a fashionable and confident girl. Unfortunately, Molly's rival for hostess of the Banquet Night has to leave the island before the end of the school year because she's going to be a bridesmaid at her older sister's wedding, back on the mainland.

"So that means that Molly will be the hostess, right?"

"No, Mom, now she'll have to compete against the girl who came in third."

"Oh, well, I'm sure she'll still win, with all your help."

"I don't know about that."

"Why, who's the girl?"

"You're looking at her."

"Oh dear. What are you going to do?"

She went through the pros and cons, without letting me say anything else. But I guess I was a good sounding board, because she decided to drop out and not compete with her new friend.

May 26, 1972

Marcia told me that she's now competing with Molly for hostess. The other girl had to drop out and Marcia planned to, but Molly has now become conceited and ungrateful.

"I thought of her as a friend, but she's not acting like it, now that she's so popular. I mean, yes, she had a lot of potential, but I'm the one who brought it out in her."

"So you're still gonna run against her?"

"Well, yeah, Jan thinks I should. Especially since the guest of honor is going to be Sol Tobias."

"Is that a singer like Davy Jones?"

She laughed. "No, don't you remember? That's the astronaut who thought we were wishing him a happy birthday."

"Oh, right." It was about four and a half years ago. I accidentally set myself on fire and turned "SOS" into "SOL," which NASA thought was a greeting to one of the astronauts on a space capsule that passed over our island.

"He's going to be visiting the island and he's agreed to be at the banquet. And he's young and good-looking."

"So is that why you're competing?"

"Well, yes, and also I don't think Molly should just take becoming hostess for granted. She deserves a little competition."

"Well, good luck."

"Thanks, Gilligan. We'll meet with the judges next week. I don't have much time to prepare myself, but at least it'll be a three-day weekend for Memorial Day."

Considering how long it took her to get Molly ready, and how long Ginger took with Eva, I don't see how she'll manage it, even if she doesn't have to do as much work on herself.

May 28, 1972

Well, Marcia changed her mind about competing with Molly, so she's preparing herself to face the panel of judges on Tuesday. She's really struggling with her speech, even though she's a very good writer, as proven by her not only being editor of the school paper but by her winning that Father of the Year essay when she was younger. She says the problem is she "used up all her good words" for Molly. I advised her to think about her own unique qualities, what would make her the best banquet hostess.

The other challenge is she has to dance formally, "a waltz" was what she requested me and Mike to demonstrate. We did a simple box step, which Mike then practiced with Marcia. I wish we went dancing over on Blenford more often, but it's hard to find the time. Anyway, Marcia is a great dancer (she takes after me, ha ha) and she picked it up quickly.

May 30, 1972

Marcia told me about the audition or whatever it was for banquet hostess. "...They said it was a tie, until we gave our speeches. And they liked Molly's better!"

"The one you helped her write?"

"Yeah."

"That's too bad. But at least it's better than if she 'won' without really have an opponent."

"I guess but I'm still disappointed."

"That makes sense, but you did pretty well considering how little time you had."

She nodded but didn't look any happier.

May 31, 1972

Marcia lost the competition for banquet hostess, but she tried her best, which sometimes is all you can do.

And things turned out all right after all. Molly came to her senses, just like my own children have when too much praise has gone to their heads. She apologized for how she's been acting and she told her that she explained to the judges how much Marcia helped her. So this year there are going to be two banquet hostesses!

Since the banquet is only a few days away now, Marcia and I will go over to Blenford after school today and find a nice long formal dress for her to wear. My biggest little girl is growing up, and I couldn't be prouder of her.