Hit List

They’re not real fish in the first place, are they?”
    “They’re virtual fish.”
    “Meaning what? They’re images on a screen, right? Like a television program.”
    “Sort of.”
    “So they swim around on your screen. And if you don’t feed ’em, then what? They turn belly up?”
    “Evidently.”
    “Have you got one of these, Keller?”
    “Of course not,” he said. “I don’t have a computer.”
    “I didn’t think you did.”
    “I don’t want a computer,” he said, “and if I had one I wouldn’t want a virtual aquarium.”
    “How come you know so much about them?”
    “I hardly know anything about them,” he said. “I read an article, that’s all.”
    “Not in one of your stamp magazines.”
    “No, of course not.”
    “If it’s not stamps, what could it be? A woman? Keller, are you seeing that girl again?”
    “What girl?”
    “I guess that’s a no, isn’t it? The black girl, the one who wouldn’t eat dinner. I could come up with her name if I put my mind to it.”
    “Maggie.”
    “Now I don’t have to put my mind to it.”
    “She’s not black. She wears black.”
    “Close enough.”
    “Anyway, I’m not seeing her. Or anybody else.”
    “Probably just as well,” Dot said. “You know what? I give up. I was trying to guess why you can’t leave New York, and I got stuck in a conversation about stamp collecting, and it turned into a conversation about fish, and I don’t want to find out what that’s going to turn into. So let me ask you what I probably should have asked you over the phone. Why can’t you leave New York?”
    He told her.
    Her eyes widened. “Jury duty? You, Keller? You have to be on a jury?”
    “I have to report,” he said. “Whether I actually get on a jury is something else again.”
    “Many are called but few are chosen. But how on earth did you get called in the first place?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “I mean, the jury system isn’t supposed to make use of people like you, is it?”
    “People like me?”
    “People who do what you do.”
    “Not if they get caught,” he said. “I don’t think you can serve on a jury if you’ve been convicted of a felony. But I’ve never even been charged with a felony, or with anything else. I’ve never been arrested, Dot.”
    “And a good thing.”
    “A very good thing,” he said. “As far as anybody knows, as far as any official records would indicate, I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
    “Citizen Keller.”
    “And I am,” he said. “I don’t shoplift, I don’t use or sell drugs, I don’t hold up liquor stores, I don’t mug people. I don’t stiff cabdrivers or vault subway turnstiles.”
    “How about jaywalking?”
    “That’s not even a misdemeanor. It’s a violation, and anyway I’ve never been cited for it. I have a profession that, well, we know what it is. But nobody else knows about it, so it’s not going to keep me off a jury.”
    “You don’t vote, do you, Citizen Keller? Because I thought they drew jurors from the voter registration lists.”
    “That used to be all they used,” he said, “and that’s probably why I never got called before now. But now they use other lists, too, from Motor Vehicles and the phone company and I don’t know what else.”
    “You don’t own a car. And your phone’s unlisted.”
    “But I’ve got a driver’s license. And they’d use the phone company’s billing records, not the phone book. Look, what’s the difference how they found me? I got a notice, and I have to report first thing Monday morning.”
    “Today’s Friday.”
    “Right.”
    “Can’t you get a postponement?”
    “I could have,” he said, “if I’d asked for one when I got the notice. But I figured I might as well get it out of the way, and things have been slow lately, and I missed my chance.”
    “Won’t they let you off?”
    “On what grounds? They used to let people off all the time. If you were a lawyer, or if you were in business for yourself. Now you just about have to tell them you’re pregnant, and I’m not even sure if that works.”
    “They’d never believe you, Keller.”
    “Nobody gets out of it these days,” he said. “The mayor was on a jury a couple of months ago. Remember?”
    “I read something about it.”
    “He probably could have gotten excused. He’s the mayor, for God’s sake, he can do anything he wants to. But I guess he decided it was good for his image. Imagine if you’re on trial and you look over in the jury box and