Streamline to Justice

By Noelle Alladania Meade

A brief, dystopian, thought exercise on the American justice system.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beasthold Books
• Release date: Dec 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393211020

Noelle Alladania Meade

Noelle usually has several irons in the fire at any given time. She likes to spend her time reading, writing, crafting, running two online shops to sell her crafts, and gaming. Life took a turn for the quirky in 2000 when she had her daughter, who turned out to have autism. As a child, her ambition was to be the first woman President of the United States. When she got older and learned more about politics, she recovered from that particular insanity. Her teens were spent on historical romances, science fiction, fantasy, and writing angsty poetry. In middle school, she had her first introduction to tabletop gaming in the form of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. As she explained to her dad, with all seriousness, it gave her the chance—as a terminally shy person—to try on different personalities and experiment with being a stronger person. From the time her daughter was born until mid-2014, Noelle worked out of her home providing IT support for a small local software company. She’s finally working in an office again as an administrator, and rather likes it. It’s nice to spend the day around adults who are mostly grown-ups.

Book preview

Jury Duty

The first and only round of jury duty notices went out. Agnes looked at the new notice with curiosity. It said to plan on a full day and bring any necessary medications as a precaution. Shouldn’t there be a part here for how to get excused? she asked her cat, Doofus. He was entirely unsympathetic.

Agnes showed up on the appointed day. She was running late. The rain had backed up traffic and she wasn’t used to driving to this end of town. After searching her purse, the guard directed her to a room on the second floor. Eleven other individuals turned and looked as she entered the room. The two small children playing on the floor ignored her. The group appeared composed of everything from a business executive to a cowboy and of course, the mom. Agnes had done jury duty before. Normally there was always a large room full of people. They’d wait around all day until their number was called, or they’d finally be sent home. Perhaps she was in the wrong place?

Looking around, she saw the same jury notice tucked into the book of the thin faced young man with the glasses. Resigned, she took a seat where she could watch the door.

A few minutes later a woman came in with a clipboard, a stack of stapled papers, and a folded stack of clear bags. "Now that you’re all here, let’s get started. Please take out your photo ID and have it ready. I’ll be coming around to check your name on the list and