Riddles in the Rain

Margaret stood before her vanity mirror, running a silver brush through hair that had turned from copper to moonlight over sixty-some years. Her granddaughter Emma watched, wide-eyed.

"You know, Grandma," the girl said, clutching a library book about ancient Egypt, "the sphinx had a riddle. What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?"

Margaret smiled, setting down her brush. "A human being, darling. We crawl as babies, walk tall in our prime, and lean on canes in our final years."

Emma gasped. "You knew!"

"Some riddles answer themselves if you live long enough."

That afternoon, Margaret dragged herself through her Tuesday routine—bridge club with the ladies, medication that made her feel rather zombie-like, the endless calendar of doctor's appointments. She caught her reflection in shop windows and sometimes hardly recognized the tired woman staring back.

But returning home, she found Emma waiting with more questions. The sphinx had captured the girl's imagination completely.

"What happens when the sphinx's riddle is answered?" Emma asked.

"In the old stories, the sphinx throws herself into the sea when her riddle is solved. But I think that's terribly wasteful. I believe she simply asks another riddle, and another, because life's mysteries never really end."

"Like what?"

"Like why your grandfather's hair abandoned him first, when mine held on so stubbornly. Like why we spend our youth wanting to be older, and our older years wishing we'd appreciated being young. Like why the moments that feel ordinary—like you asking me about sphinxes—are the ones that become treasures."

Emma considered this, then took Margaret's hand. "I like your hair, Grandma. It looks like starlight."

Margaret felt something shift inside, that zombie-like heaviness lifting. Perhaps wisdom wasn't about having all the answers. Perhaps it was simply learning which questions were worth asking, and who was worth asking them with.

"Come," she said, "let's see what other riddles we can solve before dinner."