Did you ever approach a situation or a conversation and a little voice within says,"don't go there!" What the hell! Remember Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) in Back to the Future? Yeah....that's "the brothers" great nephew. I should leave it at that, but can't. He too has earned a nickname, Johann, and I have no Goddamn idea why.
His grandfather was a brother to "the brothers". Johann and parents moved to California when he was young. Oldest of three, they are all in their own way remarkably brillant and unbelievably strange. Even too strange for California, (ain't that a pisser), Johann returned to the little hamlet of Baltic by age sixteen. I did say he returned, alone. I might also make note that only one of them returning at a time was enough for the Town. If memory serves me, Johann drove cross country alone, in a vehicle he had altered, (not as much as Doc Brown's DeLorean), but much more suitable to his personality. A likeable kid, rumor was he had just broken up with a girlfriend, a champion surfer, and needed to get away. Lucky for California!
Now his great uncles, "the brothers", Emil & Fred lived on Main St. with their sisters, Rita & Rhea. Nice ladies, never married they took care of the homestead which was the old "nursery" when the Baltic Mills were in full swing. Once you entered this house, it was a step back in time. So impeccably neat and filled with beautiful furniture, antiques and everything else imaginable, it now housed Johann.
The family was thrilled to have someone to look after. Soon after his arrival they realized he needed a much larger space to do whatever it was he did. Johann's uncles owned half of the Town and just on the outskirts they had an old trailer with land where Johann could do his thing. Eventually the yard made Mad Max's stomping ground look upscale! That boy, a genius with electricity, an accomplished pianist,(that's right) and an inventor of just about anything he wanted to invent ( thank God no patents), lived on Bushnell Hollow Rd. for years. He did work at Fred's News because his uncles said he had to help, but he would of been just as happy if no one ever disturbed him. One time Johann built a noise cannon that he wanted to fire off on the 4th of July. You ask, "did he?" Absolutely! For you doubters of the strange, "did it work? Silly people, "of course it did!!!" It was so loud it rattled windows in the Town. The local fire chief( just for the record, did not like Johann and the feeling was mutual), headed to Johann's domain. When he arrived Johann was outside having the time of his life, thrilled to bone the damn thing work. The fire chief yelled, Johann did not reply. He yelled again, still no reply. Finally at wit's end he approached Johann to tell him to knock it off. Johann turned laughing uncontrollably, couldn't hear a Goddamn thing the fire chief said, but by the look on the man's face, Johann knew he had pissed him off. Needless to say, Johann was pleased. For awhile whenever Johann was pissed at the man, he pointed the noise cannon in the direction of the man's house, and fired. Thank God the man just let it ride and quit bugging Johann. The nephew as great as he is would of been deaf in no time if the feud continued.
I enjoyed conversations with Johann and he was a big part of our years at Fred's News. We will share more of the nephew, as great as he is, does have the ablity to irritate the shit out of you!
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