Gilligan's Regret

Mary-Ann sat at the communal table for breakfast. She was her usual effervescent self. Gilligan arrived and announced to the other six castaways that he had great news. The professor looked up with a mix of fanfare and skepticism.

"I just remembered that my ex-boyfriend presaged our getting shipwrecked," said Gilligan.

"Wait - you're gay?" asked Ginger.

"Yes. I met Monty when I joined a cadre of political activists in Miami," said Gilligan.

Mr. Howell piped up and said, "Gilligan, usually you bore us with jabberwocky but you're starting to sound more intelligent."

"I was the president of the national association of human rights - but I left," Gilligan said.

"Why'd you leave? asked Mrs. Howell as she sipped coffee from a halved coconut.

"The organization became a landscape of crumbling trust," he responded.

"Fighting for human rights is nothing to go wobbly on little buddy," said the Skipper.

"In retrospect, I should've stayed. I suppose it was my first tart sip of adulthood," said Gilligan.

The skipper dipped a pinlobble leaf into maple syrup and said, "Maybe this is hokey but I was once the president of my high school band."

Mrs. Howell milled about waiting for her tea water to boil on the open flame and said excitedly, "Why skipper, I was a majorette in my high school!"

"That's right!" said Thurston. "I remember ogling my lovey during the half-time show - the best days of my life. And look at us now - stranded with no hope in sight."

Mrs. Thurston put an arm on her wealthy beau's shoulder and said, "But look at all we've created."

"I guess you're right, my little sugar pop," he said.

Maryann scribbled tonight's dinner menu on a rough-hewn placard: bouillabaisse and charcuterie. And chocolate covered grasshoppers, spiders and a garden of other grisly delights. "Dinner is at 5pm sharp everyone - our appetizer is seaweed salad with a sauce crafted from lingonberries Gilligan and I foraged on the other side of the island," she said with a smile.

*****
Color words: effervescent, mix of fanfare & skepticism, presage, cadre, jabberwocky, landscape of crumbling trust, wobbly, first tart sip of adulthood, hokey, bouillabaisse, charcuterie, ogle, rough-hewn, beau, lingonberries, milled