3. Smaller

11:20 AM day 1

"Thanks for helping me with the laundry, Gilligan." Mary Ann said as they walked from the lagoon to the cloths line. Gilligan carried the basket of clean, wet clothes under his arm. "You're so sweet." She flashed him a brilliant smile.

He blushed slightly. "Oh, it's nothing. I don't have anything else to do."

"Oh!" Mary Ann gave a frustrated stomp of her foot as they reached the clothesline. "I forgot the cloths pins." As she hurried off down the trail she called over her shoulder. "I'll be right back!"

Gilligan set the basket down as Mary Ann disappeared into the jungle foliage. A bunch of bananas caught his eye and he realized how long it had been since breakfast and lunch was another hour away. He had to stand on his tiptoes and stretch till his side hurt before he was able to pull one away from the bunch.

When he was about halfway through his banana Mary Ann stepped into the clearing carrying a small bag full of cloths pins. She glanced at his snack as she set the bag in the laundry basket. "That looks good. I think I want one." She glanced around, found the hanging bunch and started toward it.

"Let me get that for you Mary Ann."

"That's okay. I've got it." To Gilligan's confusion she reached up, stretching slightly, and picked the yellow fruit.

Gilligan frowned. She should not have been able to reach that high. He had stood on his tiptoes and even then he had to stretch. And he was taller than Mary Ann...wasn't he? If he could barely reach it, surely she couldn't.

"What's wrong, Gilligan? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Uh, Mary Ann?"

"Yes?"

"What have you been eating lately?"

She frowned slightly at the odd question. "Just coconuts, bananas, pineapples and fish like everybody else." She held up the banana in her hand as an example. "Why?"

"I think you're getting bigger."

Her mouth dropped open and her frown turned from one of confusion to outrage. First she was shocked at the uncalled for insult. Gilligan just didn't say mean things like that. Part of her wanted to cry and the other part wanted to slap him across the face. The former dominated. She tried to hide the tears welling up in her eyes as she shoved both hands on her hips. It wasn't so much the insult that bothered her, but that it was Gilligan who had said it. "That wasn't a very nice thing to say!" Her voice cracked slightly before the dam broke and tears ran down her cheeks.

Gilligan was horrified and baffled by her reaction. "What? What's wrong? What did I do?"

"You'd be upset too if you were a girl and somebody called you fat."

"I said that?" He wondered if he was losing what little memory he had.

"Of course, you did. Just a second ago." Her tears stopped as her confusion grew. How could he deny something he had just said? "You said I'm getting bigger."

"Oh, that!" He shook his head, glad that this was a misunderstanding he could easily remedy. "I didn't mean you were fatter, I meant taller. I think you're taller than me."

"Don't be silly, Gilligan. I'm not taller than you." But as the words escaped her mouth it hit her like a ton of coconuts. Being short statured as she was Mary Ann usually had to look up at people. But she realized at that moment that she was looking ever so slightly down at Gilligan. "I...I think you're right." She stammered after a moment. "How tall are you?"

"Five eleven. And you?"

Her eyes grew wide. "Last time I checked I was five four. I am growing!"

"Maybe you're just having a growth spurt." Gilligan said, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation. "That's when you start growing really fast."

"I know what a growth spurt is. But I'm twenty-one. I thought I was done growing."

He shrugged. "Maybe your not as grown up as you thought you were."

"But this is the first time I've even grown an inch since I was seventeen!" Her voice began to rise with her worry. "And now I've grown at least seven inches!"

"Don't worry Mary Ann." He could see her rising panic and wanted to calm her down. "A few inches never hurt anybody. I mean, kids grow all the time."

Although still nervous his words helped a little. "Maybe you're right. A few inches aren't going to hurt."

"Right." He paused and his face fell slightly. "Unless you caught some weird tropical disease that makes you grow really, really fast and in the next coupla days you'll get so big that..." Gilligan's voice trailed off as that horrible picture impressed itself on his mind.

"Oh!" Mary Ann cried, becoming frightened again.

He grabbed her hand and dragged her back toward camp "Let's go see the Professor!"

11:30 day 1

They were back in the Professor's hut. This time it was Mary Ann who was sitting on the table. The Professor had been quiet during the examination and Gilligan and the Skipper paced anxiously.

"I've got some good news and some bad news." The Professor announced after a few moments.

"Tell us the good news first." Gilligan said, before Mary Ann had a chance to react.

"Mary Ann is fine. She's not growing."

The young farm girl let out a sigh of relief.

"What's the bad news?" The Skipper asked.

"Gilligan is shrinking."

Three jaws dropped in disbelief. "Shrinking!?"