"Yeah, I guess so," I said.
As for the third name that was called, I never figured out who that was. I only saw two of us stand up.
Before Eiland could get away, I said, "Why am I free to go? I'm not complaining, but I don't understand what happened."
She mumbled something about "random selection" and "you were excused" and wandered off.
I showed up at 8:15, it wasn't even 10 o'clock yet, and I was already being told to hit the road. My first thought was, "If I was going to be excused for some random reason, couldn't that have been done before I drove all the way downtown?"
My second thought, and by far the most important one, was: "I haven't had my free lunch--and it probably isn't going to be served for another two hours or more."
Eiland actually said that the other guy and I could stick around for our free lunch. And free lunches mean enough to me that I gave it serious thought. But I decided that spending more time than necessary in a jury room would be seriously bad form--and would raise questions about my need to get a life.
Is it possible that one of the lawyers in the case scanned the list of potential jurors, recognized my name, and alerted Bowdre? Is it possible the conversation among the lawyers went something like this?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).