She came through Ellis Island at the age of twelve and someone raped her on a pile of rat ridden garbage as people walked by. No one stopped to help her.
When the baby was born it weighed two pounds and didn't want to live, but the midwife told the girl she knew where the child could get good care. The girl shrugged.
``Do what you like with it,'' she said.
The midwife wrapped the child and took it through the dark streets to a field on the edge of town where a carnival had set up camp. The midwife made her way to the Incubator Show where one Dr Savedro kept premature babies - human and animal - in rows of incubators. ``THE SCIENCE OF MERCY'' was emblazoned on a banner over the entrance.
Women, young and old, feasted their eyes on the babies, all warm and well fed in their illuminated incubators. The babies never cried. A little laudenum saw to that.
The midwife tried to sell the child to Dr Savedro, but he would not buy it. ``I have no room,'' he said.
``That baboon in number four is dead,'' said the midwife, ``I know it you know it. The public doesn't know it but I'll tell them out there.''
``All right all right,'' said Dr Savedro, ``give me the child.'' He gave the midwife five dollars.
There were women who followed the Incubator Show across the country. They watched over the infants, both human and animal, and cross examined the attendants about the health of each one. Dr Savedro was a little nervous, a little bored. If a disease swept through the incubators what would happen? Angry women frightened him. The money was good, true, but his showman's edge was dulling. He needed excitement. Shouts. Loud music. Things not compatible to the welfare of very young creatures.
He tried dressing the attendants in gorilla outfits and putting bottles in the breasts of their suits. The women rushed him en masse the first time they saw the babies suckling in the arms of slightly moth eaten gorillas. But the doctor persisted. Gorillas tended the infants from then on, and women discussed diaper rash with them quite equably. The uneducated public who rushed in and out of the Incubator Show did not notice that the gorillas were human.
The immigrant girl's child wanted to sit up. He wanted to move. Dr Savedro found no one who wanted him. In the end the Bearded Lady took him. He became the bearded baby son of the Bearded Lady and the Incubator ladies forgot him.
The Bearded Lady was not a natural born mother. He started his show business career as a wrestler, but being a bearded lady was much more peaceful. Now he had a child. The boy grew strong and wild. He knew the carny life as well as any. He knew the acts and the scams. He knew who not to trust. He was an adept pick pocket. He could find a good mark and lure him into an empty tent where a smiley face clown would hit him on the head and loot his pockets. They would split the proceeds.
The boy had his heros. The trapeze artists had every attribute he admired. Family. Strength. Skill and stamina. His dream was to join them.
For years he practiced and tried valiantly to obey their instruction.
He did not fail. He just wasn't quite right. It was timing, they said. His timing was a little off and he did not understand what they meant and he had no capacity to improve what he did not understand and in the end the trapeze artists told him that he would never be a partner anyone would trust.
That night he left the carnival. Walked away into the American darkness.