Silent Craftsman

About the Book

This is a fiction story, many of whose scenes were based on actual incidents. To avoid battles with natives of a country, whose way of life might be regarded with scorn, the author created the name Wandia for the unpopular nation in this book. The reader may substitute the name of any real nation to achieve a sense of satisfaction with the fictitious outcome. The author also chose the fictitious name of the story villain. Here too, the reader may substitute any person´s or company´s name that will achieve a tinge of delight.

The story is told through the eyes of Everest Stone, a man born deaf in Canada during the late eighteen hundreds. His parents were also deaf, and meaning well, they advised the son to learn how to talk and how to read lips. Maybe to communicate with hearing people, or maybe to pose as a person who was hard of hearing, but not deaf. They certainly meant well, and cited bad personal experiences to justify their unseemly demands.

So motivated, at age fourteen, Ev began his life posing as a person who was hard of hearing. Ev´s father spent his life´s savings to educate his son and also paid to get him a job with Ruggins Maritime, a small manufacturing company that was located in Wandia, a war-like nation, ready to do battle with any country.

Ev had considerable difficulty adjusting to a fictitious life. But living in an enemy country that smelled of war made life impossible.

Ruggins Maritime was owned and managed by Chester Ruggins, who would stop at nothing to become wealthy. The story now moves into the period just before the World War in 1914.

Poison gas had just been invented, giving the world the erroneous notion that it was the "worst weapon of all time." Freida Mossier, a brilliant chemist, had perfected the poison gas. Having a crush on Chester, with warm heart, she gave the secret to his company. She asked for nothing in return; and she got nothing. In fact, it was worse than nothing; she died mysteriously. Then Chester Ruggins died mysteriously and left his inept son, Rudy, in charge. To show his power, Rudy decided to fire one of the employees. He didn´t know his workers well enough to find fault. But he needed to prove his strength to make an unfortunate worker the victim of the industrial guillotine. His mind was made up to dismiss an employee, any one, and he chose Ev Stone.

Ev was crushed. He had been a faithful worker and yet he was fired from the job he´d held for thirty years. Rudy spoke in a confusing manner and Ev assumed that it meant he might be given another chance to keep his job. Desperate to remain with the company, Ev begged Rudy not to fire him. But Rudy was only teasing and toying with Ev´s peace of mind. He had no desire to retain Ev on the job.

In a moment of revenge, to pay for having been tortured, Ev stole a book from Rudy´s office as he left the company.

Soon after that, the trustees of the four companies that financed the operation of Ruggins Maritime died mysteriously. Now Rudy Ruggins desperately needed the book that Ev had stolen. And he pursued Ev from place to place, as Ev moved looking for a job. The chase was interrupted when Ev sneaked out of Wandia and went to live in England, the worst enemy of the war-like nation.

Ev set up a shop, but couldn´t earn a living. He was a master craftsman, who made beautiful furniture and was a constant aid to his disabled wife. Yet, there seemed to be no market for his skills.

During the war, zeppelins and airplanes dropped bombs on cities, killing Ev´s physically disabled wife, and also killing Ev´s son and daughter in law. This left him all alone and in care of his grandson, Joshua.

Ev took Joshua with him as he journeyed back to his native Canada. He was home, and yet he found that success still eluded him. He degenerated little by little until he was a beggar. His major possession was the book he stole.

And it was

About the Author

Ira Cochin worked as an engineer for 15 years in industry for such companies as Kearfott, and Bendix. Then he was a professor for 36 years at New Jersey Institute of Technology. During his professorship, Ira became blind and then deaf. He went for training at the Helen Keller Center for the Deaf-Blind. He returned to NJIT and became the world’s first deaf-blind professor to teach engineering. His accomplishments appeared in the New Jersey Supplement of the Sunday New York Times in December 18, 1977. Ira Cochin has written two technical books, six novels, dozens of articles in various magazines and trade journals, and four articles concerning the handicapped.