He say, She say, But what did I Say?

    Arguements always either end in disaster or in solution but in the case of my story, the arguement resulted in tragedy. It resulted in the death of my stepfather. Many people would think i would be reluctant to telling this story. But i find it important to tell of how things can go for bad to worse in the exchange of words and bullets.
    It was February 17th 2008, and my sister got into an altercation with our stepbrother. My stepfather always favored him more so of course she got into more trouble than he did. My stepfather whooped my sister. HE WHOOPED HER. Can you believe it?! Neither could she. So she called my father out of anger. The thing about my father is. He's a cop and had a short fuse. Plus he really didn't like the guy. But thats not even the whole story.
    So my father decided to show up to the house and exchange a few words with my mother. Things seemed to be going ok. There were no voices being raised and the incident looked like it was dieing down. But my stepdad came back from dropping off his son and thats when things started to go bad. He walked up the street and they were talking, being civil, but you could cut the tension with a knife. My stepdad put his hands in his pockets and my dad got nervous. So did I. So my dad reached for his gun because you know he's a cop and thats what he's trained to do. Turns out my stepdad had his gun too. I knew things could only get worse. And they did. They took cover, my dad behind my grandmother's car, my stepdad behind a tree not that far from me. Of course i was crying hysterically wanting to just get in the car with my dad and leave but the problem escalated. My mom convinced my stepdad to put away his weappon as I failed to persuade my dad to put his away. But he was to into the whole thing to even know i existed. My stepdad could have just went in the house and not have said a word. But no. He had to threaten my dad. Who i can admit now was never the most sanist person i had ever met. And those 5 words my stepdad said, the words that changed all of our lives forever "I know where you lay", were the last words he ever said. The last threat he ever made.
    And I told this story to inform you of how even 5 simple words can change your life or can result in such a big way. Offense and pride played a big part in this too. If my dad would have just backed down and not have gottten offended from wat my stepdad said then the whole sistuation could have been better. And if my stepdad just didnt have to have the last word maybe he would still be alive. Who knows? Maybe if I would have called the police like my mother asked instead of standing in shock, that could have resulted in something different. But I guess some tragedies have to happen so people can learn from their mistakes. I've learned to watch what I say and who I say it to. What can you learn from my story?