Chapter 2- You Mean We're Never Getting Off?!
Back at camp, the others began to really worry when the Howells hadn't shown up all afternoon for lunch or dinner, and it was starting to get dark. The rainstorm hadn't let up any and they weren't sure what to do. The night was approaching quickly and they knew that their friends wouldn't be showing up anytime soon.
" I hope they're alright." MaryAnn worried. Gilligan stuck a comforting and on her back.
" You think they're mad or upset?" Ginger asked.
" What do you mean? What could we have done to upset them?" The Captain asked.
Ginger shrugged.
" Now that you mention it, the past few days they really haven't been out of their huts much. Maybe they were upset about something, maybe Mr. Howell lost some stock." MaryAnn said.
" Even still they would have said something about it, or we would have heard the news report. Mr. Howell is always vocal about his stock. " The professor said. He was stumped, they all were.
" Maybe they got lost?" Gilligan suggested earning an eye roll from the captain.
" Gilligan, whatever gave you that idea? How could they get lost, they walk the same path every day?! Oh of all your big hair-brained ideas. Maybe they were just wanting some privacy, after all, they are the only married couple on the island." Skipper said.
" I'm just saying skipper maybe they did get lost or maybe that gorilla took them? Or the boars?" Gilligan wondered.
As the Skipper lit into his scrawny first mate, the professor stopped them.
" You know it could be possible...I'm not saying it is, but maybe they did run into some trouble. I am concerned because that's two meals they've missed today and they don't have any water with them." he said.
The group was quiet. They weren't sure what to think.
" Tomorrow morning as soon as the sun is up, we should all split up and try to find the Howells. We saw them go on their walk so they couldn't have gone too far." he said hoping to calm everyone down. They came up with a plan, operation find the Howells.
….
The usually tough and gruff exterior millionaire was feeling a bit uneasy. His poor Lovey had hurt her ankle but they were thankfully able to find shelter and get some rest from the storm raging outside, thanks to this hut or whatever they were in.
He covered his wife with his sports coat as she slept and walked around the dim hut. He felt around his pocket and found a few matches the professor had given him and each of the men for emergencies. He found a very old candle near the window and lit it. He examined the hut. He found plies of papers and pictures.
He studied the yellowed and tattered papers closely and found a dusty journal. He sat by the candle lit window and looked over the journal. The first entry was from July 12th, 1920. His eyes went wide and skimmed until he found a half finished entry from December 3rd 1935. 15 years. He could barely make out what was on the page.
" Whoever finds this, I put up a good fight. My wife succumbed to a tropical island disease and by the time this is read, I'll have died too. The kids didn't make it either. We tried so hard. This island is no man's land. Once you make it on, you'll never get off. Our boat wreck started with 7 and ended with me. This island is-" Thurston gulped as he read the entry.
" Not even a yale man even deserves to go down like this.." he said to himself.
His wife began to stir on the bed he put her on. He hoped by tomorrow the storm would clear. He pulled the chair up by her bed and fell fast asleep.
The next morning sun peeked through the hut, revealing how lived in it was.
Everything they couldn't see in the night was revealed that morning. It was extremely dust.
Lovey was sitting up in the bed as she scanned the hut with her own eyes. She was shocked. It looked similar to the huts they lived in now, only this wasn't her hut. It belong to someone else.
" Thurston, I want to go home, to our hut. Not stay here, wherever here is." Lovey Howell said.
" I don't think we'll be able to go anywhere for awhile, not with your foot looking like that." Thurston pointed out. Her foot was probably broken.
" Well maybe you should just leave me behind and go find professor, or the others." Lovey said.
" Me? Leave you alone? I couldn't do that Lovey." He said. Thurston truthfully was too scared to walk by himself. They had walked close to 4 and a half hours the day before and fallen off the path. He really wasn't sure where they've ended up or how to get back to the path.
…
After breakfast, the 5 castaways sat coming up with a search plan.
" Mr. Howell has gone off before- but they went together. We all know what path they walk so let's try that first and see where we end up." Professor said.
They gathered some extra food and water up and set off.
"MR AND MRS. HOWELL!" Gilligan screamed into his big buddy's ear.
" Gilligan, for the last time YELL in the opposite direction I am, not in my ear you duntz." he said to Gilligan.
" MR. HOWELLLLL! MRS. HOWELL!" He yelled towards the jungle.
After walking close to three hours, they stopped at a resting point and munched on fresh fruit and coconut milk.
" Skipper, maybe some headhunters got them. Mr. Howell is always wagging his money around, do you think some big headhunter got him for his money?!" Gilligan asked.
His little comment worried Ginger and MaryAnn.
" Of course not Gilligan. They are around here. They've got to be." The captain said.
" Well we better start walking again. We don't want it to start getting dark when we're heading back." the professor said.
As they made their way up the path, professor saw something gleaming in some turned over dirt. It didn't look as though an animal disturbed it. He picked up what caught his eye. A broach.
The others gasped.
Professor stared down the long drop where it looks like someone had fallen.
"Professor you think something happened?!" Ginger worried.
" I am not sure… everyone watch your step…" he said as they all ventured down.
They made it to the bottom, it was going to be hard to get back up, the professor observed to himself.
They all stared around a cleared part of the jungle which was unusual and about 10 minutes in found several huts.
Their jaws dropped.
" S...S...Skipper! What are these huts doing here? I want to go back!" Gilligan said earning a hat to the head this time.
" MR. HOWELL, MRS. HOWELL!" they screamed.
…
Inside the hut, Thurston had been fast asleep holding his wife's hand. He heard yelling and jumped up. He ran to the window and saw his friends.
" Oh by George!" He ran out.
" Mr. Howell, you're alright! What is this place? You didn't tell us you were opening Howell Resorts.." The Skipper joked to lighten the mood as they all hugged the millionaire.
" Oh it was horrible- Lovey tripped and fell and she is hurt, so I tried to find us a place to go, and we stumbled upon these huts...apparently we aren't the only ones to have lived on this island!" The millionaire explained in haste as he led the others to the hut.
The others stood around taking it all in, while the professor looked over both Howells. He brought his medical bag so he wrapped Lovey's sprained foot and cleaned her cuts up.
" Gee, look at all this stuff." MaryAnn said as she looked at the papers on the table.
" A family was shipwrecked here. 5 kids. 2 of which were born right on this island. They lived here for 15 years before a tropical disease wiped them out. At least that's what was written in this journal." The millionaire said as he handed it to the professor.
The professor flipped right through the journal and skimmed it all. 15 years worth of entries out of this handmade journal. It had wooden ends and rough paper.
" Do you think they left behind anything useful? Stocks and bonds perhaps?" Thurston jokes earning an eye roll from everyone.
" I'm not sure I will need to look at everything more closely. However, we should examine these huts to see if we can find anything useful and maybe something to help us get off this island. It's been about 30 years since they all died, I don't know what kind of ship could be left, if there is one. But everything seems in pretty decent shape considering." the professor said.
" 7 people on the island, like us, 7.." Gilligan said. In his mind it was a bit creepy.
By hearing the word rescue though, the 7 were all a bit in a trance. A rescue was all that they wanted. Not 15 years on a deserted island. Once the professor got Mrs. Howell settled, he and the others went around to the huts and to the nearby shore seeing what they could find!
TBC…