Author's notes…. As always, the original copyright holders retain their rights, and this is intended for the non-commercial enjoyment of the readers. Comments and reviews are always welcome, as long as they bear in mind that I am not a perfect typist, do not always get timelines right, muddle items from manga and anime without regard for canon, and have other personal quirks like my low sense of humour. I plan on staying on the ecchi side of things, but these last few entries are definitely mature in outlook.
While this is ostensibly a GI/OMG crossover, the goddesses are a minor active component of the story, which is focused on Gilligan and his running case of bad luck and misfortune.
A shout-out to Mary Rose, who gave a good review with a question that I could answer, which I did. As with all of my reviewers, I took a look at her profile and looked at the stories that she'd written. Not my taste but may appeal to some other of my readers. Hopefully, she'll stick around once I start showing my dry and ecchi sense of humour.
- Another fine mess you've gotten us into -
The visit to the Howells had actually gone well. Thurston immediately twigged to Gilligan having a wish but was squashed in his ambitions to secure the wish or to "guide" Gilligan in making it but the simple expedient of reminding him of all the times that Gilligan had managed to screw up instructions and what might happen with a wish, especially if Gilligan thought that he'd been tricked and decided to take it out on Thurston, leaving the actual details of that thought up to him. Lovie was concerned and was willing to spell the girls and the Captain in keeping an eye on Gilligan while he was convalescing, though with an odd glint and dreaminess in her eyes as she thought about her single-handedly nursing Gilligan back to health. A look that she discarded with a shudder and shake of her head when she realized that she'd drifted into a world of her own.
As the three were heading for the cliff path to get down to the beach, Mary Ann excused herself and dashed over to the supply shed, returning a minute later with three of the shovels that Gilligan, the Skipper and the Professor had created some time ago.
At the quizzical looks from her companions, she held up the shovels and said. "Look, I may be just a country girl, but I did read Nancy Drew and sneaked my brothers' Hardy Boys books, so I've got some basic detecting skills. Professor, you want to look in the container to see if the contents have been disturbed. Considering that it's a sand beach, if Lind had been putting everything back in a hurry, she may not have had time to make sure that no sand went into the container. When these containers were filled, I'm willing to be dollars-to-doughnuts that it was inside a warehouse, and not on a beach. So the first thing that we have to do is make absolutely sure that there is no way that we can accidentally put sand into the container when we open the doors."
She smirked and coked her left eyebrow at the others as they stared at her.
Ginger gave her a hug. "I knew you were smart but that certainly blows me away. Professor?"
Realizing that he now had two women looking at him with expectant looks, he knew that he had to say something. "If I had my lab, I'd have us in gloves and hazmat suits. However, good thinking, Mary Ann! It never occurred to me to think that through. No real evidence that Lind was here, but proof that someone was." He frowned a bit as he thought about how to open the container. "Guess that we need to dig out in front of the doors, say about six inches or so and big enough so that the doors will swing without touching the sand or the beach until they are well away. "
The ladies nodded and the set off for the beach, snagging some water bottles and work gloves as well.
One hour later…..
The now-sweaty threesome looked over their work and mutually decided that their efforts were good enough and stuck the shovels into the sand near where Gilligan had been resting and picked up his tool bag and went back to the doors and stared at them, taking in the large scores in the surface of the doors, both passing through the location of the locks and the handles.
The Professor put the tool bag down on the untouched section of sand and well away from where the doors would swing, and then checked the locks.
"Hmmmmmm…. Seems to have scores on the locks…." and then twisted the locks from side to side.
The locks promptly fell apart and dropped into the sand. The Professor picked up the parts and placed them off to the side on a cloth that they'd packed along. He came back and then looked at the handles and the shanks of the locks still holding them in place. Pulling the lock shanks out of the handles, he placed them on the cloth at returned to his location in front of the doors. He then looked over the doors again, sliding his hands over the scores and noting their depth and direction.
"Come on, Professor! The suspense is killing us!" went Ginger.
He looked over his shoulder at her. "You never read detective stories when you were young? Sherlock Holmes, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew? Sorry about going slow but I want to be absolutely sure that everything we do is not going to add anything to what is inside the container. Think of this as a crime scene and everything is evidence."
Ginger blushed, then got nudged by Mary Ann, who went "Guess who's going to play 'Detective and Suspect' next, and guess who's going to be the suspect and get skin-frisked for hidden weapons?"
Ginger snapped back while blushing even more, "and who's going to be the detective?"
Mary Ann smirked and blushed, when the Professor interrupted. "It sounds wonderful, but we have a job to do first. I'm going to unlatch the doors and swing them open. Keep close eyes for sand falling out."
Mary Ann and Ginger tool up positions behind the Professor and nodded at him when ready.
He twisted the locking fixture for one door and lifted the handle. "Ready?"
"Yes," they replied.
The Professor pulled back on the handle and then pulled the door out about six inches.
Mary Ann exclaimed, "we've got sand coming out, not a lot but some."
"OK, I'm going to swing the door and then do the other side, then we'll take a look at the sill and the floor behind the doors."
A couple deft movements and the Professor had unlatched the other door and then swung both doors outwards from the container as far as they would go and then squatted down with the ladies leaning over him and looking inside the container.
"We've got sand on the floor. And we've got sand in the seams between boxes at the end. Does that prove that Lind was here?", went Ginger.
The Professor stood. "Probably but not definitely. Does prove that the container was opened at some point in a sandy environment. Of course, if we had a gaseous spectrometer comparator handy, we could compare the sand inside the container to the sand outside from the beach….."
Ginger and Mary Ann both smacked the Professor's adjacent shoulders. "Joker," went Mary Ann. "Prat," went Ginger.
He shrugged. "What can I say? Let's start getting the boxes out of the container and into the cave, or at least until we find the box with a missing first aid kit. Okay?"
Another hour later…..
Ginger threw her arms out and shouted, "Hang on! Hang On! We've got a damaged box here!" She placed the box currently in her hands on the floor of the container and then waited for the others.
The others finished putting their boxes into the surrounding piles and scrambled over to where Ginger was standing inside of the container. Seeing the others arriving, she reached into the layer and pulled out the box in question and pulled it out of the surrounding boxes and then put it on the floor. It was obvious that the tape on the box lid had been cut and the box had been put back in a hurry.
Looking up at the others, she asked the question. "Guess that I need to open the box and see if we have first aid kits and one missing or someone's been lifting things in the warehouse."
Squatting down, she slid her fingers under the top flap and then pulled the box open.
Inside were plastic-wrapped boxes with one obviously missing. Ginger reached into the box and slowly pulled out of the packages and laid it beside the box, flipping it so that the top of the package was up.
Everyone drew a deep breath. The Professor quipped, "well, first aid kits. Want to bet that the models numbers match?"
Ginger looked up at him. "Guess that the Lind story hangs together, or does enough that we can believe it for now. What's next?"
The Professor looked a bit embarrassed and then said, "since we've cleared out about half of the container, we probably should get everything into the cave so we can sort through everything for anything useful. Good job, ladies. We can get the stuff that we've taken out into the cave, close the doors of the container and then break for lunch."
Ginger and Mary Ann started doing eye rolls and froze, looking at the half-empty container. Mary Ann nodded and smiled at the Professor.
"Well, we started out thinking that this was going to be another dreary day marooned on the island; but this is definitely shaping up to be an unusual day. Okay, another hour or so to tidy up, then back home for a bath and lunch. Then we'll watch Gilligan while the Skipper and Mister Howell help empty the rest of the container. Sound about right?"
The other two nodded. Ginger grinned "Sounds like a plan to me. I guess that tomorrow will be sorting through everything to find useful stuff. I'm hoping that there's clothing, especially unmentionables. Things are getting a bit 'threadbare' if you catch my drift."
The Professor had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed. "Might be a good idea to sort out things as they go into the cave. This container looks to be coming from a variety of sources, so there won't be a customs declaration for the container. Sorting by recipient or customs declaration sticker might help, but I have a feeling that we may have to open a box, see what's inside, and then find any other boxes that look the same."
Mary Ann looked at Ginger and snickered. "Sounds a lot like shopping and Christmas all wrapped up in one….. I've got dibs on anything going to Frederick's of Hollywood or Lily St. Cyr!"