November 10. Court hearing. It’s all on video. One window shows the judge’s chair, which remains empty because she has a scheduling conflict. A woman in another window conducts the hearing. Another window shows the clock with the big red LED digits in the courtroom; there is a horizontal line on all its positions. A virtual hearing like this is pleasant because you don’t have to fight your way on the Subway to an unfamiliar part of town, run through the streets panting and sweating, go through the firearms detector, then wait in the tiled waiting room with the uncomfortable wooden benches until ten minutes before the hearing the lawyers strike the deal. You don’t have to be called out by stern out-callers, and you don’t have to raise your right hand and swear that you are who you say you are.