As far as Milt was concerned, being on jury duty wasn’t much better than being in jail, although he thought he probably had a little better company – not a lot better, since everybody was getting pretty snappy with each other by the time they reached the weekend.

While they were not supposed to be talking about the trial when they were out of session, any chance of it not happening was miniscule. Although no one talked about it very much, he could see that there were three different points of view developing. One group seemed to be in favor of murder one, another in favor of letting Zimmerman off on temporary insanity, and the rest for something in between, although no one was sure what. It was dead certain that there would be no quick decision once they went into deliberations.

The sessions had broken for the weekend; everyone involved got to go home, except for the jury and for Zimmerman, of course, who had been in the county jail for over a year now, the course of justice moving at its usual glacial speed.

Milt was bored and frustrated at the same time. He had talked to Mary Ann at least once a day, but she had no good news to report. The exterminator had finished at the Sullivan Street store, but Marcie was still awaiting re-inspection, which wouldn’t come until the first of the week at the soonest. Mary Ann and Marcie had agreed to pull the perishables out of that store and distribute them around the other stores, but the sales at them had been so slow that there had been no need to do re-orders, which was good as far as it went. Sales at the three stores still open were running at well under half their normal volume, and there was nothing good about that. On top of that, there was no indication that the Sandy’s stores showed any sign of going to normal pricing anytime soon.

He didn’t have the figures with him, but knew them well enough to tell that things were going downhill fast, and there might be no stopping them. Sequestered like this, there really wasn’t anything he could do to affect things, and he might not be able to if the jury ever reached a verdict.

If that weren’t enough, Maxine had only answered the phone once, and she was disconsolate. The only thing he could get out of her besides a bunch of crying was the news, “Petra’s gone! She showed up one day with a couple of cops, got her stuff, and left. I couldn’t do anything to stop her. Milt, I don’t know what to do.”

He didn’t have an answer and didn’t think there was one. That was something else he was going to have to figure out once this ordeal was over with. What else could go wrong?

From the weather reports it looked like Saturday was going to be a nice day, so Royce figured it was time to socialize and the pool seemed to be a way to do it.

Not really much had happened between Petra and Jeremy at the lunch they’d had together on Tuesday, but they were polite to each other. Royce didn’t really want to try to be a matchmaker, but decided that things would go a little easier for Petra if she had a guy who was interested in her, even this quickly, and Jeremy was the best candidate he could think of. So even before lunch was over he invited Jeremy to join them at his house on Saturday afternoon to use the pool and just relax a bit.

Although he wanted to hang around with Petra in the evenings to make up for lost time, Royce had not forgotten about Maria, who was on evenings at Parker’s Corners this week. A couple of times he’d taken off by himself to “drop in and say hi” to her; she was always glad to see him, although there couldn’t be any real communications under the circumstances.

He did give her a thumbnail report that Petra had moved in with him, but that it was something they’d have to talk about some time when they could talk. He suggested that she come over to join the pool activities on Saturday, and to bring Ramona along with her. “She’ll love that,” she told him. “She had a real great time last weekend. But Royce, it was just a little hard on her being the only kid there. Do you think it would be all right if we brought a friend of hers along?”

“Don’t see any reason why not,” he said. “The more the merrier, and the kids will be able to keep each other occupied while the adults talk.”

Since it was a party, Royce took it upon himself to get some refreshments. This wasn’t a big deal; he just got some pre-made snack trays from one of the stores, along with a couple of bags of chips, and made sure the refrigerator was well stocked with soft drinks.

When Jeremy arrived around noon, he found Royce and Petra out by the pool, just enjoying the sun and relaxing. Petra was wearing a rather small bikini and he could hardly tear his eyes away from her, but in an attempt to not be too obvious, he began to update Royce on the latest sales figures and news from the new stores.

“I suspect they’re going about as well as they have all week,” Royce broke into Jeremy’s report. “Tell you what. Let’s not talk about business today. This is supposed to be a break, you know.”

“Fine by me,” Jeremy said. “Petra, I know we didn’t get much chance to talk when we did lunch on Tuesday, but how is your new job going?”

“I’m still getting my feet under me,” she reported. “In fact, that’s the problem. I’m on my feet all the time and they’re really hurting by the end of the day.”

“That’s what happens when you’re a stocker,” he said. “I’ve been there and I know how it works. About all I can tell you is that it gets a little better once you get used to it. But I used to find that there was a real pleasure in getting done with stocking a shelf and having it all neat looking. It tends to draw customers’ attention.”

“I’ll tell you what,” she replied. “There’s a lot more to it than I ever thought there was, but I think I learn something new every time I turn around.”

“Good. That’s the spirit. Keep learning things every day and you’ll find that it gets more interesting. There’s a trick to being a good stocker, a rhythm that helps you get things done more quickly. But I have to ask you, don’t you feel a little letdown after graduating from college and then becoming a shelf stocker?”

“Of course I do,” she shrugged. “But I’m coming to agree with Daddy that I need to start at the bottom to find out how things really work. I just hope that as I go along I’ll be able to apply some of the things I learned in college.”

Maria arrived about that time, bringing Ramona and another girl about her age. “Hi, Maria,” Royce said. “Glad you could make it. I’m sure you know Jeremy, and this young lady here is my daughter Petra.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Maria smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Things have changed between us in the past few days,” Royce told her. “She’s actually a pretty nice kid, but we can talk about that later. Petra, this is Maria, the woman I told you about, and this is her daughter, Ramona. I’m afraid I don’t know your friend though, Ramona.”

“This is Christi,” she reported. “She lives in the same apartments we do and goes to school with me.”

All three of the new arrivals soon peeled out of their street clothes and the two younger girls made a mad dash for the pool, while the adults settled down in lounge chairs. “Petra, Jeremy,” Royce said, “I don’t want to run you off, but I need to talk with Maria privately for a few minutes. Why don’t the two of you go play in the pool with the kids or something?”

“Yeah, sure, we can do that,” Petra agreed. “Jeremy, how about we teach these girls how to chicken fight?”

“Boy, I haven’t done that in years,” he laughed. “But I used to have some fun with it back when I was about their age.”

“I did too,” she laughed. “Let’s go.”

The four were soon in the pool, leaving Royce and Maria alone in the lounge chairs. “All right,” she said. “Now what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Mostly I wanted to fill you in on Petra,” he told her. “I think I told you that we made up, and she’s on the outs with her mother now. I offered to let her live here, and we’ve been busy making up on what we missed out on for so long. There is a long story behind that and I’ve only given you the bare thumbnail of it. I can tell you more if you think you want to know it, but now is not the time.”

“I think I’d like to know more about it, but you’re right, this isn’t the time. She seems like a pretty nice girl, though.”

“I think she is. She just started working as a stocker over at Jefferson Center, but it’s partly to get her mind off the hassle with Barry, with her mother, and the wedding.”

“I can see you’re working at that, pointing Jeremy right at her.”

“I’m just making it convenient for them to get to know each other, and I don’t intend to push them any further,” he told her. “If it happens, it happens, and it ought to be good for her.”

“Yeah, it might be, and I can’t think of a nicer young man than Jeremy. I mean, if he were just a little older I could have gotten interested in him, at least until you came along, but I’m coming to realize that you’re more my type.”

“Maria, I’m coming to like you a lot. I’ve dreamed of someone like you coming along for years, and having Ramona as a part of it just adds to the appeal. I don’t exactly know how to say this, but I’m hoping we can build something between us. I went a lot of years when I had no hope of it happening, but now, well, I hope it does. Maria, I know we have a lot of getting to know each other to do yet, but . . . well, I have to say that I don’t know what comes next.”

“In case you’re wondering, I feel the same way. Royce, it really hurt when Reuben died. I never thought I would be happy again. I kept looking for a nice guy, and all I ever turned up with were jokers like Hector. I mean, I knew he wasn’t right for me, but at least he was someone to hang around with, you know? But he wanted more than I was ready to give him too soon. He wasn’t the first one like that, Royce. There were others, and I’d pretty well given up on having someone like you come along.”

“I’d like to think we can be good together, Maria,” he said, reaching across the lawn chair and taking her hand. “I didn’t think there was anyone out there like you.”

“Royce, I don’t know what comes next. My head is telling me that we ought to take it slow and be sure of ourselves, but my heart is telling me to get on with it and not let you get away.”

“I have to say I feel like that, too. Maria, I have been so beaten down for years over this stuff with Petra and the way I got treated by Maxine that I really couldn’t bring myself to do much else. Now that’s getting behind me, and I have Petra back, at least for a little while, so I feel like I’ve come out of the tunnel I’ve been trapped in, and I’ve found you waiting there for me. I almost feel like it’s too good to be true.”

“I don’t know what to tell you, Royce. I feel pretty much the same way. I feel like I’m finally able to put losing Reuben behind me. I think we’d probably not want to do anything rash, but I think we want to move ahead as fast as we’re willing to let ourselves go.”

“I can go along with that.”

“You know what?” she smiled. “I think we’d better go jump in the pool ourselves or our daughters are going to see us doing something that they really shouldn’t see us doing, at least just yet.”

“You know, you might have something there. This is going to be a little tricky, since we’re both going to have our daughters watching us and probably pushing us at each other.”

“I think you’re right. At least Petra probably knows what’s what with that kind of thing, but I think Ramona is still a little young for it. That doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to when the time is right for it to happen. Let’s go get in the pool.”

So they did. They splashed around in the pool with the rest, got involved with chicken fights, threw a ball around, and did a lot of playful kinds of things that Royce had missed in the past few years. It felt good to him, and he was pretty sure Maria enjoyed it about as much as he did.

After a while Royce got a little tired of it, so he was glad to see Jeremy sit down in the next lounge chair. “You know,” Jeremy said, “this is the kind of things dreams are made of. A pool, a nice day, and four good looking girls in bikinis running around.”

“Two of them are a little too young for you,” Royce grinned.

“Yeah, but in a few years, they’re both going to really be something. You’re getting pretty serious about Maria, aren’t you?”

“Moving that way,” Royce admitted.

“Well, I can think of a worse kid than Ramona to have as a stepdaughter. I’ve known Maria for a while. I mean, not real well, but we’ve talked a few times. I haven’t seen her a lot for the last few months since I’ve been wrapped up in all the other stuff, but she seems brighter and more chipper than I’ve ever seen her, and she always was pretty bright and chipper. I think you have had something to do with that.”

“It could be. It really could be.” He was uncomfortable talking about this with Jeremy, so he changed the topic. “So what do you think of Petra?”

“She seems to be all right considering that I don’t know her at all. We haven’t had much chance to talk, but she seems to think the world of you. I didn’t get that feeling from you when we talked about it a while back.”

“Things changed, they changed a lot, and they changed quickly, Jeremy. They’ve changed so fast I can hardly believe it.”

“You aren’t going to mind if I ask her out, are you?”

“Be my guest, but don’t lead her on and lose her trust. She’s had enough of that already, and although she doesn’t act like it, I think you’re going to have to be careful about it.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty clear. I’ll be careful, Royce. I’m getting tired of women I can’t trust. I’ve had to put up with too many of them as it is.”

“I have too, Jeremy. I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

Eventually they broke out the lunch and snacks, and the heavy talk got left behind. There was playing, and just fun conversation; Royce got the definite idea that Ramona was trying to show off her mother’s boyfriend to Christi, and that was fun to watch.

Eventually it got late in the afternoon. “All the time I’ve lived here, I’ve never had a party like this,” Royce said at one point. “If I had known this day was going to go the way it’s gone, I would have gotten a gas grill so we could have some steaks. Since I didn’t, would anybody object if I sent out for pizza?”

No one objected, and the pizza just added to the fun of the day. The late spring sun was getting low before Maria decided it was time to be heading home with the girls, so they reluctantly gathered their things, put on their street clothes, and got ready to go.

As they were getting set to go, Royce went to the door with Maria to tell her goodbye. “Thanks, Royce,” she smiled. “Thanks for a wonderful day. I had a lot of fun, and I’m sure the girls did, too. I’ll give you a call in the morning, and maybe we can think of something to do, either with our daughters or without them.”

“I’d like that. I’d say the zoo again but we were just there. Maybe we can think of something else.”

“I’m sure we will,” she smiled, and then put her arms around him to kiss him. It was an even better kiss than the one they had shared the week before, and it carried with it a promise that was even sharper than before. “Goodnight, Royce,” she said after they reluctantly pulled apart. “I’ll be seeing you in my dreams.”

“You’ll be in mine, too,” he smiled. “Thank you for being you.”

Jeremy was still out around the pool, cleaning up after the party, but Petra had been standing in the kitchen watching her father and Maria. “You really like her, don’t you?” she asked.

“Yeah, I like her a lot.”

“It shows. I mean, I don’t think Barry and I ever had one that was quite that hot.”

“I can’t believe that.”

“No, there was always something missing,” she shook her head. “I never quite put my finger on it until now, but I think he was never quite all there with me, if you know what I mean. It was like he never gave me his full attention. Daddy, I like her. I really do. She’s a real person, not someone putting on an act, and that Ramona is a sweet kid. You could do a lot worse.”

“I know I could do worse,” he told her. “I already did.”

“Dad, I know you had Jeremy here so I could get to know him. He seems like an all right kind of guy, but it’s much too soon to get serious with him. I still need to get over all the crap I went through with Barry, but, well, I’m not going to say it’s not going to happen.”

“I can’t ask for much more than that at this stage,” he smiled. “But you could do worse.”

“I know. I already did, too.”

The trial got back under way on Monday, and everyone on the jury was relieved. It seemed to be winding down, and that meant that they were that much closer to going home. But it dragged onward through Monday without ending, until it was finally announced that closing arguments would be the next day.

Still, it was late Tuesday morning before the jurors assembled to deliberate. It soon appeared that Milt had read the jury correctly; there were three groups with opinions scattered all over the place, and nobody wanted to give on anything. It was pretty clear that it was going to take a long time to reach a verdict, and they went at it all day without getting anywhere. Finally, as it grew late, the judge sent them back to their quarters with the admonition that they weren’t supposed to talk about it there, although everyone knew that was so much wishful thinking.

By this time the jury could only agree on one thing: the meals were abominable. Once again they sent out for pizza, and sat around in the common room eating it like they had for several days in a row.

Milt was feeling the time slip away from him. He’d been maintaining loose contact with Mary Ann, but the news she had was never good. The health department inspector still hadn’t made it over to the Sullivan Center store, and it was still closed. At least if this damn trial were over with Milt thought he might be able to jack someone up about that.

Maybe it was time to inject a little reality into things. “Look,” he said to the rest of the jurors as he reached for a second slice of pizza. “I think we’re just going to sit here and argue until the cows come home. I have things to do at home. My business is sliding downhill and it could go under if I can’t get out of here and do something about it. I know a lot of people have some strong opinions, but can’t we find some kind of ground to compromise on?”

“He killed both of them,” one of the murder one holdouts complained. “He ought to pay for it.”

“Right,” Milt agreed. “But no matter how many trained-seal psychologists the prosecution brought in, they still couldn’t agree that it was premeditated. I really think that kills the idea of murder one, but I think he’s got to answer for something, too.”

“You might have a point on that,” she agreed. “And you’re right. I want to go home, too. This place is driving me nuts.”

Milt turned to one of the people who had been holding out for not guilty on grounds of insanity. “He may or may not have been nuts,” he said. “Again, there’s no way we can know, for the same reason. Now, guilty or not the poor bastard has sat in jail for over a year, so he’s had at least some punishment whether we like it or not, right?”

“When you put it that way, yes,” one of the men said. “But there’s no way in hell he should be getting life. If I got home and found my wife like that, I might not shoot her but I would be pretty upset. I can see where he was coming from.”

“All right. One of the options we have open to us is manslaughter, and that one there’s no doubt about. Hell, it may have actually been poor shooting but there’s no way anyone can prove that, either. What would you say if tomorrow morning we were to vote for guilty of manslaughter, and maybe recommend mitigating circumstances? That gets us out of here, and gives everybody something. It may not be what anyone wants, but let’s end this farce and get on with our lives.”

There was some talking and even some grumbling after that, but people were coming around to the idea. There were still a couple of holdouts, but even they had changed their mind by morning. It still took time to get the verdict announced, but finally by midmorning they could get out of there with a great deal of relief.

Milt was more relieved than most. At least now he could get down to the stores and see what he could do to save things. He gathered up his stuff and was carrying his suitcase to the elevator when a business-suited man stopped him. “Milton Wilson?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s me.”

The man handed Milt a couple of large manila envelopes. “You have been served.”

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