On Friday, February 10, my four friends and I went to Decatur Square, a short walk from Agnes Scott, to enjoy ice cream and the warm sun. As we sat in the main plaza taking photos of each other under the bright blue sky, one of us noticed a bright red box resting on the statue of the flying children. The box was about the size of a hand with a heart painted on it. I was skeptical at first. I thought that it was a scavenger hunt exclusively for someone’s valentine, but after climbing the statue and retrieving the box, we flipped it over and saw on the back, “Free to take. Free Art Fridays”. Inside the box was a gold necklace with a tree of life pendant.
Instantly, we remembered two men recording one another as they walked around. At first we thought it was a music video, but now it all made sense– they were placing these boxes around Decatur! We came to the square for fresh air, but we didn’t realize we would be thrown into a scavenger hunt!
“I saw them go over to the gazebo!” I shouted, and we bolted towards it. There we found a map of the other places with jewelry treasures. I happened to be the only one with running shoes on, but that didn’t stop anyone. We recalled them going to the sculpture of the teapot, so we leapt down from the gazebo and screamed when we saw the next box, disrupting a family arriving in the same area after attending a wedding. We also remember the men going around the corner towards Waffle House, which also correlated with the map we discovered.
About twenty minutes later, we found two other boxes, with three boxes that we never understood the clues for. After multiple jogs around Decatur Square, we almost collapsed in the chairs outside of Starbucks. I exercised more than I ever have this year, and I can’t wait for next Friday!