The unC.R.I.M.E

As we all know, time waits for no one, and years fly by in the blink of an eye. I swear it was just yesterday that my older sister was having some kind of rebellious affair with her English teacher, and today... 25 years later, she has two daughters with him and they've been married for 21 years. ...It's been 25 years...  It feels like just days ago that my baby sister Victoria was a snitch and would run around the house getting everyone in trouble. Yet today, she's a 34 year old mother to a two year old boy. She's the happiest I've ever seen her. She has boyfriend who treats her like she's the reason he's able to breathe every moment. I wouldn't say she's left the Hutcherson lifestyle but she lives the perfect life of a white picket fence, a baby, a husky and her boyfriend who works a 9-5, completely oblivious of her dark side. Then there's the triplets, who 25 years ago, were four years old. Nikita, Viktor and Karik are 29 years old but it seems like the only one who has their life figured out, is Nikita. She's the only person in the Hutcherson family who actually went to college and obtained a degree. In what? You may ask. In politics, because get this, she wants to be the first female president of Russia, and I support her completely. She's career driven and isn't easily side tracked, even though she doesn't have any children, she's engaged to a diplomat who is just as political as herself.  Viktor has changed, of course but I wouldn’t say for the better. When he was 4 years old, he was so serious and robotic for his age (he was a bit more free and childish around his brother though). But that was short lived because Viktor has impregnated 12 women, most of which are strippers or prostitutes that he slept with whenever he went out clubbing or got intoxicated and brought girls over. Everything from his two coloured hair, multiple tattoos, dressing sense and his common sense is just a disappointment.  Karik wasn't too far behind from Viktor. Karik got his first girlfriend pregnant, when they were both 16 years old. Karik almost gave my father a heart attack and I don't think I've ever heard my mother cry as badly as she did when she found out. Karik is no longer with the girl, but his 13 year old daughter means everything to him. As far as I know, Karik is dating seven girls at the same time and isn't too bothered with this thing called monogamy.  My father is turning 72 years old today. I'll only admit this to myself, but watching the slow deterioration of my father has been a painful and heart breaking process. He has dementia now so he doesn't remember a lot of things. Just yesterday, Joseph Hutcherson was one of the most feared people in the world. You couldn't even say his name out loud, you had to whisper it. And now he'd look at me- his own son- in confusion and ask who I was.  My angelic mother and the only woman in this world who holds my heart is 71 years old and has aged, of course, from the sexy 46 year old, to who she is now. I don't think she's any less beautiful. To me, she'll always be the most beautiful person in any room.  "Uncle Czar! You made it!" I heard the voice of my 21 year old niece, Kimia exclaim in excitement as I walked through my sister and her husband's home's front door.  Notice how I didn't say mansion.  I always thought with how extra Natalya was that she'd stay in the largest possible mansion any person could ever build or find and she'd live the rest of her life lavishly. Natalya was always like that, she loved the finer things in life and for a very long time she stayed in a massive mansion that could probably fit a small country in it. But as time went by, as her daughters got a bit older, and as she matured more and more...she changed.  It wasn't like it was before. It started out really small; she sold her mansion and moved into a modern four bedroom home in a safe guarded affluent estate with a three car garage. Her three cars being SUV's and nothing like the fast cars she'd drive recklessly when she was 18 years old.  I returned the enthusiastic hug I got from Kimia and she stepped back to show me how well she'd done her eye liner, "it looks good," I just said and she blushed, nodding, and walked away talking about taking more selfies.  I walked into the kitchen, seeing my sister cooking, and she turned, like she'd sensed me, "hey, Czar," she greeted me with a wide smile, "I'm so glad you could make it."  She looked so...normal. She wore a denim shirt, or is it a dress? I'm not too sure. Her hair was loose and she barely had on any make up. She wasn't even wearing heels, just a pair of fluffy slippers. I can't be complaining to be honest because other days when she invites us, she just wears a huge fluffy pyjama gown and has her hair up in a ponytail and carries on like everything's ok.  I had noticed what the problem was a long time ago and it was that everyone had changed.  "Yeah," I began, "I almost didn't make it. I was busy." She nodded, but I could see she'd change the subject because she didn't want to talk about the business, "I'm glad you could. It is our father's birthday after all," she laughed, coming towards me and hugging me, "why don't you go sit down in the dining room, everyone's already here. I'm almost done with the cooking anyway."  The conversation I was met with as I entered the dining room was something familiar to my ears, but caused the hairs on my arms to stand.  It was the usual "how's school?", "how's your boyfriend?", "I started using a different brand of manure for my garden", "my baby said her first words" and "when's your next spelling bee?"  Nothing like the conversations we had when we were younger. The conversations where we'd talk about drugs and killing people like it was normal, which it was but instead, over time as all of my siblings grew up, they kind of changed.  Victoria looked up at me, waving at me as she held out her little baby boy in my direction, who smiled widely at me like I was all he wanted to see. My heart softened at the sight and I took him into my arms, running my hands through his hair and letting him slap around my face as much as he wanted.  "Let's get everything ready for dad," Victoria rushed out as she rushed around the dining room and fixed the balloons all around the room, the confetti spread all over the place, and the birthday cake that was sitting in the middle of the table, with the numbers 72 on it.  "Hey big bro," Nikita whispered into my ear as she planted a kiss on my cheek and I just blinked in response and she smiled at me, knowing that was my greeting. "You look good, as always," she said to me.  Currently in the room, it was just my siblings, Red and me. Whenever we did something for our father we made sure it was just his children and his grandchildren so that he wouldn't get overwhelmed. So nobody's boyfriends or husbands were here with the exception of Red.  "He's coming!" Natalya's 20 year old daughter, Malia, shouted enthusiastically as her mother followed behind her and we all stood in the middle of the room, waiting for the elderly couple to appear and when they did, the words everyone shouted rung through the air.  "Surprise!"  ~~~