“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

“Can’t breathe… Heart pounding… Need an ambulance…”

“Where are you, sir?”

“Payphone, 10th and Grand… Please hurry!”

“Are you injured?”

“No.”

“Do you have health problems? Asthma?”

“No.”

“Has this happened before?”

“No.”

“What were you doing when the breathing problems started?”

“Running from the cops.”

Gary Clifton, forty years a cop, has short fiction pieces published or pending on over 40 online sites.  He has an M.S. from Abilene Christian University.