Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
November/December 2002

by Adrienne Tange
EBSTC Member

ina, a middle-aged technical writer, opened the unlocked lobby door of the Frankenstein Research Center and stood there uncertainly. The lobby was lit only by dimmed overhead lights and a sliver of October moon shining through shaded windows. The room was deathly quiet. “Where is everyone?” she thought to herself as she glanced at her watch. Dr. Frankenstein had said to meet him in the lobby at 8 pm sharp.

She sure hoped this meeting with him would be fruitful and bear her a lucrative contract. A fellow writer had warned her not to go out alone to the isolated lab at night. It was rumored, he had told Tina, that a technical writer had come to work there and was never heard of again. Phooey, Tina had thought. She needed the money to pay for her new BMW and that trip to Palm Springs she wanted to take.

Suddenly the lobby lights brightened and a low rumbling voice behind her asked, “May I help you?”

Tina jumped, swiftly turned around, and tried to refocus her eyes in the brightened room. As her eyes adjusted, she saw standing in front of her a large muscular hunched man. He had a broad oval head that was covered with patches of longish gray hair that hung down, large bulging eyes, and he was wearing a dark suit. She could have sworn no one else was in the room.

“Hi, I am Tina Smart, the contract technical writer. I have an 8 pm interview with Dr. Frankenstein.”

here was a long moment of silence as the man slowly processed the information and then responded, “Yes, I am Hugo. Dr. Frankenstein is expecting you. Please, sit down and he will be here shortly.”

Tina walked over and sat on a white couch in the middle of the lobby, and then noticed she was alone again. “How does he do that?” she thought to herself.

Tina looked around the room as she sat there waiting. The lobby had plain white walls, a bare white tile floor, and only a white chair, the white couch she was sitting on, and a chrome coffee table as furniture.

Tina heard the click of hard-soled shoes on the tiled floor and turned to see Hugo and a smaller man walking down a stairway.

“Hello, Tina, thank you for coming. I am Dr. Frankenstein. No, please don’t get up,” said the doctor as he waved a thin hand at her. Tina noticed the doctor had a grayish cast to his skin and that his white lab coat hung down from narrow thin shoulders.

“This is Hugo, my assistant.”

“Yes, we met. Would you like to start by looking at my writing samples, Dr. Frankenstein?” Tina asked.

Dr. Frankenstein perched on the couch near her and proceeded to look through her portfolio.  Out of the corner of her eye, Tina could see Hugo standing like a statue behind them.

“Good samples,” Dr. Frankenstein said, and then closed the binder with a loud thud that echoed throughout the room.  “Now let me show you the lab where the equipment is that you will be documenting.”

ina followed the two men up the staircase to the first door marked Private! Do Not Enter! The doctor opened the locked door with a key and turned on the lights. Inside was a large shiny metal machine that almost filled the room. It reminded her of a large x-ray machine she had seen at Valley Care Medical Center, with a large top-shaped part attached to an arm that hung over a metal rectangular-shaped table.

“Hmm,” Tina said as she stared at the machine.

“Yes, it is impressive,” Dr. Frankenstein murmured as he too stared up at the machine.

“What did you say your study was about?”

“The creation of human life.”

Maybe she should have paid more attention in her college science classes.

“Do you mean cloning?”

“Not quite. But you will find out soon enough,” the doctor replied. “Here is the software that runs the machine,” he said, pointing to a computer console. “My employees will use the user manual you will create to run this system. I need the guide simple enough for them to understand. A typical employee is like Hugo. And I need it as soon as possible.”

ina glanced at the complicated machine and then at Hugo. This could be more of a challenge then she thought. She sat down in front of the console and viewed the main screen. In the middle of it were four blue buttons: Starting the Process, Adding Parts, Adding Power, and Stopping the Process. She navigated through a few screens and began to feel confident. The system looked well organized and very simplistic.

“I believe you told me a previous writer started a user guide?” Tina asked.

“Yes. This is part of it,” said the doctor as he handed Tina a small user guide. “Mr. Smith, the former writer, started to rewrite the documentation but was unable to finish it, poor man.” Dr. Frankenstein shook his head sadly.

Tina glanced through the document. It was very well written but seemed very short. She was about to ask the doctor more questions about the previous writer when the doctor interrupted her thoughts.

“This user guide is vital to my project. I want you to know that I will pay your rate, whatever it is. However, you must work on site, as stipulated in this contract, until you finish the user guide.” He held a contract in front of her.

Tina stared at him for a moment. This must be his feeble attempt at humor. She forced a laugh and then quipped back, “What will you do? Lock me in a room until I finish, like you did the last writer?”

For a moment, the doctor looked paler than ever.

“Don’t worry, doctor, I know you are only joking,” Tina bantered.

She felt euphoric, like when she had one too many margaritas at Chevys. He would pay top dollar for this project! Dollar signs danced in front of her eyes.

Hurriedly, Tina grabbed the contract out of the doctor’s thin hand. She then glanced quickly over the 3-page contract, filled in her rate at the appropriate blanks, and signed the bottom with a flourish. She didn’t bother to read the other two pages of stipulations. She then said her goodbyes and told him she would see him tomorrow.

he doctor walked out of the lab with Hugo following and opened a second locked room next door. Inside the small room was a cot, a table that held a computer and a cardboard box, and an office chair. In the chair, leaning over to one side, was the skeleton of a man dressed in a dusty gray suit.

“Like you, Mr. Smith, Ms. Smart isn’t interested in seeing the other 700 user guide pages Hugo wrote,” the doctor said as he walked over to the box, which contained a mass of jumbled papers with indecipherable writing on them. “She also didn’t read her contract closely enough. Oh, well—her loss, my gain. Hugo, remove Mr. Smith and prepare the room for Ms. Smart. She will be with us a long time.”

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