"A Hope in the Unseen" ends with the book's protagonist, Cedric Jennings, entering his junior year at Brown University. That was 1997. He went on to graduate in 1999 with a 3.3 average, majoring in education with a minor in applied math. He walked down the aisle with a cluster of friends, including Zayd Dohrn, a close buddy from freshman year, who now teaches creative writing at Boston University.

With the Internet craze in full swing, Cedric--after spending a summer managing the Salvation Army office in Providence--took a job with VarsityBooks.com, the online bookseller. A year later, he left that company for a job with MicroStrategy Inc., the large data-mining company based in Northern Virginia.

As the new economy collapsed in early 2001, so did MicroStrategy's fortunes. Cedric, thinking through the winter that he might like to get more education, was prepared. On a Tuesday morning in April, he--along with many colleages on the Microstrategy staff--received a pink slip. On Wednesday, he received a thick letter from Harvard's Graduate School of Education.

In the spring of 2002, Cedric received his Master's Degree in Education from Harvard with high marks. He spent the summer working at Washington's centrist Progressive Policy Institute, analyzing national education policy. In the fall of 2002, he began another Master's Degree program, this time in social work, at the University of Michigan. He has grown up. The options and opportunities before him are vast.

Barbara, for her part, is doing fine. She is still working at the Department of Agriculture and has a few more years before she will hit a milepost of 30 years with the federal government. She is ever more an honored member of her church and has been blessed, as has the whole family, with the arrival of a new granddaughter, this time from Cedric's sister, Leslie.

While Cedric's life has been dramatically changed--he is often recognized on the street and sometimes speaks to high schools--Barbara's life is only modestly altered. The rights to "Hope" were purchased by Hollywood for a modest sum (though no project is currently being developed) and half of the book's royalties go to the Jennings family. Barbara is sometimes asked to speak, as well, as she did a few months ago when she and Cedric received awards from the Department of Interior University, which used "Hope" to launch its reading program last year.

I was there, as well. It's is always a pleasure to spend time with Cedric and Barbara. The Suskinds and the Jennings are in regular touch, see each other when we can. I imagine we will always be friends.

If you'd like to email Cedric, his address is cedricjennings@hotmail.com.