The Reckoning

by John Grisham

common every season. Indeed, last week over omelets he had lamented the shortage

“Well, the folks on the jury need to understand something. My first thought, indeed my only one at this moment,

note on official Vanderbilt stationery instructed Joel to please

from

flowers and a tide of raw emotion. Long after they were dismissed by the preacher, Jackie and the children sat in their folding

after they had started. Nineva told Marietta

frown on the drinking. The

at Rome High School. McLeish and Dexter

She would land a job with a magazine

talked as if there was nothing out of order. Joel was the guest of a fraternity

we now have a panel of fifty-six. I have been informed by the bailiff that all fifty-six are present, are above the age of eighteen, under the age of sixty-five, and have no health problems that would prevent jury duty. You have been arranged in numerical order

fraudulent conveyance.

available for interviews. He arrived early to each

minister was a young Presbyterian

education, and paychecks

and lucky. She was thirty years old, and healthy, with her best days in front of her. She was already a mother, and if she had no more

got a quick jab in the butt as encouragement. If that didn’t work, he got the full blade and was left to bleed out. Pete marched with his head down and his eyes squinted in an effort to avoid the dust and heat. He was also watching the guards, who seemed to fade away and then materialize out of nowhere. A few seemed sympathetic and unwilling to kick and slap, but most were enjoying the cruelty. Anything could set them off. They could be quiet and stern-faced one moment, then crazy with rage the next. They beat their prisoners with their fists,

Bataan, the Japanese planned to use the peninsula as a staging area to attack the nearby island of Corregidor, the last American stronghold. To do so, it was necessary to quickly clear the area of American and Filipino prisoners. The plan was to march them sixty-six miles along the Old National Road to the rail yards at San Fernando, and from there they would be taken by train to their destinations at various prisons, including Camp O’Donnell, an old Philippine fort the Japanese had converted into a POW camp. The plans called for the quick

said.

is stalking her, or that someone else is in the room. This often leads to panic attacks in which she is stricken with absolute fear and

conceivable that his estate could withstand a lesser award, perhaps something in the neighborhood of $50,000. The eventual owners of the land, whether Joel and

steamboats had been replaced by low, flat barges carrying grain and coal. In the distance were battleships resting from the war. Joel was captivated by the river and wondered where

door behind him, and fled from the office. He

seemed

she said, “There are some things you should

house. He drifted down Chartres Street