Chapter 42 - The Numbers That Were Not Theirs
Paul Danner removed the framed report as though he were correcting a spelling mistake.
“Old display,” he said. “Someone used a current student list while updating the template.”
Emma stood beside Nora with her phone at her side.
“But the report says verified.”
“The layout says verified. The page isn't the submission.”
“Then where is the submission?”
He gave her a thin smile.
“Not every office document is part of the student exercise.”
Nora touched Emma's elbow.
They went to find their accompanying teacher instead of following him into the office.
At the house in Chicago, Claire wrote down what Emma had said and sent a factual inquiry through the program contact. Vincent read it before she sent it, then removed the sentence he had begun adding about demanding an immediate explanation.
Claire looked at him.
“What?”
“You saw it yourself.”
“I have moments.”
Her smile lasted only a second, but it helped.
The field school's director, Dr. Ruth Carver, was at an external meeting that afternoon. The teacher confirmed that the students were supervised, the scheduled activities were continuing, and the report question had been raised with the academic staff.
There was no evidence that the children were in immediate physical danger.
That did not make the use of their names acceptable.
Claire made sure both facts remained in the conversation.
At Lake Aster, Maya Ortiz met the four students in the teaching room before the next activity. She coordinated the field records and helped turn observations into material the younger groups could understand.
“Show me what you saw,” she said.
Emma supplied the photograph. June compared the names with the current group list. Theo pointed out that his middle initial was wrong in exactly the same way it was wrong on the field-school registration.
Maya became very still.
“Did you sign anything saying you reviewed last year's work?”
Four heads shook.
She asked them to stay with the supervised group while she checked. Nobody was being assigned a secret investigation. They would continue the lesson with another instructor.
Afterward, Nora was annoyed with Emma.
“You sounded as though she needed telling not to lie.”
“I sounded like I wanted an answer.”
“You can do both.”
Emma put down her notebook.
“You think I'm making it worse?”
“I think being right about the page doesn't make every person here responsible for it.”
The answer hurt because Emma knew it was possible.
They ate lunch without speaking much. Theo attempted a joke about verified potatoes. June told him she did not want the food associated with further uncertainty.
That made Nora laugh.
Emma laughed too, reluctantly.
In the afternoon, their group compared a small set of observations with an example table on the teaching system. The work was supposed to show how raw notes became a clear summary, including the places where a measurement or record needed checking.
June noticed the location first.
The table said observations had been collected at the west dock on Sunday.
The west dock had been closed for repairs since the preceding week. A barrier and a notice were visible from the marked path. The students had been told not to approach it.
“Maybe the location name means the area,” Theo suggested.
“Maybe,” Nora said. “We should ask.”
Emma copied the reference into her own lesson notes and took it to the instructor.
This time the answer was less dismissive.
The instructor did not know why that location appeared and would check with Maya.
Before the group left the teaching room, June checked the notice on a photograph taken during Monday's orientation. It was visible behind the instructor, dated before the claimed Sunday observations.
“That doesn't prove nobody worked there,” Nora said.
“No. It proves we have a reason to ask how.”
Emma looked from one girl to the other.
She liked that the answer could be precise without being timid.
They showed the photograph to their teacher and left the question with her. Then they went to the next activity, where Theo discovered he had packed the wrong notebook.
For ten minutes, the most important mystery in their group was whether his entire supply of notes had gone to lunch without him.
It had not. June had put the notebook away when he left it near a sink.
By evening, Maya had found a discrepancy that extended beyond the framed display. A summary supplied to a sponsor included the current students' names as reviewers. The example table appeared to have been drawn from a file represented as actual monitoring work.
She contacted Carver and preserved the material available through her role. She also notified the teacher responsible for the visiting children.
The students were told only what affected them: the use of their names was being examined, no one should sign a statement about work they had not done, and questions could be raised through their teacher or the director.
Emma called her parents after supper.
Vincent listened while she described the dock notice.
“Did you go near it?”
“No. It's closed.”
“Good.”
She heard the effort inside the single word.
“Dad, we aren't climbing fences.”
“I know. I'm glad you asked the people teaching you.”
Claire asked what Emma wanted now.
“To know whether the report was used for something real.”
“That's a reasonable question.”
“Can you make them answer?”
“We can ask clearly. We can keep records. If the answer isn't adequate, we can take it to the people responsible for the program and the funding.”
Emma looked toward Nora, who sat on the next bed pretending not to listen.
“Okay.”
After the call, she apologized for snapping earlier.
Nora closed her book.
“I was afraid you'd decide asking slowly meant I didn't care.”
“I don't think that.”
“You sounded like it.”
“I know.”
The girls sat quietly until their teacher came to check the evening arrangements.
May you like
Maya would not be teaching in the morning.
Mr. Danner had removed her from the schedule.
