Josephine Crampton's Companion

Josephine Crampton's Companion

The gruff, irascible and decidedly loud Admiral Crampton could not have been considered any girl’s ideal match, but why Josephine decided to put up with him was simply baffling. Kind, quiet and fiercely intelligent, Josephine was an engineer practically from birth, constructing towering edifices from chewed up tinker toys and clever little vehicles from whatever she found lying about. It turned out that the one thing she insisted upon after her marriage to the good Admiral was that she be able to continue her work in medical engineering, improving prostheses for all those unfortunate young men coming home from the war. Well the Admiral didn’t like it one bit, but what could he do? Josephine did all that was expected of her and more, rushing home after work to make dinner, tidy up and ensure her grumbling husband’s comfort and catering to his every whim. She designed systems and devices to reduce her chore time in half so that, after the Admiral commenced his heavy snoring in his favorite armchair, his fetid pipe dangling from one meaty hand, she could tip out to the garage and work on her secret projects until the wee hours of the morning.
You see, Josephine was working on the most astonishing invention! It started out as one of her automatic cleaning devices but soon evolved into a full-fledged house robot. It could clean up, yes, but also cook a bit and fold laundry – Josephine even fitted it with a phonographic speaker so that it could engage in rudimentary conversation and play an array of recordings.
One gloomy Friday, Josephine found herself on the losing side of egg salad roulette with the laboratory’s dubious cafeteria. Deathly ill, she limped home in the rain, pausing every block or so to throw up, so that it took quite some time. The Admiral was already home, and completely ignoring the pathetic condition of his pale, sick and soaking wife, he stormed about booming complaints about his absent dinner. Josephine collapsed onto the sofa, summoned up what strength she could muster and said, “I’m sick and I’d love a cup of tea, please.” A deep shade of vermillion crept up the Admiral, beginning who-knows-where, but ending at the roots of his wispy white hair. His left eyelid twitched violently. He unballed his enormous fists, ripped his hat off the coat rack, grabbed his umbrella and exploded out the door, stomping off to his club.
No one really knows if he came back that night or not, but he was never seen again. Josephine named her robot Blunderbuss and he was most charming as he clicked and whirred around the parlor, serving steaming tea out of a pot to Josephine and her occasional guests, a lovely sonata drifting out of the phonograph on his head. He was quite the gardener too, and one couldn’t help but notice how particularly lush Josephine’s flower beds had become that year and remained ever after.

This original artwork and story are copyright Ramona Szczerba 2008. Copyright is not transferable with the sale of this item. The buyer is not entitled to any reproduction rights – neither image nor story can be reproduced without my express written permission. Thanks!

Josephine Crampton's Companion belongs to the following groups:

Altered Art - Collage and Assemblage, Altered by Design (3 per day), Curious Vintage Fictions, Layered with Texture, Mixed Media, Steam Punk and The Art of Books Available for sale as

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