INUVIK, CANADA – 3:17 PM

She was breathing heavily, panting as the pain would not cease. Darleen knew this was the time. Prepping herself to do what she had never done before, Darleen put up the “Back in 5 Minutes” sign, even though she knew she would be back in no less than ten minutes and that the signs big red letters were glaring fibs to the world, but she figured that the few hail Mary’s she mumbled on the way to her beat up blue pick up truck would suffice for her lie. Firing up ole Betty Doo she pressed on the gas and roared out of the gravel parking lot of Bruce’s PetroGas Truck Auto Beer Repair. The nearest hospital was a good three hour drive away and she knew that she did not have that much time, so she went to the next best place she could think of, the Inuvik Large-Animal Veterinary Clinic.