The Anticlimax

I arrived nice and early this morning, as did most of the jurors. We waited with anticipation as 9:30 drew near. For many of us, this was our first time on a jury, or potentially on a jury. as 9:30 came and went we were told that we would be starting a bit late. We could go down to the cafeteria if we wanted, but we should expect to begin around 10:00.

Well, 10:00 came and went and there we remained. At 15 or 20 minute intervals, a uniformed officer would come out of the courtroom and tell us that it would be a couple more minutes. Uh, yeah. Shortly after 11:00 another group of jurors poured from the elevators and into the hallway where my group of jurors stood and sat as seating allowed. Now rather familiar and friendly with one another, we joked about how our replacements had arrived and we were excused. But not yet. Shortly after the arrival of the new apathetic mob, an officer leaned his head out of the courtroom and said that we were about to start. 10 or 15 minutes passed. I had now been waiting nearly 2 hours (darn punctuality complex of mine.)

We entered the courtroom where 2 attorneys in royal blue skirt suits (yes, silly, they were both women, but that doesn't explain their identical outfits) and a hulking man in a blue and red plaid shirt and a tight fitting white knit hat stood and watched us file in. Instructions were read to us and one by one we were called up before the group of approximately 50-60 people to give some details about our towns of residence and occupations for the past 10 years, as well as several questions relevant to the case. I think I was lucky. I was the 4th to be chosen and the 4th to be seated on the jury. We proceeded to call jurors at random and ask the same 10 questions, at which time they were either seated or excused by the judge.

When the seats were full, I thought we were done. However, then one of the attorneys asked juror number 4 to be excused. I looked down the row to count the seats as someone said "that's you, sir." It was me. I was out of there. In fact that was it. After much ado, I was through. As much as I didn't want to spend a couple more days there for the trial, I really wonder what will happen on the case.