We stopped and picked up Kari, she called Johnny, Craig and Dinah. We ended up thrashing three rigs up into the mountains, Alex had never really had a girlfriend, and we had no idea how he ended up tagging along out there. Robert was driving his Ford truck with Jenn, and Alex. Johnny and Craig were in the Subaru wagon, with their girls, Feora and Alice.

We ended up way the hell and gone up at the end of some logging road that hadn't been used in a couple years, pretty desolate spot. It was getting dark, so us guys built a fire. The girls were all huddled up discussing whatever stuff them female types think about when the guys are doing stuff like getting wood to burn.

Alex pulled out a bottle of wine, and the Subaru happened to have a bottle of tequila stashed in there, so with the beer and other potables we were soon circled around the fire, getting loopy and stupid.

One of the gals suggested that we play spin the bottle, later on we never could straighten out exactly whose idea it was, but after some discussion a beer bottle with the label torn off was placed in the center of the circle we had made off to one side of the fire.

Several of us tried to spin that bottle on the ground but it was pretty obvious that we needed a hard flat surface, so I grabbed a chunk of plywood out of the back of my truck.

Jenn reached out, and spun the bottle. The flames eerily lit the scene as we all held our breath until the bottle stopped, pointing at Kyle. Kari opened her mouth to say something, but never said anything, I think we were all watching Kari. She is a stone fox, by anyones standards, I think even the gals were a bit jealous of Kyle. Kari stopped, frozen in place, looking at Robert.

The next moments are etched in my mind, I looked at Robert to see what had gotten Kari so absolutely focused. Robert had pulled out his fathers 44 Magnum and was pointing it at Kyle's head. I could hear Kyle begin to speak, as if to say, "Wait, . . ." . But we never heard his words, as the roar , flash, and concussion stunned us all. Robert had pulled the trigger. Kyle's head just exploded in a cloud of blood, brain and bone.

Kari got spattered by some of the fragments and gunk that had been Kyle's head. I have no idea how long we all just sat there stunned, but Kari was the first to react. She was trying to scream, vomit and pass out all at the same time. She managed to do all three eventually but the vomit came first. The rest of the girls were a study of horror, anger and confused surprise.

I know I was scared, and angry at Robert. Several of us started yelling at him at about the same time. He still had that 44 out and was obviously willing to use it. None of us were inclined to rush him to get it.

Kari got to the screaming stage of her reaction, but that was short lived as she rather abruptly fell back. The sound of her head hitting the ground punctuated the silence that ensued at her wailing scream.

Kyle had fallen back also, and the juxtaposition of the two bodies was poignant. If Kyle had had a face left, they would have been facing each other.

Robert calmly took a pull off of the bottle of tequila, and as he put the revolver back into his jacket pocket, he looked around and said, "Somebody had to do it."

It must be hard to read this and understand what happened next. The girls got up and went to Kari, they pulled her limp form away from the mess that had been Kyle, and began trying to revive her and clean her up.

Us guys ended up dragging Kyle out into the woods and we buried him there. In the dark, without any tools we managed to get a hole big enough and fairly deep. That took us a long time.

No one ever found Kyle. None of us ever said anything about that night.

Kari doesn't talk much anymore, but sometime when she lets me touch her face, I can still feel a piece of Kyle's skull bone that was embedded in her cheek. Not much of a scar there, but I can feel the hard little lump.

I doubt that any of us ever played 'spin the bottle' again. I know Kari and I have never played it again.

It wasn't much fun. I don't think we did it right.