Do you ever meet people who will, at all costs, attempt to corner you and verbally attack you for no reason whatsoever?

     Most everyone tells me how easy I am to get along with, and feel that they talk to me about anything and everything because I actually listen.  They also tell me that I wear my heart on my sleeve a lot, and tend not to come asking a lot of questions when I appear to be stressed or shaken.
     I have two people in my life who go out of their way to ignore all of that.  Instead, they prefer to sit back and make verbal assaults, threaten me with violence and make sure to tell me that it’s all my fault that they are so angry.  It’s nonsense, and I have no time for it.

     Mind you, if I’m having lunch with one of them and that sort of thing starts, I’ll get up and walk out.  If they call me on the phone, I’ll hang up.  If I see them in public and wave to them and they glare at me and walk in the other direction, I’m certainly not going to chase them down.
     These actions, however, are mortal sins in their eyes.

     Two weeks ago, I was taken to lunch by one of them, and before I finished eating, the tirade started.  It was vicious, and completely one-sided.  I simply got up and walked out of the restaurant.
     This, of course, started a series of calls to my office phone and cellphone, complete with hateful, spiteful voicemails.  Apparently, getting up and walking away is “immature” and “weak,” and illustrative of what a “disgrace” I am.

     Later that night, after the walking-away-at-the-restaurant incident, she decided to physically corner me.  As I attempted to leave, she ran around me like a pack of rabid chihuahuas, spewing incessant, inflammatory ankle-biting.  The blood-lust in her eyes glowed in the dark, and the acidic venom coming from her mouth was enough to pierce my thick skin.
     Fight or flight kicked in.  I was cornered with nowhere to go, and I finally blew up and gave her the verbal bashing she needed.  Of course, that’s never the end of it, is it?  Instead, she attempted to hit me, throw things at me and scream bloody murder.
     Fortunately, while she was preoccupied trashing the place and finding something else to kick and throw, I took the opportunity to get the Hell out of there.
     I don’t need that.  Nobody needs that.

     Of course, that didn’t stop her from running and telling everyone what I said.  Nevermind the events leading up to it, or what happened after — the important thing is what I said, and nothing else matters.
     And thus, we come to party number two.  Three times in the last two weeks, he’s called and started screaming at me, prompting me to simply hang up.  I don’t have time for that, especially when I’m working.
     Yes, working, mind you.  Apparently, I’m expected to drop everything, listen to tirade after tirade of circular nonsense, one point of contention dependent on another, but when the first is debunked, the rest stand like a house of cards with the bottom level missing — something clearly impossible without zero gravity and some Elmer’s Glue.
     Hanging up, of course, meets with with an hour-long series of phone calls, complete with voice mails threatening violence, telling me how “childish” and “weak” I am… and that I’m a “disgrace.”

     I would submit that the more mature, and difficult, thing to do is to simply not give a damn what they think.
     Unfortunately, that sort of logic is lost on these two.

     The only “disgrace” is that they’re both family.
     Situations like that, you can’t win.  All you can do is walk away and hope for the best.  And somehow, I’m resigned to the fact that that’ll never happen.