Riddles by the Pool

The iPhone screen glowed at 3:14 AM, its blue light the only illumination in the hotel room. One message from Marcus: *We need to talk.*

Maya rolled onto her back, listening to David's rhythmic breathing beside her. They'd come to Cairo to save their marriage—or that's what she'd told herself. Twelve days in Egypt, far from the mortgage payments and the silent dinners, the way they'd become roommates who happened to share a bed.

Downstairs, the hotel pool was empty at this hour. Maya slipped out from under the sheets, grabbed a robe, and found herself drawn to the water. The pool was an impossible blue, almost artificial against the desert night. She dipped her foot in—cool, shocking.

"You too?"

Maya jumped. A woman sat at the edge of the pool, legs submerged, orange silk pajamas luminous in the moonlight. She was maybe fifty, with silver hair pulled back and eyes that had seen everything.

"Couldn't sleep," Maya said.

"Nobody sleeps in Cairo. The city breathes too loud." The woman patted the concrete beside her. "I'm Elena. What's keeping you up?"

Maya sat. The truth spilled out—the iPhone message, the marriage that had become a series of riddles she couldn't solve. How she'd stopped asking what David really felt about anything, including her.

Elena listened, then nodded toward the distant plateau. "You know what they say about the Sphinx? It asks a riddle, but the real question is why it's asking at all. Silence is also an answer."

"What do you mean?"

"Some riddles aren't meant to be solved. They're meant to show you that you're asking the wrong question." Elena's eyes crinkled. "Like why you're checking your ex-boyfriend's messages instead of deciding if you even want to stay married."

Maya's chest tightened. "I don't know."

"Then that's your answer. Not yet, anyway."

The first orange streaks of dawn painted the sky. Elena stood, water dripping from her legs. "The Sphinx has been sitting there for four thousand years, and people still visit it hoping for clarity. Maybe the clarity is that you have to decide what matters enough to solve."

Maya watched her walk away, then pulled out her iPhone. Marcus's message waited. She hovered over delete, then over reply.

Behind her, David's footsteps on the concrete. "Couldn't sleep either?"

Maya looked at the phone, then at him. The orange sun was rising now, painting the pool gold. She put the iPhone in her pocket.

"Actually," she said, "I think I finally can."