Some Like It Hot

In the main, the show went well, and the Kid enjoyed grossing out Carnie with his kidney-infection tale. But he was frustrated at not being given the chance to offer reassurances to other young club denizens and to his own kin. "I wanted to get a message out to my family about what I'm doing," he says. "Because I do want to be close to my family, and it's hard to reach some of them. But all they wanted from me was fire."

So what would the Kid have told America had he been given an opportunity? That you don't have to kowtow to all of society's dictates if they're not right for you. "Getting up in the morning, taking a shower, brushing your teeth, going to work, coming home, eating and going to bed--that's sick. To me, that's turning yourself into a robot. It's a cage--you're setting yourself up for failure if you do that. And you don't have to."

"I wish more people could just feel the freedom that we feel," Peking chimes in. "I used to be part of the normal, you-can't-do-this-and-you-can't-do-that lifestyle. But now I realize that where we are is the best place."

"If you want to," the Kid says, "you can turn yourselves into the red apples on the tree--like we are."

They're not locked into living as they do now for all eternity. "If we make it through this part of our lives, I would really like to open up an animal sanctuary," the Kid reveals. "That's my long-term goal. But right now I can't do it, because our lifestyle is dangerous and fast. We've had people chase us from gas stations in the middle of nowhere. We've had people pull guns on us on highways. I even had to get into a fight with a drag queen once--she hit me with a little metal lunchbox she was carrying, so I grabbed her by the head and started de-weaving her wig. With so many crazies out there, we don't ever know when one of us might be taken out.

"But hopefully, if that happens," he goes on, "it'll be both of us at the same time."

Peking takes the Kid by the hand and smiles. "That's beautiful," she says.