The Mimic

John Bolton (0:02)

Astonishing Legends Network The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter Office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests.

Forrest Burgess (0:47)

Thank you for watching. Thank you for sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends. And now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too.

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John Bolton (1:11)

Tonight's episode, The Mimic.

Forrest Burgess (1:16)

Tonight's Dead Letter takes us to Nebraska, Clay Center, down in the south central part of the state, county seat of Clay County.

Scott Philbrook (1:24)

You know, for me, everything in that part of the country is anchored by the World's Biggest Ball of Yarn in Kansas.

Forrest Burgess (1:32)

Okay, here we go. Did you see it?

Scott Philbrook (1:36)

Yes, I did see the World's Biggest Ball of Yarn. Took my cat to see it too.

He was not enthused. In fact, he was just generally ticked off at being hauled around the country.

John Bolton (1:45)

Oh, I remember that. This was decades ago.

Forrest Burgess (1:47)

Well, you didn't flick the end of it. You didn't just flick the end of the yarn.

Scott Philbrook (1:51)

No, I took him out to look at it and I'm surprised I came back with an arm. But that's in Cocker City, Kansas, for anyone.

Sorry, but that's in Cocker City, Kansas. So for anyone wondering how far Clay Center in Nebraska, where tonight's story takes place, is from Cocker City, Kansas, which I know some of you would have been up tonight worrying about, Clay Center is just an hour and a half nearly due north of that giant ball of yarn.

Forrest Burgess (2:16)

Well, you've put a lot of people's minds at ease with that info. Thank you.

Scott Philbrook (2:20)

Well, to quote Andy Griffith, you better know it. Anyway, Clay Center is a tiny town, 735 people at the last census, sorry, 735 people at the last census, which I think was in 2020 It's about two-thirds of a square mile.

Forrest Burgess (2:34)

Wow. Wide spot, the road where everybody knows everyone else's car, I would imagine.

Scott Philbrook (2:39)

Yeah, for sure. If you're an extroverted motorhead like me, you'd know the car's down to the year and when the timing belt's about to snap, because I've probably been walking around town trying to warn everybody.

Forrest Burgess (2:49)

I don't get that looked at. Well, you're the smartest guy in the waiting room at the auto shop, aren't you?

Scott Philbrook (2:56)

Yeah, definitely. Maybe not. Just delusions from time to time.

Forrest Burgess (3:00)

Well, you're starting to digress, I see.

Scott Philbrook (3:03)

I am. I am taking us off track here. Why don't you bring us back to the dead end?

Forrest Burgess (3:08)

Well, as we were saying, our listener tonight is Ed.

No, not our Ed from Scared All the Time, but a different Ed. There are other Eds out there. He and his wife have been with us a long time, and he says they listen no matter what the topic is. Thank you for that, which we appreciate more than he knows.

Scott Philbrook (3:27)

Yeah, we really do, Ed, seriously thank both of you guys for sticking with us so long.

Forrest Burgess (3:32)

Yes, indeed. Well, this happened in the first apartment, the two of them shared after they got married.

He sent it in through the forum on the website, and he drew us a floor plan of the place and sent that along with it. Thank you for that. We'll post that with the show notes, of course.

Scott Philbrook (3:49)

Yes. Somebody who draws you a floor plan has been thinking a long time about whatever took place in said floor plan. I think that's always cool. We've actually gotten quite a few floor plans with dead letters. They're like, well, this is what happened. This is where my room was. There was a weird crawl space.

It's always cool to try to visualize. I like that because I'm always talking about I'm a map guy. I'm always like, hey, where is this on the map? I also like to see, well, how was it laid out? Sometimes it's hard to understand just from the pros.

Forrest Burgess (4:16)

You're right about that. Yeah, well, six years in this case, but I do appreciate the map. You could tell that the listener didn't just make this up off the cuff. They put a lot of thought into this and have been thinking about it ever since.