All you see, is not all there is.
A birthday. A treasure hunt. And a story about a Wizard who was in search of some lost time.
August 11th, 2020
The clue card that turned out to be a company.
It nearly did not happen.
I had already hidden every clue under benches, in trees, behind goal posts.
Then it rained.
If this rain persists there may be a delay. Please tell me how flexible you are with your day.
The rules.
The first card of the day told him where the game had supposedly come from, and what to bring. Imagination, a green pouch, gumboots, warm clothes, a phone.
Every riddle had to be answered correctly before receiving the next clue. Some were easy. Some were not.
I stayed at home, out of the rain, while he wandered around a very large park in search of something lost.
Approximately a week ago, you went away in your imagination to play a game of hide and seek in a city called Spectacular.
Number one: what can you never answer “yes” to?
“Are you asleep?” It took him a while.
Clues, a little rain and more clues.
There were maps, photographs, arithmetic, a plaque hidden at the foot of a hill, a set of signal flags set into concrete, and a lot of walking in the rain. Some clues were written. Some were only photographs of things he would have to recognise once he got there.
Each one ended at something wrapped in rainbow paper, sealed with wax, buried in mulch or long grass, and numbered so he knew how many were left.
A game. A picture. A story.
The last package had one more card in it, and it sent him home.
Inside was a custom designed deck of fifty four playing cards. Each card carried a section of a larger picture on one side. On the other side was a section of a story.
This deck of cards has but three parts: a game, a picture, a story.
One more rule, and it is the one that eventually became a company: when the picture was complete, he had to photograph it and send it to me before he was told how to read the story.
He started at half past six.
Fifty four cards, face up on the carpet. The challenge was to build the picture the way you would build a jigsaw, then gather the cards one row at a time starting from the left column, then turn the whole deck over and read what had been underneath the entire time.
He laid all fifty four out, then went and had dinner. He came back to it at half past nine.
Then he texted for his one clue.
He sent me a photograph of what he had so far. I drew three circles on it and sent it back.
Demi's response.
That was the spark.
A picture on one side of the puzzle and a surprise written story on the other.
But as we developed the idea, we both agreed that the story would be better for the imagination if it were told in pictures alone.
So did the Wizard ever find his lost time?
He did. It was not where he thought it would be, and it had not been taken by who he thought had taken it. “Time keeps a record of every detail, every memory, and so nothing is ever truly lost.”
That is all we will say. The rest of it is still ours.
Everything we do has followed what that birthday was in essence.
- Something to solve.
- A surprise at the end of it.
- And a reminder that:
All you see, is not all there is.