iAddict

A week later I was sitting in a large room with forty or so others waiting to be picked for a jury.  We had all been given pamphlets explaining our duties as potential jurors.  Each pamphlet came in a plastic bag with a number attached.

A pale older man in with a clipboard called out “Numbers eight, nine, twelve, twenty-one, and thirty, please put phones in the numbered bag. Place it in the bin.” He held up a small plastic container.

Four of us did as we were told.

A blonde thirty-something woman in a gray pantsuit said she’d put her phone on vibrate. She needed to stay in touch with her office. When that didn’t work, she said her father was gravely ill.

“You can tell the judge,” the old man said holding out the bin, “Maybe he’ll excuse you.”

“OK,” she said. “I’ll just hold onto it until he lets me go.”

The old man shook his head and the bin. She threw a temper tantrum. 

“How they get addicted to those phones,” a middle-aged woman said to me, shaking her head.

Today I’ll beware of new addictions.

Jury Duty © 2019 by Ken Montrose

Jury Duty is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and anyone you might know is purely coincidental.

Other works by Ken Montrose are available at: www.greenbriartraining.com https://www.pinterest.com/kenmontrose/mt-rose/