Diane: (screams)

Courtney: Diane! What is it?

Bob: What’s the matter with her?

Kevin: Someone shut that crazy woman up!

The door opens.

Deputy Kimura: Everything okay in here? I thought I heard something.

Diane: Everything’s fine. I just had a… nightmare.

Deputy: A nightmare? Um. Do we need a doctor?

Cliff: No, no. I think the lady was just trying to make a point. A loud one.

Deputy: Is that so?

Diane: Yeah, I’m okay now.

Deputy: If you’re sure…

Door closes.

Cliff: And now I guess you’ll insist on telling us all about why you just about scared everybody to death.

Diane: It was a symbolic gesture of my despair, Cliff. Nobody can follow the fancies you call logic, and you don’t care anyway. You’re just going to keep us here listening to your fascinating mind games until we’re all hypnotized and vote however you want.

Courtney: (giggling) I wish I had screamed. I sure felt like it.

Cliff: Don’t you guys think there should be a requirement that people on juries be mature and intelligent enough so they can follow along with the rest of the grown-ups?

Courtney: Why, you… I’m in college you know.

Cliff: Yes, that gives me pause. I had heard that any fool could get into college these days.

Courtney: No wonder your wife left you.

Sonny: (shouts) Everybody just shut the fuck up!

Silence. The clock on the wall ticks.

Bob: What do you know? He can talk!

Sonny: You want to hear more?

Bob: Not really.

Cliff: I think maybe it’s time for a vote. What do you think, Ignacio. Did we get through that issue of yours okay?

Ignacio: Yes, I’ve given it a lot of thought.

They vote. It is eight to four against Lindy.

Courtney: Ignacio, you didn’t!

Ignacio: I’m sorry, Courtney. But I wasn’t voting the law before. I was voting my beliefs.

Courtney: If you can’t stick to your beliefs here, when can you?

Cliff: Well, let’s see. That leaves Diane, Mrs. Lim, Courtney, and, I presume, Mr. Ball, still for Lindy. I think it’s about time we heard something about your views on the matter, Mr. Ball.

Sonny: Sonny.

Cliff: Sure. Sonny.

Sonny: I’m on her side.

Cliff: (after a pause) And?

Sonny: That’s it.

Cliff: Well, can you tell us why?

Diane: He needs to know your reasoning, Sonny, so that he can substitute his reasoning…

Sonny: C’mon. All that dough. She was loyal. Never fucked around on him. If he’s any kind of man at all, he’s got to be fair to her.

Cliff: How would you feel if I told you she did fuck around? She lied up there. We’ve proven that.

Sonny: How do you know?

Cliff: That’s it, isn’t it? We don’t. How can we hand over this man’s hard earned money to a woman that might not even have been faithful to him? Probably wasn’t, in fact.

Diane: There’s absolutely no proof of that. Not one thing was said…

Cliff: My feeling is, and I think most of the guys here will agree, this whole deal is about revenge. He has a new girlfriend. He’s moving on. Why is the law involved in this at all?

Sonny: Now there’s a good question.

Cliff: Why should she get one thin dime?

Diane: Cliff, the only compensation available in this case is financial. We’re just deciding the facts and evidence. Such as, did they have a contract-

Cliff: She’s a liar and quite likely a cheat. I mean, did you see him up there? He’s much older than her. Looks like a little roll in the hay’s going to take some doing.

Mrs. Lim: You are shameless, Mr. Wright.

Diane: I really think-

Cliff: I believe I was talking to Sonny. Please have the courtesy to let me finish. So, here she is stuck with him. She probably had some on the side. You almost can’t hold that against her. But then, he found out and left her, and then she went whoops, there goes my meal ticket.

Does she try to work it out with him? No, she runs off and hires a lawyer, gets the law involved.

Diane: Cliff, why you talk with the passion of a man with firsthand experience.

Cliff: Now, Sonny, was that right? I mean, who wants to get mixed up with the law? Who needs that involvement?

Sonny: Nobody. That’s for damn sure.

Cliff: You’ll forgive me for asking, but, who makes the financial decisions in your family?

Sonny: Who do you think?

Cliff: You, of course. And why is that?

Sonny: Any big decisions, I make.

Cliff: You remind me so much of Mike Markov. Obviously, you don’t look alike. He’s kind of a ruin, now. But once he was a strong man like you, Sonny. A boxer. He’s an old-fashioned guy. He makes the big decisions, because he knows he’s the right man for the job. Do you remember in court when he promised to take care of Lindy Markov? He said he would. And nothing in his past suggests otherwise. I mean, they live in a huge mansion that he’s paid for for all these years.

Diane: With profits from the company they both own.

Cliff: Maybe he knows something we don’t. Maybe he knows how she fritters money away on clothes and new cars. Maybe she gambles. Maybe he has very good reasons for wanting to keep control of his business, because he’s terrified she’ll run it straight into the ground!

Mrs. Lim: I must protest. These are speculations about issues that were never even mentioned in court. Maybe she is a financial wizard! We don’t know.

Sonny: Enough. I want to vote.

Diane: Wait a minute. I have this terrible feeling about you, Sonny.

Sonny: Thanks.

Diane: You’re going to change your vote just to get this over with, aren’t you?

Sonny: (doesn’t answer)

Diane: Remember in the judge’s instructions? You are not supposed to decide a certain way just because other jurors favor that decision and certainly not because this jerk is trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

Sonny: Nobody is pulling any wool anywhere.

Courtney: You’ve stuck with Lindy all along. You know she deserves some of that money.

Sonny: Let’s vote.

But the bailiff knocks. The lunch is out in the hall. Does anyone want a quick trip outside before they settle down to eat? Kris and Cliff grab their cigarettes and go, followed by a bailiff. Others hit the bathroom.

After they all come back, Cliff gets his special dish, marked vegetarian, and asks for opinions on the food. Suddenly, he makes gagging sounds.

Kevin: Slow down, there, pal. You choking? Anybody know the Heimlich maneuver?

Courtney: I do!

Bob: Sonny, help me get him standing.

Courtney tries.

Courtney: It’s not helping! I don’t think he’s choking on anything.

Kevin: Maybe he’s having a heart attack!

(Cliff’s gasping and knocking things off the table.)

Cliff: (He’s talking so softly, in the commotion no one seems to hear him.) My jacket! Get my jacket! Let go of me!

Mrs. Lim: Sonny, try to sit him up. Don’t let him fall on the floor like that.

Courtney: Do you think he wants his jacket? It’s probably in the anteroom.

Bob: That can’t be right, or he’s out of his mind. It must be eighty degrees in here.

Mrs. Lim: Deputy Kimura! Get in here!

Cliff: (This is unintelligible.) The epi kit!

Kevin: He’s trying to say something.

Mrs. Lim: What is it, Cliff? What do you want us to do?

Alternate juror Damien Peck must be trying to run for help. He runs into the bailiff.

Deputy Kimura: Stay right here, please. Don’t leave, anyone.

Shouting for an ambulance, he leaves.

Diane: He can’t breathe! Here, you guys. Get him on the table. He needs CPR.

She works on him until Deputy Kimura returns and takes over. There’s very little going on except the sound of the deputy giving CPR. A woman is crying.