Sixteen years ago...
Gilligan watched in horror as the balloon slowly lifted off from the island with the jungle boy inside. No, no, no he thought as he raced to the balloon as quickly as his legs could carry him. Skipper yelled at him to stop but he ignored him. He could not allow the balloon to leave the island with the boy in it. He had to stop it.
He quickly grabbed the thick vines that hung from the basket that the boy was in hoping to pull the balloon down to the island. He tried to pull it only to find himself lifting off the ground.
"Gilligan let go." The Skipper yelled.
No Gilligan thought as he desperately hung onto the vine. I just need to get into the basket. Once I am in the basket I'll land the balloon and get the boy out and then send it off with the letter like we planned.
Skipper continued to order him to let go but Gilligan ignored him as he tried to climb the rope. Just like the rope climb in gym class he thought. You were always good at the rope climb. Just a few more inches and you will be in the basket. His mouth went dry as the balloon continued to lift higher, his heart pounded in his chest and his hands began to sweat.
"You're going to get yourself killed." Skipper yelled.
Don't care Gilligan thought. I'll never forgive myself if anything happened to the boy. I will never be able to look myself in the mirror if he crashes into the ocean or lands one of the other island with the headhunters and the witch doctors.
I won't let him his thought interrupted by his hand slipping from the vine. "No!" He screamed as he felt himself begin to fall. He desperately tried to grasp the vines again but a wind took them from his grasps. He let out a series of expletives which he was sure would have turned Mrs. Howell's ears bright red.
He then hit the ground and let out a cry of pain.
"Gilligan." Skipper yelled as he and the girls ran to him. He helped him to his feet and scornfully said "What were you thinking. You could have been killed."
"I'm sorry." Gilligan said. Not to the Skipper of course. This was one of the first times that he did not care that he was upset with him. It was to the jungle boy as he watched him slowly float over the lagoon towards the ocean. "I'm so sorry."
The Skipper then said something that he never imagined he would hear from his lips in a million years. "It's not your fault Gilligan." Gilligan blinked at him in surprise. He questioned if he had him right. He looked at the girls and Mrs. Howell who were stunned too.
He was sure he was going to be blamed for this. That the Skipper would have unleashed his unholy wrath upon him for not keeping a better eye on the boy. That he would be scolded by the group for screwing up again.
But there were no lectures, no blame, no accusatory looks. Mary Anne just hugged him as they silently watched the balloon float off into the distance.
"Godspeed, my boy." Mister Howell said somberly. Gilligan looked into his eyes and saw that they too were filled with fear and anxiety.
The balloon soon disappeared from the island and the Professor softly said "Come on Gilligan let' get you checked out."
"Okay." He said as he allowed Professor Hinkley to lead him away.
"You think he will be okay?"
"I don't know." The Professor said. "I hope so."
Gilligan looked back one more time and thought I pray so.
"I floated in that balloon for two days before I landed on the deck of an aircraft carrier." The former jungle boy whose name was Kurt told them. His wife Anna sat on a couch beside him while he and Mary Anne sat on the couch across from them. "I was dehydrated, starved and sun burned." The two winced. The news had reported his discovery but not the condition he was found in. "I was barely conscience when the sailors pulled me out of the basket. I kept saying one word over and over again." Kurt then smiled. "Gilligan."
Mary Anne squeezed his hand gently.
"They flew me to a military hospital in Honolulu. The doctors tried to ask me where I came from but I could only say a very few words. The only way I could communicate with them was by drawing pictures." He then pulled a piece of paper from the album and handed it to them. It was a picture of the seven of them, the huts and himself. "As you can see I was not much of an artist." He chuckled.
"I think you did a good job." Gilligan said.
"Yes you did." Mary Anne said.
"But not good enough." Kurt said sadly. His wife then touched his shoulder. "I spent months with social workers and therapists learning how to speak English. I told them about the island, about the seven of you, and all the I experienced on the island."
"Did they believe you?" Mary Anne asked.
"They believed that I was on a island." Kurt said. "That I was not alone. After all they knew that I did not make that balloon by myself." He then looked uncomfortable. "They asked about the island but of course I could not tell them. I just knew it was far away from here."
"They asked us too." Gilligan said a bit embarrassed. "We could not tell them either. All we know is that it was somewhere west of where we were picked up."
"I often wondered if that island moved around us." Kurt said. "That's why we had a hard time pinpointing its location. And why it seemed to attract so many people."
"You had seen other people over the years?" Mary Anne gave him a surprised look.
"A Japanese sailor, painter, and a couple of other people who came to the island and left." Kurt said. "One was an pilot who landed his plane on the beach and stayed a couple of days before he left."
"Wrongway." Gilligan smirked and an amused grin formed across Mary Anne's face. Kurt and Anna looked at them confused. "He was a hapless aviator that came to the island three times when we were there."
"Sounds like the guy I saw." Kurt said.
"So what happened to you after you were released from the hospital?" Gilligan asked. "I was went to live with one of my doctors and his family." He said. "The Schwartzes named me Kurt and soon adopted me." He smiled again. "They gave me a home, a family, try to help me figure out who I was."
"And were you?" Mary Anne asked.
"No." Kurt said. "They believe I probably born in the early nineteen fifities. Fifty one or fifty two. That I was probably pretty young when I was shipwrecked on the island maybe two or three and that my family was probably killed in the shipwreck or soon after." He began to tear up but quickly composed himself. "They theorized that I may have been a passenger aboard a Douglass C-40 callled the Liberty that disappeared over the Pacific in nineteen fifty one but they were never sure." A solemn look crossed his face as he said "I'll probably will never know."
"I'm sorry." Gilligan said sympathetically.
"Its okay." He then looked at his wife lovingly. "Because I know who I am now and that is what is important."
She then smiled at him and the two kissed.
"As I said I was adopted by the Schwartzes and tried to be a normal teenage boy." Kurt said. "Though I kept having dreams about the island and one day I described a certain red haired knocked out I saw in my dream to a friend who was convinced that it was a movie star named Ginger Grant." He told them. "He showed me a Hollywood poster that his father had and I was sure that it was her." He then shifted in his seat. "I went to the authorities, sent a letter to her producers in Hollywood telling them I believed that she was still alive, and even wrote to her parents."
"And they did not believe you." Mary Anne said.
"No." He shook his head. "The doctors told me that I imagined that it was her. That it was just my mind filling in the gaps. They told me the same later when I saw a article about the Howells." He then gave them an awkward look. "And after awhile I just began to believe that I dreamed the entire thing. That you were all a figment of my imagination. And I went on my life and blocked you out of my mind until...." He then paused.
"Until last year." Mary Anne said.
It was a Wednesday afternoon when he got the call. Anna telling him to get to the nearest television and see the news. He had asked her which channel and she replied that it was on every channel.
He rushed to a nearby bar that was showing breaking news of the discovery of the survivors from the USS Minnow. He remembered his legs went weak as he watched the seven walk down the gangplank off the of the aircraft carrier to the crowd of reporters. "Gilligan." He said as he quickly sat down before he embarrassed himself by falling onto the floor. "Ginger, Mary Anne, Skipper, Professor, the Howells." All real he thought. They were all real.
Tears stung at his eyes. They were real and they were alive. After all these years they were alive.
"I so badly wanted to go to you." Kurt said. "To see you again Gilligan."
"But you didn't?" Gilligan asked.
"No." Kurt shook his head.
"Why?" He asked without sounding judgmental.
"Because I was scared." Kurt said. "I was scared that you would be mad at me."
"Mad at you." Gilligan asked. "For what?"
"For forgetting about you." Kurt told them with shame in his voice. "For going on with my life, for not trying harder to find you." Tears filled his eyes. "I'm so sorry."
"Kurt no." Gilligan said as he stood up. "You don't have anything to apologize for. I don't hate you. All of the people who we encountered on that island you are one of the few that we could never hate."
"And we don't blame you Kurt for going on with your life." Mary Anne said. "We are so proud of you and the life you built."
"You are?" Kurt sniffed.
"Of course we are." Mary Anne said.
He then took them into his embrace and hugged them tightly. "I'm so glad you guys are back."
"We are glad we back too." Gilligan said. He then looked at Mary Anne and she nodded yes to his unspoken question. "We are getting married in a couple of weeks."
"You are." He said with a smile. "Congratulations."
"Yes congratulations." Anna said through a veil of tears.
"And we would like you to come to our wedding." Gilligan said. "Not only come but I would like you to be one of my groomsmen."
"Really?" Kurt asked.
"Yes really." Gilligan said.
"Jonas." He said. "The Skipper was going to be my best man." A look of disdain filled his eyes. Why in the world did I want that jerk to stand by my side on the most important day of my life. I could just see myself making a mistake and him producing his hat to beat me with it. "But we had a falling out and I fired him from being my best man. The Professor will now stand beside me." He thought how he is still invited to the wedding but he did not want to have anything to do with him.
"I hated how he treated you." Kurt said. "How he bullied you, spoke down to you, hit you." His jaw tensed with anger. "I wanted to yell know a couple of times but I was scared that he would hit me too."
"That would have been his last mistake." Mary Anne said. "If he had touched you Mrs. Howell, Ginger, and myself would have killed him."
"I believe it." A curious look filled his face as he asked. "So what was your falling over."
"You." Gilligan said. "He did not want me to try to find you."
Kurt then smirked derisively. "Of course he did not." He shook his anger. "He did not want you to find out the truth."
"Truth?" Gilligan asked. "What truth?"
"That he was the one who told me to get into the balloon and fly away." Kurt said to their shock.