First of all, I want make one thing clear – I am a writer, not a journalist. That’s why I won’t write the names of either the killer or the victim. Moreover, in the best psycoanalytic tradition, this story is a mix of sex and dreams. If you want to know more about what happened, you can find the original story on the Internet using the following query: “перерезал подростку горло в Киеве” (“teenager’s throat cut in Kyiv”).
I can only guess how many people were in the apartment. There were 3 rooms and in each one someone was having sex. Lights off. I was in the kitchen, where 5 pairs of hands touched me. Suddenly I heard the rhythmic sound of a table hitting the wall. I heard a voice. This voice whispered: “Good boy. You’re such a good boy.” And at the same time this voice hit the good boy’s ears.
For some reason I fixated on this. So fixated that the same night I dreamt that I made love to myself. That is to say, in a dream I saw 2 people, and both of them were me. Gentle touches. Smiles. A room illuminated with red light; probably what a mother’s belly looks like from the inside on a sunny day. But suddenly I start to choke myself, and in the process, somehow, I’m giving me compliments. Yes, there is something strange about it.
It’s one thing to choke someone during sex and say nasty things. There is nothing unusual about that. But compliments while choking scare me. It is also interesting that this dream occurs in a place reminiscent of a mother’s womb. As you know, if a dad’s love must be earned, then a mother’s love is given unconditionally.
I imagine a woman who beats her son because he painted on her passport while in immigration. Now she’s angry. She hits him, and she immediately becomes ashamed and offended. Then his mom praises him for his beautiful drawing. The kid just wants to go back to his hometown, so he drew a house and a meadow right next to the stamp about entry into the Schengen zone. But now the passport is considered invalid. And she hits him again. And then she becomes ashamed and begins to praise him. Hits again. Praise. And this has been happening for years.
And when the kid grows up, he comes to a 3-room apartment. He comes to a place where people have gathered to love each other. But he begins to beat the one who brings him the most pleasure, hiding behind a fetish. When one person behaves this way, it’s one thing. But it’s an entirely different matter when an entire country behaves the same damn way. Especially when the country tries to protect someone who has brought it grief. Tries to protect him only because the criminal said ideologically correct things. Said things that would please his scared mother.
Waking up from a womb-like sleep, I receive a message from my friend. The content makes me want to return to a place that resembles a mother’s belly from inside on a sunny day.
On April 7, 2024, in Kyiv, a drunk man attacked a group of teenagers. It happened in the city center – on the funicular. The funicular itself looks like it’s part of the metro, but with only 2 stations. Every day it lifts from 5 to 15 thousand people up the huge hill, which equals approximately 5 million passengers a year.
If you were afraid to buy a house where a murder took place, if you are avoiding a building in which a gas cylinder exploded, killing the owner, you definitely need to reconsider your views. There are too many people and we are dying everywhere. Every minute. And now in Kyiv, from 5 to 15 thousand people a day continue to ride the funicular, despite the fact that on April 7 a murder was committed there.
But first, the drunken man emotionally demonstrated his disgust with the teenagers. A drunk man asked why they did not defend their homeland. Approaching the tallest person in the company, he repeated the question. And the tall guy replied that, if necessary, he would defend himself. The drunk man said to get out and he would show him exactly how to defend the country.
A fight broke out. A drunk man smashed a window with a teenager’s head. He used a piece of glass to cut his throat. He tried to escape, but the teenager’s buddies stopped the murderer. The police arrived at the crime scene and detained a drunken man. They found a weapon on him. The teenager died on the steps near the funicular.
Such situations are a logical continuation of the policy that is being pursued in Ukraine today. There’s nothing wrong with loving your country, as long as it doesn’t become an obsession.
Below are comments on the news, some of which are no less surprising than the murder:
“I heard a different version. The teenagers were drunk. They turned on Russian music. And they reacted aggressively to the remark.”
“I’m sorry that one of the most popular comments is blaming the victim, the kid, for being killed. Nothing new.”
“The people have gone completely crazy. Even if they listened to Russian music and spoke Russian, then what? Kill everyone for this?”
“What is a fair punishment? If you took a kid’s life, give yours.”
“I have another question, regarding safety precautions: why was there no tempered glass in the funicular, like in cars? If it breaks, it crumbles into small pieces.”
“Why can a country allocate 3 healthy men to issue a summons, but cannot place at least one security guard at the station?”
“Now it has become dangerous in Kyiv. Especially in the center. I was walking with my buddy and witnessed how one psycho broke a girl’s nose right at the bus stop.”
“It’s sad that we have to ask for such a story to be spread on social networks.”
The murderer’s justification looks like to me this way. I imagine how a sadist from a 3-room apartment choked his partner to death. At the trial, his mom tries to defend him, not even suspecting that the murder began with her.
This piece is a part of a series, The Mining Boy Notes, published on Mondays and authored by Ilya Kharkow, a writer from Ukraine. For more information about Ilya, see his website. You can support his work by buying him a coffee.
