Riddle of the Renaissance Nerd

I spent last summer working the Renaissance Fair as a sphinx. Yeah, you heard me. I sat on a painted plywood platform wearing forty pounds of gold lamé and a papier-mâché headpiece, asking riddles to anyone who'd listen. For $9.50 an hour plus all the turkey legs I could steal.

"I have cities, but no houses. I have mountains, but no trees. I have water, but no fish. What am I?"

The girl in the black hoodie stared at me. "A map?"

"Correct!" I said, trying to sound mysterious instead of just sweaty. My sphinx voice needed work.

She rolled her eyes. "That's the easiest one you've got."

Her name was Riley. She worked the bear show—handling the poor confused Newfoundland dog they'd spray-painted brown to look like a dancing bear. We'd been flirting for weeks in the break room, trading Snapple bottles and complaints about our shift managers.

"You're just saying that 'cause you're into me," I said, then immediately wanted to die. My hand slipped and my sphinx headpiece tilted at a weird angle.

Riley laughed. "Keep telling yourself that, sphinx boy."

But later that night, when we were sitting behind the fake castle watching the fireworks, she leaned into my shoulder. The fair was closing down. My sphinx makeup was smearing. The "bear" was asleep in her lap.

"You know," she said, "my friends think this job is bull. They're at the lake party right now."

"So why'd you take it?"

She hesitated. "Needed money. And... I don't know. I think I liked that nobody from school comes here. I can be someone different."

I nodded. I got that. Being a sphinx was weird, but at least nobody knew me as the quiet kid from third period English.

"Hey," she said, "you gotta help me with something."

"What?"

"Bear this." She pressed her lips against mine.

My sphinx headpiece fell off. The fake bear woke up and barked. Some middle-aged couple in wizard hats applauded.

And in that moment, I didn't care about looking ridiculous. I didn't care that my friends would think working the Renaissance Fair was weird. Some riddles don't have answers—sometimes you just have to live through them to figure out what they mean.