Modern Frankenstein; Or the Extra Modern Prometheus

Frank Steinman:
I sit for hours in front of the autopsy. Organ after organ is removed as the monotone voice wearing a lab coat explains what she is doing. The lecture finishes and I walk out with the others, slipping into the toilets as they go off outside. I wait to hear the 'pap,pap,pap' of Dr Oppenheimer's sensible shoes and walk back into the corridor.

It's always cool in these buildings, that sort of chill that sends goose pimples marching around your body. They do it to keep them fresh. The bodies, the organs and the animals. I push the doors of the lecture hall open gently and walk up to the wrap which covers the corpse. I know from previous experience that I have about seven minutes before the obese porter will get off of his fat arse and come for the body.

She's old, about seventy, but she'll do. I peer into the trays, most of what I need has already been cut out for me. Cold, metal trays are sticky with blood and vitals. I pull the rubber gloves over my chapped hands and lift the kidney. Its gelatinous substance seems to cling to my hands as I deposit it in my lunch box filled with ice. I reach into the wrap and slide my scalpel through the skin of the old woman, slicing off a section of her stomach. I place it over the kidney in my lunch box and clip it closed. Now I just had to get a rib. I crouched on the floor and opened my black briefcase, lifting my handheld saw and straightening out again. I shift the shroud and pull back the flap of breast which hangs from the woman. My saw begins to scream as I place it upon the bone, a fine powder shoots away as I grind through the woman's frame.

As I pack away the rib and saw in my briefcase and pull the shroud back over the corpse I hear the unmistakeable trundling of the porters trolley. My breath quickens as I walk quickly over to the double doors, away from the noise. I push through, walking as if on a route march, and slip out into the courtyard. All around me people are grazing on their lunches, I watch as they masticate the food, pondering the complexities of the human body. How would I obtain a jaw bone without someone noticing? I notice Clerval walking over to me and put on a smile.
"What's for lunch today?" He asks, snatching my lunchbox from me.
"Nothing." I spit back, snatching my lunchbox back and strapping it to my briefcase.
"Are you coming out tonight? It's curry night again, last week me and Eliza..."
"Of course not, I have my project."
"Oh yeah" Clerval looks at me as if he is hurt, "And what on earth is that powder all over your sleeve?" He starts to brush it off for me and I give him a large, toothy grin.