Deaths Along the Kuskokwim

I have never been surrounded by so much death. Since moving to Aniak, human beings have lost their lives at an astounding rate. They have come in and out of my life so fast.

​

Since moving here on July 1, 2017:

​

1. A man I knew for two days was murdered by a drunken man with an AK-47

 

***

 

A man I met two nights ago is now dead. I am writing this on a Sunday. I met him, and his parents, Friday night at a party where many members of the community were present and all having a good time. I never saw him without a smile. I saw him again Saturday night at a post-Mayweather-McGregor boxing match party. He came up to me smiling, shook my hand, and said, “Nice to see you again!” Later that night he was shot and killed with an AK-47. The Russian Orthodox minister from upriver has arrived in town for vespers and prayers. His father works at the post office, and I see him every day, while his mother works at the elementary school. As I write this I am tearing up and on the verge of crying. I do not exactly understand why, but it must be a mix of empathy for his family, friends, the community as a whole, while also the feeling of how fast he appeared and disappeared in my life. He was 24 years old with a three-year-old son.

​

***

 

2. A man committed suicide

3. A man fell through the ice on his snowmobile

4. A 15-year-old female student died of “unknown causes”

5. A man died in a snowmobile accident

6. and 7. Two drunk individuals, a man in his 20s and a 16-year-old female, were killed when their snowmobile collided into a moose. 

​

***

​

Deaths #6 and 7 were highly unnecessary. All of these were preventable. Drugs. Alcohol.

​

The last two deaths disturbed me greatly once I found out what actually happened to them. Gruesome.

​

At 5:30 a.m. and with temperatures around -30 degrees Fahrenheit, the two individuals left a party together on a snowmobile with no working headlight. No protection from the cold. No helmets.

​

How does the Universe align like this? Coincidental timing.

​

Their snowmobile skirted underneath a moose; the snowmobile and the moose struck perpendicular to each other. The snowmobile made it under the moose but their bodies snapped back violently, breaking both their backs. The snowmobile kept going as their mangled and twisted bodies hurdled and tumbled over the frozen ground.

 

Grotesque.

​

No blood.

​

They lived for a couple minutes.

​

I wonder if they knew.

​

Their ice-covered bodies were discovered at 7 a.m.

​

The moose laid injured on the side of the road and was subsequently shot and killed.

​

***

​

7. Same as 6

8. A man overdosed on drugs

​