By Kailey Rose
“Francis, I’m trying to work. Can’t this whole groom thing wait until I’ve finished this project?” Doctor Stein rubbed his forehead, then looked up at Francis, who still stood in front of him, her hands clenched together.
“Oh, please!” Francis raised her lopsided eyebrows and drooped her lower lip. She had started asking for a groom after having a dream where she was married. A dream she couldn’t escape.
Stein paused and sighed. “Do you have any idea what you want him to look like?”
Francis let out an excited screech, which—with her mixed vocal cords—sounded like a bird of prey. “I’ve got a picture in mind!”
“Fine.” Stein strolled towards the old mansion’s cellar. “Come on—we might as well get the parts.”
Stein flicked the lever in the dank basement, and surges of lightning flew to orbs hanging from the ceiling, each illuminating their section of the cellar.
“We should start with the head.” Stein pointed to a corner of the room, and Francis made her way over.
She walked with a slight limp since one of her legs was an inch longer than the other. Stein had re-sewn the leg back on, after Francis’s rabid dog had ripped it off in a game of tug-of-war.
Stein followed. “I don’t have as many to choose from as you might like,” he said, waving his hand in front of a long glass freezer. Inside sat seven male heads and three female ones. “Not a lot of people sign up for my research. Maybe I should work on advertising? Then there’s weeding out the, uh… illegal donations.”
Francis examined the male heads, studying and comparing each to a memory that she recalled only vaguely from her hand-me-down brain. She paused in front of one with brown hair, skimmed one with blue eyes, and stared hard at one with a strong jaw. She side-glanced at the rest, then looked back.
“What about this one?” she asked Stein.
Stein stood next to her. The face had darker skin with long, light brown, and slightly wavy hair.
“Oh. Well. He seemed intelligent enough.” Stein rubbed his chin in thought.
Francis smiled. “Yes, I like this one.”
Stein clapped his hands together. “Wonderful!” He put a sticker on the glass and turned to Francis. “Now, torsos are… that way.”
Francis followed Stein to another part of the cellar where large wooden boxes were stacked on top of each other. “What kind of body should I choose?” Francis asked.
“Something sturdy. Um… do you want him to be taller or shorter than you?”
Francis looked up at the ceiling. “Taller,” she said dreamily.
“Okay.” Stein walked around the boxes. “Hair?”
Francis shook her head. “No.”
“Okay. Ah, here’s a tall body. Hmm… color won’t match, though.” He looked over at Francis.
She shrugged. “You didn’t make me match,” she said, lifting her two different-colored hands.
“All right then.” He stuck a sticker to the crate and looked around the room. “Now, legs.”
Finding all the necessary parts took an entire day. Afterwards, Stein and Francis carried them all up to the tower, where they sewed the pieces together.
When they’d assembled the monster, they stepped back.
“Oh, no,” Stein grumbled into his hand.
“What? What is it?” Francis’ mismatched eyes turned to him.
“He has two left feet!” Stein shouted, pointing at the body.
“Oh, is that wrong? I thought they were supposed to match,” Francis said.
Stein shook his head and sighed, “At least now you will both walk with a limp.”
For a moment they were silent, staring at their creation.
Stein clapped his hands together. “Now! For the most important part.”
Francis knit her eyebrows together. “What are we missing?”
“The heart! Come.” Stein flew to a door at the back of his lab, and they both walked into a room of organs—most in jars, some in sealed boxes, a few frozen.
“Here we go…” Stein opened a small cooler with jars lining the inside. “Have your pick.”
Francis looked at them, frowned, and asked, “Do you know which one was…. which was… lonely?”
Stein’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked back down at the hearts, “Ah, well, huh. I didn’t think to label them like that. I just categorized them by… name.”
“This one… why is it dark?” Francis picked up a jar.
“The body was in a fire, and quite honestly, I’m not sure if it’s still usable.”
“I want that one.” Francis said.
Stein nodded and took the jar. “Okay… but Francis, it may not work.”
“I know.”
The heart was the final piece of the puzzle. Stein attached it to the body’s vascular system and sewed the chest back up. “Step back, my dear.” This was where things got tricky.
The body lay on a slab with wires winding towards the large machines that circled the room. Stein went to the control panel. His hands danced over the dials and buttons, like a pianist with his piano, every note played in its order. A smile crept onto his face and his fingers slowed as he came to the end of his song.
He backed away and stepped to the side of one of the machines. He turned a knob, took a deep breath, put on his goggles, and punched a button.
Instantly, lightning flew overhead. It bounced from one machine to the other, crossing through the wires, traveling fast and seemingly without direction. A loud buzzing and crackling echoed through the room, making Francis’s ears hurt and her hair stand on end.
Stein turned the dial more, and the electricity jumped around even faster. He watched a monitor closely as the body jittered.
The monitor beeped, fell, then beeped again.
He dialed the knobs all the way down and smacked the same button. The lightshow vanished, and he slowly lifted his goggles. Francis walked up next to him.
They both stared as the screen jumped, plummeted, jumped. Slowly and continuously.
“He’s alive,” Francis whispered.
Can you guess which song from the 1950's inspired this story? Share in the comments!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
That was fun! It was neat to see “Mrs.” Frankenstein be the first creation!
Your story had me invested–I really wanted to know what her husband would be like once he came alive! I wanted to keep on reading even after it ended.
Very nice, You pay homage to the Frankenstein story without following it slavishly.
Very fun concept! And I especially appreciated the name choices, haha.
Wow, that was CREEPY xD And yet cool! I love the twists so much!
I liked it and wanted to know more about if Francis would like him or not or if the new creation would like her. I like the twist of Francis wanting a husband, so one had to be creative. I also liked the humor on not getting enough volunteers.
Very cool story. Maybe To Know Him is to Love Him? I’m sure when we’re told the song, it will be obvious!