Riddle of the Screen Sphinx

Maya's golden retriever, Buster, was the only one who didn't think she was weird for talking to her phone during their morning walks. The ancient stone sphinx statue in the park was her actual audience though.

"You're literally conversing with a rock," her ex-best friend had sneered in the group chat. "That's messed up."

The sphinx didn't judge. It just sat there with that inscrutable smile, paws steady, wings folded, like it knew something about waiting that Maya was still learning. She'd started visiting it freshman year, when everything felt like a riddle she couldn't solve—why friendships fell apart, why her mom cried in the bathroom, why she felt wrong in her own skin.

Her iPhone buzzed. Another notification, another puzzle piece. Someone had posted a TikTok about her and the sphinx, calling her "Sphinx Girl." It had gone viral in their school.

"Great," Maya muttered. "Now I'm a meme."

Buster wagged his tail, oblivious to social destruction. He thought the sphinx was just a really tall dog to sniff.

A freshman girl approached, phone in hand. "You're Sphinx Girl, right? My friends think you're..." She hesitated. "Well, they think it's kinda cool, actually. How you just sit here and don't care what anyone thinks."

Maya laughed humorlessly. "Oh, I care. Trust me."

"But you keep coming back anyway," the girl said. "That's brave."

The sphinx's stone eyes seemed to glint in the morning light. What was the riddle again? What walks on four legs, then two, then three? The answer was a person, changing through life.

Maya realized she'd been treating her phone like a modern sphinx—scrolling through it for answers, letting it pose impossible questions about who she should be, what she should look like, who she should like. But the real sphinx just waited. It didn't demand answers. It existed, solid and unmoved.

"Hey," Maya said to the freshman. "Wanna meet Buster? He's the only one who actually gets me."

The girl grinned. "Dude, yes."

As Buster received enthusiastic ear scratches, Maya's phone stayed silent in her pocket. The sphinx watched them both, its mysterious smile somehow softer now. Some riddles aren't meant to be solved alone.