Pascal explained to me that the six of them were known collectively as the ‘Jersey Trackers.’ Apparently, they went around the state of New Jersey on all sorts of adventures, going from place to place courtesy of a bookmobile-type vehicle driven by their adult mentor and monitor, a librarian they call ‘Mr. C’. (The ‘C’, as it turns out, stands for ‘Carrel’, which seemed a sensible surname for a librarian once I realized a carrel is a cubicle-type study space found in virtually every library in the world.) On this particular day, the Trackers had ‘earned’ their way into the lecture after completing a series of mathematical clues and puzzles that Dr. Newton had placed in different spots around the campus. And, I discovered to my great embarrassment, they had also been at the tree-planting ceremony and the presidential visit I mentioned earlier. I simply did not notice them—but I’m not going to make that mistake again.
I tried talking to them after the lecture was finished, but they were just too busy doing one thing or another. That was okay, though. It showed how focused and dedicated and passionate they were about what they were doing. And that right there was what I found so remarkable—how much they cared. They were like little balls of energy that worked together to create one giant, unstoppable force. Six kids, but seemingly operating with one mind. And once that mind was set on something, you just knew it was gonna happen. I found it all quite incredible, and I wanted to know more. A lot more.
Yeah, I’ll be keeping an eye on the Jersey Trackers—because I can’t wait to see what they do next.
