Chaos at Shorty's Corner

A few days ago, I was on my way down the mountain towards the gateway town of Sandy. I planned on stopping into Shorty's Corner for an oh-so-yummy-but-so-unhealthy BBQ burrito - but after seeing the swarms of police and emergency vehicles in the parking lot, and officers gathered around a small reddish truck, I decided to press on, and get something in Sandy.

I stopped for gas at Arco, (their gasoline is not produced from products purchased in the middle east, and their prices are lowest on the mountain - still.) and then at Sparky's for a pizza. As I sat waiting for the pizza to bake, a few more emergency vehicles and police cars flew by, and I was imagining the worst.

On my way back up the mountain, I realized we had nothing to drink with the pizza, and pulled into Shorty's parking lot. I must have a severe short-term memory issue, because I seemed to have forgotten about the commotion on my way down. But it seemed to have calmed down a little, and I went in anyway.

While in line, the young man in front of me was talking with the clerk, and said "I'm not supposed to be around guns, so I went walking around a little, and when I got back he was hunched forward with blood all over him!"

That got my attention, and I knew the clerk well enough to get a little closer to the conversation. She asked, "Did you know them?"

"Yeah, we were all together, but I couldn't be around them because they had guns. I went up Wildcat with my friends, and my other friends showed up to go shooting, that's when I took off, because I can't be around guns. But when I came back, he was covered in blood." He was completely shaken by the event, understandably.

"What type of gun was it?"

"An old shotgun, like an old style one."

At that point, I figured that it was some sort of accident, and asked the young man, "Is he going to be okay?" He turned to me and started to look really worried, "I hope so, I'm pretty sure it was just flesh wounds, but his chest was covered and so was his face. It must have malfunctioned, it was pretty old. But thanks, yeah, I hope he's okay, he was just laying in my arms with blood all over him."

He explained that they were just beyond the rock quarry on Wildcat Mountain Road and that Shorty's Corner was the closest place to go for help. By that time, I was finished making my purchase, and he turned to the clerk again, and as they got more into detail about what happened, and we all exchanged glances one last time before I passed through the door, and took my pizza home, where I set it down to go look for the family. I should have bought the burrito, because a few minutes later (while no one was looking) our bulldog ate the entire pizza.