Riddles by the Pool

The heat rose off the pool deck in shimmering waves, distorting the geometry of the afternoon. Elena lay on a chaise lounge, staring at her friend Nora, who sat on the edge of the infinity pool, legs submerged in water that looked like liquid sapphire.

"You're like a sphinx," Elena said, squinting against the sun. "All these riddles about why you won't come back to work. What is it, Nora? What's the answer?"

Nora's silence stretched. She pulled her legs from the water, droplets tracing maps down her calves. "You know how they say every vitamin has its deficiency disease? Like no vitamin C means scurvy, no D means rickets."

"Yeah..." Elena had left her medical bag at home, but her clinician's brain catalogued symptoms automatically.

"I think I've developed a deficiency for meaning. For purpose."

Elena laughed, then stopped when she saw Nora's face.

"It's not funny," Nora continued. "I go to work, I see patients, I write prescriptions, I come home. Repeat. But somewhere along the way, I lost whatever vitamin it is that makes you feel alive."

The pool's surface reflected clouds that moved too quickly across the sky, a whole world inverted. Elena thought about the pharmaceutical samples in her closet, the way she'd started measuring her worth in billable hours, the text from her husband last night asking if she'd be home for dinner—again, the question mark hanging like an accusation.

"So what's the cure?" Elena asked quietly. "Because if you've figured out how to fix this, I need to know."

Nora stood up, water dripping from her swimsuit. "I don't know yet. But I quit my job this morning."

The silence between them felt suddenly vast, filled with all the things Elena couldn't say: that Nora was brave, that Elena was jealous, that she'd taken her vitamin D supplement that morning but still felt hollow.

"The sphinx's riddle wasn't about a monster," Nora said finally. "It was about time. About what we become when we stop becoming."

Elena watched her friend walk toward the house, and for the first time in years, wondered what would happen if she stopped answering riddles and started asking them.