Short Story Experiences
Visitor From Australia
A few years ago my then best friend, Julee came over from Australia to visit me. Although she'd been to America before, she'd never been to the Northwoods so I took her to see some of the sights.
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Just a few miles down the road from me is Little Bohemia Lodge, the place gangster John Dillinger and his gang had their shoot out with the FBI and where Johnny Depp later filmed Public Enemies.
Julee wanted to see Little Bohemia as her mom had always been interested in Dillinger.
These days the Lodge itself is closed and operates as a supper club with bar. However, all of the Dillinger memorabilia is still on display and you can still see the bullet holes in the woodwork. Dillinger's room has been kept just as it was after the shoot out.
Julee and I decided we'd just stop for a drink at the bar so she headed to the bar while I hit the rest room.
I came out to find Julee rushing toward me, absolutely frantic.
"Where was Dillinger shot? Where was Dillinger shot when he was killed?"
"In the back, why?"
"We need to get out of here! I got Dillinger and my back is KILLING ME!"
(Like myself, Julee is a psychic medium)
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"OK, OK...let's go then!" I agreed.
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Little Bohemia has a very long driveway and as we were leaving Julee suddenly gasped and shouted "SIS DILLINGER'S IN THE BACK SEAT!"
I looked in my rear view mirror. Sure enough, there sat Dillinger.
"SIS! WHAT DO I DO?!!"
"Well the first thing you need to do is calm the hell down. Ask him what he wants."
"He says he's looking for his girlfriend, Mary."
"OK well ask our guys to send Mary forward then..."
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Mary appeared in the back seat next to Dillinger.
"Thank you, Ma'am" he said to Julee, tipping his hat. "If there's anything I can ever do for you don't hesitate to call on me."
With that, he and Mary disappeared.
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Once we were over the initial shock we both began laughing about the whole encounter.
When we got home, we told my neighbor Robin about what had happened. As luck would have it, her grandmother knew Dillinger personally. She was his favorite waitress at Little Bohemia.
To hear Grandma tell it, Dillinger was always very polite to everyone and would tip her $100 every time she waited on him - a lot of money in those days! (Of course, when you rob banks for a living I guess you'd consider $100 a drop in the bucket...)
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Grandma did confirm Dillinger had a girlfriend named Mary, called "Billie".
Her full real name was Mary Evelyn "Billie" Freschette.
Billie was of Menominee heritage and played a significant role in Dillinger's life in the 1930's.
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I should have tripped to who the "Dillinger" was we had in the back seat as Jmmanuel had given me a big clue that it was actually him pranking Julee.
Lions, Tigers & BEARS! Oh my!
Jmmanuel wasn't finished pranking Julee after the Dillinger stunt.
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Julee was absolutely TERRIFIED of our bears and even seeing one, despite Robin and I both explaining to her she'd have a better chance of being stuck by lightning than seeing a bear. Not that we don't have a sizeable population of bears up here, we do. It's just that they generally want nothing to do with humans and would just as soon avoid us.
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We were driving back from Eagle River through St. Germain when Julee again brought up the subject of bears.
"Would you just quit? The odds of you seeing a bear up here are zero to none. And even if you did, if you don't bother them they won't bother you."
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AT THAT PRECISE MOMENT what comes ambling out of the woods right next to our car?
Mama Bear and 2 cubs. Right after I'd just told Julee bears are usually only dangerous if they have cubs with them.
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Julee's screaming at the top of her lungs 'DRIVE FASTER! DRIVE FASTER!" while trying to climb in my lap while I'm driving. I did offer to stop the car and take a photo for her but she wasn't having any of that noise.
And I hear Jmmanuel just cackling away...
The Doves
My doves in my front yard
Due to all the surveillance on me, Jmmanuel and I devised several ways to sidestep that surveillance. One of them was Jmmanuel's mourning doves.
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There were occasionally times we'd have to come incommunicado for one reason or another.
Normally I'd have two doves in my front yard. When he'd have to go silent with me, only the female dove would show up. When the male dove would return I'd know Jmmanuel would be communicating again. This happened many times, always in conjunction when we had to go silent with one another.
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While Julee was visiting she'd watch the doves like I did. One morning we were having coffee and we noticed the doves were relating to one another in a manner that imitated exactly how Jmmanuel and I related to each other.
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