They were six friends who grew up together in Charlestown, a town overlooking the Northeast River where everyone knows everyone else. They had all gone to Perryville High School and spent their summers fishing.

On Tuesday, they stayed up all night, talking and drinking beer until the sun came up. They got into a Ford Explorer to take a friend home. Only three of the six survived the trip, leaving the town of about 1,000 people an hour north of Baltimore shaken and in mourning.

"It's hit too close to home," said Brenda Day, who lives next door to the father of two of the boys in the accident, one of whom survived and one of whom did not. "The kids were all well-known around town and well-liked. They stuck together. It's a tragedy and a shock to everyone."

Joshua Emory, 18, stood outside his house on Cecil Street yesterday afternoon, a miracle if there was one in the accident. He had been sitting in the back of the SUV and woke up at Christiana Hospital in Delaware, not knowing what had happened.

His 20-year-old brother, Thomas Emory, and two young women who lived a few blocks away were killed when the driver of the SUV lost control and hit a tree. Josh walked out of the hospital Wednesday with a scratch on his eye and some bruises.

"I don't know why it happened the way it did," he said. "I don't remember nothing. If I wasn't so drunk I probably wouldn't have gotten into the car. I don't blame anyone for what happened. ... I regret it, but I don't blame anybody."

In his tight-knit neighborhood of cottages and trailers a few hundred yards from the river, not everyone was talking about forgiveness yesterday.

Not far from where Josh Emory stood, his mother was making funeral plans and greeting relatives arriving by the carload. Down the street, the mother of two of his friends was making arrangements to bury her daughters, Lisa Taylor, 18, and Johniemae Brown, 20.

A few miles away, on the slight curve on Carpenter's Point Road near Seneca Shores Road where the Explorer hit a tree just before 6 a.m. Wednesday, someone had spray-painted in white: "You will be missed."

The tree had become a makeshift shrine. Flowers were laid on the ground. Someone had nailed a ceramic angel to the trunk. Someone else left a Budweiser beer cap.

The driver, Raven N. Dorsey, 19, who lived a few houses away from the accident site, remained hospitalized at Christiana Hospital yesterday but had been moved from the emergency unit, police said.

Another passenger, Joseph C. Grove, 19, of the 100 block of Cecil Ave. in North East, remained in critical condition at Christiana Hospital late yesterday with life-threatening injuries, police said.

The night before the accident, the group was at Dorsey's house drinking beer and dancing in the yard to rap and country music blaring from a friend's car.

"Thomas was talking about marrying my sister the whole night," said Robin Collins, 18, who was best friends with Lisa Taylor and whose sister had been dating Thomas Emory for four years. "He said he'd see me tomorrow ... But no matter how much I pray, they aren't coming back."

The group had just dropped Collins off at her house a few miles away when the accident occurred. Collins said she begged everyone to come inside to sober up. "I said, 'Guys, don't go. You're drunk.'"

Dorsey, who had a valid driver's license, was scheduled to appear at a Motor Vehicle Administration hearing this month for accumulation of traffic violations, an MVA spokeswoman said. Her driving record, which dates to January 2001, lists more than eight violations, including an alcohol-related incident in April and failure to present her registration in June, traffic court records show.

Dorsey's stepfather said he and his wife were in Ocean City when the accident happened. He said he didn't know enough about what had happened to comment.

Accident investigators think speed and alcohol were factors in the crash, state police said.

Police are investigating the accident and plan to review the case with the state's attorney's office, said Sgt. Thornnie Rouse, a state police spokesman.

Perryville High School Principal Vincent Cariello said all six of the young people in the accident had attended the school at one point or another. "It's devastating," the principal said. "Unfortunately, it's not uncommon."

Joshua Emory graduated from the school in June, the only one of the six to finish.

Thomas Emory had also attended North East High School, said Susie Dean, their great-aunt. He loved NASCAR and Elvis Presley, his dog, Isabella, and his family and friends, she said.

Thomas and Joshua planned to go to technical school to learn plumbing in the fall.

They were like that - always together, whether they were playing basketball or just hanging out - said their 16-year-old sister, Mandy Emory.

She also had fond memories of Lisa Taylor and Johniemae Brown. "They were always happy," she said.

The sisters liked to dress in the latest streetwise fashions, but they lived a hard and fast life, other friends said.

Johniemae was a housekeeper at the Crystal Inn in North East, and Lisa had recently quit a job as a cook at the Wellwood Yacht Club in Charlestown.

"They were always drinking and always getting in trouble," said Justine Paxton, 16, a friend of Lisa's. "She could have come out of having this bad life and actually made something out of her life. I just thought she made wrong decisions sometimes."

All day yesterday, knots of friends met at one another's houses, puzzling over painful questions. "We're wondering why it had to happen to them," Collins said.

Sun staff writer Ariel Sabar contributed to this article.