Character sketch: Juror No. 9

This character needs no pseudonym; memorable as she was, I don't think I ever learned her name.

As juror (gah, what a difficult word to pronounce; it's like "flirt" or "nurse" in that it sounds basically the same without vowels) number 8 I sat at the beginning of the second row, with no one on my right and juror 9 on my right. Oh my goodness, where to begin...I'll start with her feet.  They were bulbous, dry and crusty; I distinctly remember juror 10 commenting that they looked like they belonged to a pterodactyl, and that description and image have stuck in my head forever.  I had jury duty in the summertime so of course the climate in the courtroom was set to "arctic shill", yet she wore sandals to court and always took them off when we were in session.  Sometimes they'd point at the juror 10, sometimes at me.  They were enormous in proportion to her height. Thank God they didn't smell, they were creepy enough already. 

To add to that, she had the distinct raspy voice of a pack-a-day smoker, and asked if she could go out for a smoke during our breaks.  Her request was denied.  She took it well, though, and merely shrugged her boulder-like shoulders so that they brushed her frizzy mousy-brown bob. "Can't win 'em all," she muttered colloquially to no one in particular.

I know a lot about being perpetually late.  I'm terrible with time management and I think the only event I ever came to ahead of schedule was for my birth (by two weeks-- 336 hours; I think if you added up all the minutes I've been late for something in my life, it probably adds up to something like that amount).  But for the four days that I had to show up for jury duty I made sure to come early, if not on time.  I had been 18 for 6 months and was the youngest juror; I didn't want to lose respect by acting the Negligent and Careless Teenager.  Instead it was juror 9 who was always the last one in, and was always 5-10 minutes late in the morning and for returning from lunch breaks. 

As easy as it is to riducule her for living in her own world and caring little for what people thought of her, I have to admire her a little bit for that.  I still think that she should've acted with more tact in light of the situation we were in.  It annoyed me, how she spoke so casually with everyone despite the fact that we were basically total strangers who didn't care about each other past reaching a verdict (and almost everyone made remarks about her when she wasn't around).  Even if we said disparaging remarks to her face I don't think she'd give a hoot.  Annoying, but admirable.