"What's the use?" she asked herself.  "I can't figure it out.  I've disliked you from the first time we met.  I think you are plainly crazy, egotistic, and dishonest.  All that 'love' crap.  I think you live in a fantasy world where nobody should ever get hurt.  But one thing I've never accused you of, and that's stupidity.  And now you're doing something stupid, as if you really think you can bring it off.  Surely you realize this thing can't work?"  She looked concerned as she stared at him.  Almost as if she wished she could help him.

Nothing could be more certain to light a fire under David, but I honestly don't think Callie meant to provoke him.  By her lights he really was planning to commit political suicide if he intended to keep Lunarians from their bronto meat, not to mention all other forms of flesh.  And she never did understand foolishness in other human beings.

He leaned forward, opened his mouth to begin another prepared tirade, but he never got the chance.  What I think happened, and the tapes back me up on this, is some of the fresh logs shifted.  One of them fell into a pool of the brontosaur fat Callie had poured on, a pool that had been burning on the surface and getting hotter by the minute.  The sudden addition of hot coals caused the fat to pop, like it will in a skillet.  There was a shower of sparks and all four of us were spattered by tiny droplets of boiling, burning grease that clung like napalm.  Since they were mostly quite small, there were just a few sharp pains on my arms and my face, and I quickly slapped them out.  Callie and the man with the horns were slapping at themselves as well.

David had a somewhat larger problem.

"He's on fire!" prong-head shouted.  And it was true.  The top of his grass-covered head was burning merrily.  David himself wasn't aware of it yet, and looked around in confusion, then stared up with a surprised expression I would always remember, even if it hadn't been shown a hundred times on the news.

"I need some water," he said, brushing at the flames and hastily drawing his hand back.  He seemed calm enough.

"Here, wait a minute," Callie shouted, and turned toward the beverage cooler.  I think she meant to douse him with more beer, and I thought in passing how ironic it was that her throwing the first beer may have saved him having to buy a new face because it had soaked the grass of his beard.  "Mario, get him on the ground, try and smother it."

I didn't comment on her use of my old name.  It didn't seem the proper time for it.  I started around the fire, reached for David, and he shoved me away.  It was purely a panic reaction.  I think it had started to hurt by then.

"Water!  Where is the water?"