It had been a year since the castaways had been rescued from the island. After a chance encounter with a coast guard naval helicopter had discovered them floating on their large raft that they built in hopes out racing an incoming tsunami which wiped out the island that they had been trapped on for fifteen years.
A year since they had returned to their normal lives trying to pick up where they had lost off.
Gilligan and the Skipper had bought a new boat which they named the Minnow II. They were now equal partners. At least on paper. The Skipper still viewed him as his little buddy though that bumbling buffoon he had been when they had first washed up on the shore on the island was long gone.
The years on the island had taken its toll on William Gilligan like it did all of them. He stopped being the dumb kid that he was around the fourth or fifth year of their exile. After facing off with a mad scienctist, a big game hunter who wanted to kill him, head hunters from the nearby islands, and a Russian spy who had been surgically alerted to look like him his innocence died.
He had reestablish contact with his family only to learn that his parents had died one year before their rescue. His brother was killed in Vietnam leaving behind a young widow and two little boys. One of which he named William.
They lived in New Jersey where his sister and her family lived. He had spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. He loved getting to know his nephew and nieces.
And it was because of them that he was in New York. That he was walking up to the front door of their mansion. He raised his hand to know on the thick oak and hesitated. Maybe this is a mistake he thought. The Skipper is right I should not bother the Howells with this. He would probably hit me with hat if he knew I came out here against his wished.
Stop it he thought. You are thirty six year old man not a kid. A thirty year six year old man about to get married to the only woman you ever loved. A woman who fully supported you coming here and would be here herself if she did not have to work.
I don't care what the Skipper thinks. This is something I have to do. And if he doesn't like fine. Perhaps it's time for us to part company. Mary Anne and I can start our own tour boat company.
Gilligan knocked on the door and an older man answered it. "Mister Gilligan."
"Hi Jeeves." He said.
"Come in." The butler said and stepped aside to allow him in. "Were they expecting you."
"No." Gilligan shook his head.
"Why don't you wait in the drawing room and I will let them know you are here."
"Thank you Jeeves."
I'm doing the right thing he thought as he walked in.
Gilligan walked into the drawing room and his eyes fell on a mantle above the fireplace which was lined with pictures. Pictures of them and the other castaways. One from the parade in Honolulu when they were first rescued. Another of him and Skipper on the Minnow II at its inagural launch. One attended by both Mary Jane and Ginger.
The professor at his new job at Harvard teaching psychics. He was loving the fact that he could be a pure academic once again. That he did not have to worry about keeping them alive from disease or fighting gigantic spiders.
Ginger on the set of her newest picture with two young movie stars named Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood. She was dating a director of one of her films and believed that he will propose soon.
Which Gilligan thought was kick but that's Hollywood.
A picture of him and Mary Anne when they attended a air show. A air show that wrong way Feldman was at too. The last he heard he had disappeared once again but Gilligan was sure he would be back. He always came back.
"Gilligan." Eunice Howell said as they walked in.
"Hey Mrs. Howell." Gilligan smiled as he gave her a hug.
"Its so good to see you my boy." Thurston Howell said as he gripped his hand firmly. "Is the Skipper or Mary Anne with you?"
"No." Gilligan said. "Skipper does not I came here." He said as they sat down. "Mary Anne would have come but couldn't because of work." A maid brought in a tray of drinks and handed it to Gilligan. "Thank you." He then took a sip and said "She sends her love."
"So how are you plans for the wedding coming along?" Eunice Howell asked.
"Good." Gilligan said. "Very good."
"Are you getting excited?" Thurston asked.
"Yes." He said. "And a little nervous."
"Well if you can face off with a group of gangsters a wedding is nothing." Thurston said.
"True."
"So what brings you here?" Thurston asked.
"I've been thinking a lot about our time on the island." Gilligan said. "The people we met over the years. Out of all the people who we crossed paths with there is one has been on my mind ever since we returned to Hawiia."
"Who?" Thurston asked but he and his wife had a guess who it was.
"The Jungle boy." Gilligan said. The jungle boy was a young teen they had met during their first year on the island. They had no idea who he was or how he came to the island. They believed that he must have come as a young child but we were not sure how he had managed so long on his own. He lived deep in the jungle but they never did find out where.
Any evidence that may have led to his identity was probably gone now. Sunk to the bottom of the Pacific with the island.
"There has not been a day that has gone by that I have not thought about him." Gilligan told them. "I kept wanting to come out and talk to you guys about him but Skipper kept telling me not to bother you with it." A look of annoyance crossed his face. "And then I was with my family and I was looking at my nephew Thomas thinking how he was the same age as the jungle boy when we last saw him."
"Actually we have been thinking about him too." Thurston said.
"We were discussing him just the other night with our son Thurston and his wife. Wondering what happened to him after he was rescued from the hot air balloon, did he go to college, is he married, a father."
"I wondered that too." Gilligan said. "He probably wouldn't even remember us but I just want to make sure that he is okay." He then looked at the Howells his eyes pleading with them. "Can you find him?"
"Yes." Thurston said. "Yes we can."
A look of relief crossed his face. "Thank you." He then stood up and hugged the two.
Gilligan had dinner with the Howells and then went back to his hotel where he called Mary Anne. She was happy to learn that the Howells were going to help him find him. That he can finally stop worrying about the boy and feeling guilty over letting him fly off on the hot air balloon that day.
I just hope that he's led a happy life these fifteen years.
The next day Gilligan returned to the Minnow II. The Skipper was overseeing a couple of the younger deckhands as they scrubbed the deck. "Hey Skipper."
"Hey Gilligan." Jonas Grumby said. "How was your trip to New Jersey?"
Gilligan gave the mountain of a man an uncomfortable look as he said "I didn't go to New Jersey."
"Oh." Jonas said. "Where did you go?"
Gilligan's stomach began to tighten into knots. Like they always did right before he received a beating with his hat. Stop you are not some twenty year old kid anymore. You are an adult. Act like one. "I went to see the Howells."
"You did what?" Jonas said with irritation in his voice. "Why did you go see them?"
Why do I need to explain myself to you he thought. I am thirty seven year old man. I can see anyone who I want and I don't owe you an explanation.
"I went to talk to them about the Jungle Boy."
"What!" He yelled making the two young deckhands jump. "I told you not to bother them with that nonsense."
"I know." Gilligan said refusing to be intimidated by the angry man. "But I went anyway."
"Against my express orders."
"I'm not your child Jonas." Gilligan said. "You can't tell me what to do."
"I am the Skipper of those boat and you will obey my orders." Jonas' face turned bright red.
"Yes on this boat." Gilligan said. "But I would I do in my private life is none of your business."
"Excuse me." Jonas looked at him in shock. "How dare you talk to me like this."
"I can talk to you however I please." Gilligan said. "I'm not your employee. I'm your business partner."
"I don't care I'm still the captain of this vessel and you are still my first mate." Jonas said.
"I think its time you found a new first mate." Gilligan said.
"What?"
"I think it's time for our partnership and our friendship to end." Gilligan said. "You can buy me out."
His face fell and stuttered. "Gilligan..."
"We're not on the island anymore Jonas." He said. "And I am tired of being your lackey. I think it's time that I became a Skipper."
"Wait Gilligan I'm sorry..." Jonas said.
Gilligan blinked. He had known him for close for twenty years and he had never once apologized in all that time.
"Don't do anything rash." He said.
"I'm not." Gilligan said. "I've been thinking about doing this for a long time. You just helped me to finally make it." He then turned around to leave.
"Gilligan don't go."
Gilligan ignored him as he walked down the pier finally feeling free.
Later that night at their apartment Mary Anne sat handed him a glass of wine and then sat next to him. "So you are ending your partnership with the Skipper."
"Yes." He said. "It's over?"
"Are you sure this what you want?" Mary Anne questioned.
"I have never been more certain of anything else." Gilligan said. "Except my love for you."
"You've known him for a long time."
"Yes I have." Gilligan said. "For close to twenty years. And for twenty years he has been nothing but an angry, controlling blowhard and I am done." He then took a sip of his wine.
"Well I am happy that you finally stood up to him." Mary Anne said. She thought how there were so many time on the island that she had wished had done that. So many times that she wanted to scream at the Skipper to stop bossing him around so much. To stop treating him like he was a twelve year old. But she did not think it was her place.
"Thank you."
"So what now?" She asked.
"I can start my own charter company." Gilligan said. "But a boat start taking people on tours or fishing trips."
"And hopefully don't get shipwrecked on a desert island." She smiled.
"Hopefully not." Gilligan said.
The phone then rang. "I'll get it." Gilligan said. He got up and walked over to the phone. "Gilligan residence."
"Gilligan good news." Thurston Howell said. "We found him."
His said in disbelief. "You did."
"Yes I did my boy." He said.
"That was fast." Gilligan said. He thought it would take months to find him.
"I was able to contact friends in the state government." Thurston said. "He's alive and living on the main island."
The main island he thought. He's been living on the big island all this time. He's been so close to us this entire time.
You were wrong Jonas he thought. This was not a waste of time.
The next day Gilligan and Mary Anne were heading out of their apartment when to go to the airport when they stopped by the Skipper. "I have nothing to say to you." Gilligan said with a sneer.
Gilligan tried to walk past him only for the Skipper to stand in his way. "Gilligan please hear me out." He then placed his hand on his chest.
"Get your hand off me." He knocked his hand back to the Skipper's shock.
"Sorry." Jonas said. "I just want to talk to you."
"Well I can't talk to right now." Gilligan said. "We have to go the big island."
"For what?" Jonas asked.
"If you must know the Howells found the boy." Gilligan said.
"They did?" He seemed shock.
"Yes they did." Mary Anne said.
"Well let's go see him." Jonas said.
"Hold on." Gilligan said. "Mary Anne and I are going to see him. You called my wanting to find him nonsense remember."
"I know I said that and I am sorry." Jonas said with chagrin in his voice. "It was just..."
"Just what." Gilligan began to shake with rage. "I can't stand that I actually had an idea own my own. That I wanted to do something without your blessing."
"Gilligan stop acting like this."
"Stop telling me what to do." Gilligan scowled.
Jonas looked at Mary Anne and said "Mary Anne talk some sense into him."
"He doesn't need sense talked into him." Mary Anne said giving him a withering look. "Nor does he needed it beaten into him anymore. Just leave us alone Jonas."
And with that the two walked to their car. Gilligan opened the door for her and then walked around to the driver's side. He glowered at the Skipper once more before getting in.
A couple of hours later on the big island Gilligan and Mary Anne walked around a house to the backyard where a blonde haired man was watching as two young kids played. He looked at the two of them for a few moments and then a large smile broke out across his face.
"Gilligan, Mary Anne." He then walked over to them with his arms stretched and took them in his arms. Tears were in his eyes as he pulled back from them. "I've been waiting for this day for fifteen years."
"So have we." Gilligan said. "So have we."
The three then hugged again as the tears streamed down their faces.Tap here to start writing