[ WP ] A lonely man in his 80 's is allowed to get drunk for that last time and tell a story from his youth ... ..

He swirled his glass around momentarily lost in the alcoholic vortex. He remembered the people that had held the now empty bottle of scotch. This time he did n't cry his tears were long dried since Korea. Pulling his pipe from his coat he packed it. 
 We watched silently from our stools at the bar. The old man often would sit alone staring at the bottle never once drinking from it. He had n't smoked since the diagnosis. Finally he turned to us and spoke. “ How many didsh yah get boys? ” 
 I was the first to answer “ Three ”, everyone else shifted and admitted they had n't killed anyone on deployment. 
 The old man shrugged and puffed on his pipe “ Thish damn bottle got fourteen of us anyone but me who touched it bought it. ” Everyone got quiet moving to get comfortable for the old mans story. 
 
 We did n't join the army out of any sense of pride hell no me and my friends went cause what we seen on the pictures. Shootin guns killing the enemy being heroes. We did n't know what happens, in the pictures there aint no losing. Army shipped us out to Korea gave us each a garand and a ditch to hide in. My unit were the lucky ones, never a wounded never a causality. Two months on the lines boys never a death then they pulled us back to give us a rest. Stole this very bottle from an officers desk. Mean old bastard too he took it from the Nazis. 
 
 Taking a moment to think the old man slowly puffed on his pipe. Everyone of us took a turn hiding the bottle. Plan was to drink it after the war. That all went to hell. Sent us back to the front got us chewed up good. It was always targeted whoever had touched the bottle last went no one else. Jim stepped on a mine, rest of us walked out of the field without a scratch. Luke got shot in the face. Mason shot himself. Fred and Louis both got taken out by a sniper on different days. Aaron's m1 had a malfunction and blew up in his face. Kenneth just went missing one day. Jack got bayoneted during a charge. Earl flipped a jeep and died. Charles got hit by artillery gone in a instant. Bill died in surgery. Pat got hit in the stomach. Marcus got killed by friendly fire. David got captured and was never seen again.I saw the tent the bottle was in get hit by mortars. Found it a few feet scorched but intact. Damn thing is evil and I finally finished it off after all these years of working up the nerve. With that he pushed it off the table and it shattered on the floor. He stood up and shambled out the door. 
 
 The next morning he was found dead in his armchair at home. The bar burned down that night after we all left. Police said it was an electrical fire. The superstitious among us thought better of it.
