The Pigman’s Story; Beginnings

Once upon a time, in an otherwise inconspicuous village, a woman gestated an extraordinary baby. When a baby is born, it cries; this is common knowledge. And evidently, the infant let out a sound that could be classified as a “cry.” But it was not a human baby’s scream that could be heard from the labor room that day; it was an animalistic shriek. At the moment of revelation, when the baby’s face became visible to mother and nurse, the world turned upside down. What was previously held impossible was suddenly possible.

From the neck down, the baby appeared entirely normal, just another baby boy. But, what remained above that cutoff was otherworldly. The newborn’s deformed head shone bright pink, illuminating his deformed visage. Round and pink with a large snout protruding where his human nose was supposed to be. Unmistakably, his head was that of a pig’s.

Oh, the horror that day, it pains me to tell even though I wasn’t part of it. Upon witnessing the pigman-baby, the main nurse let out a chilling scream. She fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes, downing a tray packed with medicinal tools in the process. Soon, people began gushing in, tumbling amongst each other to get a glimpse of the baby. “Abomination,” one man said, “kill this spawn of satan,” said another.

Imagine how the mother must have felt amid this chaos. Here come strangers, invading her secret space and calling her son “spawn of satan”. It was heartbreaking seeing her lay down on the tiny hospital bed, tears rolling down her tired cheeks as she attempted to cover the face of her screaming baby.

However, all spectacles must come to an end, and luckily this one did so fairly quickly. In through the door came the mayor with his two bulky bodyguards, ordering the room cleared immediately. “Thanks,” said the exasperated mother, finally being allowed some breathing space.

Thus stood before her the barrel-bellied mayor (not too unlike a pig if I may say so myself), looking down onto her with sad eyes, “We will have to kill this poor creature, ma’am.” The mother pressed her child close to her breast, conveying her meaning without uttering a single word. “Fine, it was worth a try at least. Listen here. There is a way for both you and that pi…child to survive, what you will do is….”

A few years later, in a small cottage south of the village, we find our pigman and his mother. It hasn’t been easy for both of them, living in isolation, but they’ve managed so far.

Light shines in through an open window, endowing sight upon a beautiful scene. The mother sits on the floor with her child’s head on her lap, tenderly caressing his pink scalp. Her little pigman cries as he lay there, wondering, as with many times before, why does he have to be different? Why does everyone seem to hate him so? She leans forward to kiss her son’s trout, whispering gently into his right ear, “Even though the rest of the world is against you, I will always be by your side.”