09 Oct Frankenstein: an extract
Benjamin Vanguard was top of his field in not only organ transplants of not-quite-matches from donors, but also successfully grafting hands, feet, arms, and legs where victims had either been in an accident or had limbs blown off in war conflict. His success rate was 94% and this had earned him the nickname Frankenstein.
So it was no surprise that the government wanted him on a secret military project that had been set up in Colorado and he was to fly out that night from England by military helicopter. He would be staying at the air force base overnight and then taken to the place he would be working at in the morning.
He was going to be working in a clinic for young teenage girls who were in the care of the local authorities, mostly orphans with no family that were pregnant. They were to come to the clinic either to have an abortion or for those who wanted to keep their babies to get help and support. They would be staying in the big farm house near the clinic.
He was really excited to be on his way to the new clinic, to meet the staff he would be working with, and his new laboratory where he would be doing most of his research on genetics.
He pulled onto the driveway and was greeted by the staff which consisted of two cleaning staff, an elderly couple called Margret and Tom, a midwife called Hanna, and a house mother for the farm house called Nancy.
He was shown around the facility by Hanna. She had been a midwife for 25 years, so was well experienced. She had a daughter called Natasha who was expecting her first child and a son called Dean who was at university in Denver.
Where he would be staying was a converted barn into a two bedroomed property. It was all freshly decorated in simple colours. There was a large double room with a double bed a large fitted wardrobe chest of drawers and bedside table. The other bedroom was a bit smaller also with fitted wardrobe. There was quite a spacious kitchen, large living room with an open fire, a large study complete with book shelves, large desk, reclining office chair, and computer.
The farm house reminded him of his grandparents farm in Wiltshire, where he used to go and stay during school holidays. At the age of eight his grandfather showed him how to graft multiple rose cuttings on to one bush, with the effect of having different coloured roses on one single rose bush. This gave him the idea to create taxidermy creatures by mixing different animal parts together as mythology fascinated him, and this gave him the inspiration to study medicine and genetics later in life.
It was late afternoon when three girls were brought to the clinic. Ben gave each girl a quick check over, took blood samples, blood pressure, and asked them some questions about illnesses they may have had.
First was Lucy a small girl, slim build, rather timid and shy. She had dark hair, pale blue eyes, a pretty face and a kind of nervous smile. The second girl Malisa was very self-opinionated and she made it absolutely clear to Ben that she didn’t want a baby, that she just wanted to get back to enjoying her life. She too had dark hair but long twisted into curls, brown eyes, not very pretty to look at, although her face was heavily make-upped. The third girl Marie had her own unique style of dress with long dark hair with a streak of dyed blue hair a pierced lip, nose and eyebrow. She was quite tall and slim build, with blue eyes that had flecks of green in them.
When the girls had had their examinations, Nancy came to collect them and take them over to the farm house.
The three girls sat around the large dinner table in the kitchen. Nancy laid the food on the table and sat down.
“Now lets say thank you to God for the food we are about to eat” Nancy said.
“I an’t saying no thank you to God, he an’t never given me nothing” said Malisa venomously.
“Girl a child is a gift from God” Nancy replied.
“Some gift, all those dippers, puking up, screaming, no more party nights out. No that an’t no gift to me. Now if he were to give me diamonds, nice clothes, a fast car, those are the kind of gifts I want”.
“I’m keeping my baby” Lucy chimed.
“Why is that Lucy?” Nancy enquired.
“Oh, I’ve never really had anything in my life that’s stable. I’ve been from one children’s home to the next, been in numerous different foster homes, so I want my baby to feel wanted and loved” Lucy said in a quiet voice.
“Herm nice. So what about you, Goth girl?” Malisa sneered.
“I’m not sure really. I haven’t made my mind up and my names not Goth girl, it’s Marie”.
“Whatever. So when will you know, weirdo?”
“Maybe when I see the baby on the scan.”
“Ech.”
“Malisa that’s enough! Come on now girls, let eat up and then get ready to relax for the night” Nancy said, trying to calm the situation down.