Pardon Me?
Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s life was driven by his need to create life. It would be his ultimate achievement. He earned degrees, got significant grants, worked ceaselessly to build a body from the pieces of corpses, a body on which he would endow life. Perhaps he went too far, murdering a colleague for his brain for his first experiment. But, although convicted to life for murder, Dr. Dr. Frankenstein did not sit in prison long.
The new President pardoned him.
The pardon came along with many others, including for drug dealers and corrupt politicians and people who rioted against the government when the new President was not re-elected. Now he had been re-elected, however, and used his pardon powers extensively. Then he heard about Dr. Frankenstein. The new President was aging–Dr. Frankenstein’s work could preserve his brain in a healthier, younger body.
He invited Dr. Frankenstein to dinner and over the entrée told him they were alike, as the new President through pardons had brought the politically dead back to life. The socially dead also, to a degree. He told Dr. Frankenstein he knew what it was to feel like a God, at least until his term expired.
Dr. Frankenstein was outraged. He was a dedicated scientist, pursuing a scientific dream. After a moment, he firmly said, “Mr. President. I appreciate your recognition of my work and pardoning me, along with convicted drug dealers and fraudsters. However. I must tell you what you want never works out. I have learned it is dangerous to play God. I deserve prison. Emulating God angers Him.”
The new President acted, upset over this criticism, rescinding the pardon and sending Dr. Frankenstein back to jail. God acted, having the newly pardoned dead, along with the actual dead, who descended on the President’s office. He fled to a deep underground bunker in the mountains. The new President, who thrived on attention, withered in the underground bunker. Dr. Frankenstein helped in the prison’s medical clinic and, in a hobby he found involving, did paint-by-numbers oil paintings.