My dad liked to be in absolute control of his little
kingdom and every night he would gather us up for some mandatory
scripture reading. Sometimes it went peacefully other times one of us
would balk and there would be a fight that lasted ten times longer
than the reading would have. He didn't care what we were doing or if
we were at a good stopping point and there was no set time for
scripture time it was just two minutes after whenever the whim stuck
him. One night I was in the middle of building something in my room
when he hollered through the house that it was scripture time I told
him to wait a minute and if horses were in need of holding then so be
it. My metaphorical equestrian advice was not heeded and my dad said
that if I didn't come in right away that I was going to loose all of
my privileges ( that was his favorite catch all punishment). I
dropped my project and sulked in and sat on the floor by the hall
way. When I came into the living room Rob started in with a little
Kiss-A speech about how it was my dad's house and I should just do
what he says so that blah blah blah dah blah. I told him to shut his
Kiss-A mouth and quit kissing my dad's 'A'. That was the last thing
my dad was willing to hear that night and he shot out of his chair
with preternatural speed for a guy his size and tried to stomp on me
as I quickly crab crawled away and down the hall just ahead of his
stomps. I scuttled just out of stomping range as he stomped hard from
one foot to the next while punctuating his stomps with rhythmic
cursing and oaths of destruction. He had tried to stomp me halfway
down the hall way by the time my mom caught up to him and stopped
him. He was still furious but he wouldn't dare to disobey my mom so
he just told me I was grounded from everything and he sent me to my
room. When I was in my in my room and the adrenaline of the situation
was wearing off the whole situation stuck me as being really funny
and I started laughing to myself. I was pretty mad at Rob for being
such a brown noser and at my dad for defending him but I was over it
soon and the grounding didn't stick. I didn't know until years later
that all of my siblings thought that my dad had actually landed the
stomps and that he had been crushing me. That would make the story
better but luckily he missed.
