The One Where The Lines Get Kinda Blurry

The One With Secret Seclusion

"Are you still not going to tell me anything about today?" Jen asked after they'd been in the car for well over an hour on this sunny Friday lunch time, heading north and far outside the confines of the city.

"Nope" he said with laughter in his voice, "but you'll find out fairly soon, I don't think we're too far away now."

Jen took a drink from the bottle of water she'd been nursing since they left and looked out of the window at the passing trees and the distant river, trying to figure out where they were going and what he might have planned. All he had told her was she needed sensible footwear, layers in case it got cold as they wouldn't be back until dark, and her disguise kit of cap, mask & glasses.

It was actually another forty-five minutes before they pulled into their destination, David having made a couple of wrong turns whilst looking for where they were headed and Jen still nowhere near figuring out where they were or what they were here for as she looked all around her at green fields and woodlands, in front of which stood a small and unassuming wooden building. "Right, you stay here for a moment" David said as he killed the engine. "I'm going to go and collect our passes then I'll be back for you. Make sure you have you cap and mask on okay, because I'm not entirely sure how many people will be around until we get in there."

"Okay" Jen replied, "our passes? Our passes for what?"

"You'll see" he smiled. "I booked this when you were busy on your zoom meetings. I thought it might be nice to do something outdoors again after spending all day inside yesterday."

"I'm totally intrigued" she replied as he exited the car. He returned around ten minutes later brandishing two tickets and a small booklet.

"Right!" he announced, "we're all set." He grabbed his bag from the trunk which was filled with food and drinks. "Let's go."

"I still have no idea where we are or what we're doing" she said as she donned her mask, cap and sunglasses and followed him across the sparsely occupied parking area, tying the arms of her sweater around her waist as she did so as it wasn't currently required in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun.

"You'll see when we get through the other side, now just follow me. There's a guy waiting to let us in at a side gate over there somewhere." Moments later Jen found herself in a sea of green, acre upon acre of fields and trees that spread out as far as their eyes could see. There was hardly another person in sight, but what looked like at least twenty to thirty pieces of artwork positioned all around the area. "So, this is a sculpture park that I've been wanting to visit for a while but never got around to. I spoke to them yesterday morning while you were busy and they'd only sold six tickets for this afternoon and I bought the rest, so we almost have the place to ourselves. There are over a hundred different sculptures and artworks to see, some out in the open like this, but a lot of them are hidden away down secret paths and in between the trees so I thought it would be a fun way to spend some time."

Jen's face lit up beneath various face coverings. "Oh my God, this is fantastic" she said with heartfelt enthusiasm, "so we can explore the whole park pretty much undisturbed? This is almost unreal."

"I hoped you'd think it was worth the drive" he said, "and once we're out of this area we should be free to take off all of this and explore in comfort."

Jen slipped her hand into his as they made their way towards the first of the large wooden sculptures, multiple intertwined rings that span in all different directions within each other. "It's already worth the drive" she replied, "you know I love anything like this."

It took them almost an hour to wander around the large open grass area, admiring the different artworks and creations that were scattered around, both of them snapping lots of photos on their phones. They'd kept on their masks and caps as there were one or two staff nearby, but as they meandered towards one of the pathways that took them off into woodlands they both felt brave enough to show their faces. "There are apparently loads of places to sit and observe through here so I thought we could explore for a while then stop and have some food."