REVIEW: Times Square Cutie by Mykola Dementiuk

Although there are others involved, this is really the story of Billy, Rebecca, and Hector. It’s the story of three acquaintances, brought together by circumstance, who should have chosen to go their own way, but who made the mistake of exploiting the situation.

Billy is, for lack of a better word, confused. He doesn’t consider himself to be a transvestite, even though he’s enjoyed dressing in the past, and still keeps his body hairless and smooth. He doesn’t consider himself gay, even though he loves providing men with oral pleasure. He is extremely resistant to the idea of receiving anal sex, even though he loves giving it.

Rebecca is, for lack of a better word, disturbed. She’s lost and confused, a little bit crazy, and quite delusional. She thinks nothing of very public moments of sexual exhibition, but is quite prissy when it comes to polite terminology. She talks to people who aren’t there, and imagines a job that is tied to neither time nor place. As we discover, she lost her ‘daddy’ to a heart-attack during their last bout of sex, but has convinced herself that the rotting body is really just sleeping.

Hector is, for lack of a better word, an opportunist. He’s not above using both Billy and Rebecca for his pleasure, whether they want to provide that pleasure or not. He’s a violent young man, but he’s also given to moments of tenderness. When he discovers the truth about Rebecca’s dead ‘daddy’ – and the bags of money scattered about his bedroom – he brings in his gang to seize the opportunity.

The conclusion to this affair is, as you might expect from Mick’s work, rather ugly and messy. There is a very interesting moment when Hector allows his violent façade to slip, enraptured by the sight of Billy in Rebecca’s clothing, but we never get to see where it might lead. By the end of the night, everybody but Billy is dead and, just to add insult to injury, the money is revealed to be counterfeit.

There’s no morality tale here, and no message of hope, although there is a kind of rough justice involved. The only thing we can take away from it is the happines of Billy’s transformation into a Times Square Cutie named Rebecca, and, we assume – or perhaps, just hope - his acceptance of his own sexuality.
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