Hell On Earth or "How I Spent My Thansgiving Vacation"

My dad is crazy. No, not the comical, fun-loving "I mumble to myself and think I'm the Queen of England" kind of crazy. He's more of the "I yell and scream and threaten people" type of crazy that makes everyone nervous and uncomfortable. This Thanksgiving was no exception. For some reason, I have been designated the family intermediary, mostly because I'm the only one that will really talk to him. And I think I've finally learned my lesson.

My sister is currently attending a college (not, high school) hundreds of miles away for the express purpose of getting far from under his watchful eye and weighty thumb. He's not paying for her school and she likes it that way, I imagine, because it keeps her in control of things. He has a habit of threatening to pull the rug out from under someone, especially if the rug solely belongs to him. It's a power/control thing and he's masterful at it. Well, now that my sister's on her own, he's frantic to get some kind of control back so he's trying to get her to take her car back. I've been using the car for the time being and it's nice, new, safe and dependable. She doesn't care about it one way or the other.

This is starting to get long winded so I'll try and abridge it for you. My sister came down for the holidays and we had Thanksgiving "dinner" (which was at 1 pm) at my aunt and uncle's house. As we were leaving, my dad in his usual blustery fashion began telling me that we all needed to be at his house at 3:30 for "discussions", which meant that he wanted me to be involved in the negotiations between he and my sister regarding the car. I told him that I had to be somewhere and that any discussions regarding the car have nothing to do with me. I didn't want to get involved, and I said that to him. What was his reply, you ask? In front of my aunt, uncle, cousins and his mom?

"Don't bow up at me or I'll knock you on your ass."

See why I don't want to get involved? I told him "Whatever" and turned to my aunt as she feverishly tried to talk about something else and he stomped out of the house and left, quickly and impolitely without saying goodbye to anyone. He later called my cell phone and left another threatening message with I've kept and may post for your listening pleasure. He claimed that it would be my fault if something happened to my sister because she didn't have a safe car to ride it and "God help me" if something bad did happen. In other words, his concern is one of safety. And then I take a nice deep breath of air and shout "BULLSH*T" at the top of my lungs.

Ah, that felt good.

Now that I'm calm, I'll just respond by saying that if it was in fact a "safety issue" like he claims, there would be no "negotiations" because he'd just GIVE her the car. The truth is that he's imposing his will and wants to make sure that she tells him that he's the boss and all that other foolishness. This insanity has got to stop. This is why I have decided that I'm spending Xmas in isolation and will not be going home. Just not worth it.