Numb with shock, Ginger could only listen as the nurse continued discussing pre-op appointments, consent forms, and other legalities. As soon as all the arrangements had been made, she dialed Mary Ann's telephone number in Ohio, praying that the brunette would be home. She couldn't imagine having to face major surgery without the support of her best friend.

In Ohio, Mary Ann was doing needlework while watching Dawn and Dusty play. She answered on the second ring.

"Oh, Mary Ann, you won't believe what's happened!" Ginger exclaimed after Mary Ann had said hello.

"What is it?" asked Mary Ann.

"I've got cancer!" Ginger gasped. "They're gonna take my uterus out!"

"Oh, Ginger, I'm so sorry!" Mary Ann replied. "When's it gonna happen?"

"I go for a pre-op in a couple of days," Ginger told her. "They'll schedule surgery then."

"I'll tell Roy just as soon as he gets home," Mary Ann said. "I'm sure he'll be able to take some time off so that we can fly to California."

Roy could tell that something was seriously wrong as soon as he saw his wife's face. In the more than twenty years they'd known one another, they'd both become quite skilled at reading one another's moods.

"What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Ginger called," she replied. "She has cancer and is gonna have to have surgery soon. I told her we'd fly out to see her if we could."

"Of course we will," Roy assured her. "Poor girl! What kind of cancer does she have?"

"Uterine. They're gonna have to do a hysterectomy."

Roy gave a low whistle. "Well, at least she already has Audrey."

"Yes, but I know she never would have wanted this."

"Are you talking about Ginger Grant, the actress?" Roger asked excitedly. He was the twenty-year-old son of Roy's brother who'd moved in with the family a couple of years previously to attend the university where Roy taught.

"Yes," Roy told his nephew.

"I've always wanted to meet her," said Roger. "I guess now would be a bad time..."

"Oh, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if you came along with us," Mary Ann assured him.

After dinner she called her cousin Cindy who lived in Kansas with her husband, Gilligan. "Mary Ann! What a lovely surprise!" Cindy exclaimed.

"Who is it, Mommy?" five-year-old April asked loudly.

"It's your cousin Mary Ann from Ohio," her mother told her with her hand over the receiver. "Now shush and let me talk to her."

"I'm afraid it isn't good news, Cindy," Mary Ann told her cousin. "Ginger Grant just found out she has cancer and has to have surgery."

"That's that actress who was rescued with you, right? I'll tell Gilligan right away! Gilligan, hon?"

Mary Ann heard a series of crashing noises, then Gilligan's voice. "Ow!"

"Are you all right, hon?" Cindy asked anxiously.

"That's OK." Gilligan giggled sheepishly. "I guess I didn't need that toe anyway,."

"Mary Ann's on the phone," Cindy told her husband. "She says Ginger has cancer and has to have surgery."

"What? Ginger has cancer?" Gilligan snatched the receiver away from his wife. "Mary Ann?"

"It's true, Gilligan," Mary Ann told her friend. "Ginger has cancer and they're gonna do a hysterectomy."

"What's that?"

"It's where they take her uterus out. She won't be able to have any more children."

"Poor Ginger! And the only baby she ever had was Audrey!"

"Well, that's just the way it worked out," Mary Ann replied. "She had Audrey, and then it was a long time before we were rescued, and by the time she and Igor finally got back together, he'd already had the rest of his family with another woman."

"But poor Ginger never had any more babies, and now she never can!"

"That's right. Roy and I want to visit her soon."

"So do I!" Gilligan exclaimed.

At the Howell's mansion, the maid answered the telephone, then immediately passed it to Mrs. Howell.

"Oh, dear, is she really?" Mrs. Howell asked a minute later. "Poor girl! Oh, yes, don't worry about that. We certainly will, and we'll buy tickets for Gilligan and his family to go as well. I'll tell Thurston right away!"

"What is it, Lovey?" asked her husband as he strolled into the sitting room in his dinner jacket.

"Ginger is very ill," his wife told him. "She has cancer of the feminine parts. I told Mary Ann we'd be there as soon as possible and that we'd buy tickets for the Gilligans to go as well."

"Of course we will!" Thurston agreed. "The poor dear!"

In Hawaii, Skipper Jonas Grumby was happy to hear Mary Ann's voice. Although the former castaways had stayed in touch regularly for the first couple of years following their rescue, contact with one another had become less and less frequent as they'd all become readjusted to their normal lives, so Jonas was especially glad to hear from them on the increasingly rare occasions when one of them contacted him.

"Hey, Mary Ann! What's up?"

"Ginger's got cancer, Skipper. She's gonna have to have surgery soon."

"Oh, no! Poor girl! I sure wish there was something I could do to help!"

"Roy and I are flying to California to be with her while she's going through all this. Gilligan and the Howells are planning to go too."

"Well, you can certainly count me in as well!"