The Poolside Sphinx

Working as a lifeguard at the Glenwood Community Pool wasn't exactly how Marco planned to spend his summer before senior year, but the $12/hr beat asking "do you want fries with that" at the food court. The real draw, though, was her.

Chloe.

She did laps every day at 3 PM like clockwork, smooth and purposeful, cutting through the water like she was escaping something Marco couldn't name. He'd watch from the elevated chair, pretending to scan for danger while actually just watching her dive and surface, dive and surface.

The pool had this weird sphinx statue in the landscaping near the deep end—some leftover from when the place tried to rebrand as "The Pharaoh's Oasis" in 2019. It was ridiculous. A concrete Egyptian lion-man creature with flowing water from its mouth, surrounded by petunias. Parents complained it scared their toddlers, which Marco found hilarious. Toddlers should be scared of half-lion riddle monsters. That's just good parenting.

Marco's mom had packed him an orange in his lunch bag. She still did that—packed fruit like he was eight, not seventeen. He peeled it during his break, sitting on the pool deck with his feet in the water, watching the sphinx stare blankly at the splash zone. The citrus smell cut through the heavy chlorine and sunscreen fog that hung over everything.

"You gonna eat that, or just dissect it piece by piece?"

Marco jumped, almost dropping his orange segment. Chloe stood there, dripping wet, towel around her shoulders like a cape.

"Uh. Yeah. Want some?"

"I'm good." She dropped down beside him, not close enough to touch but close enough that Marco could feel the weird electric charge of her presence. "Your mom pack that for you?"

"How'd you know?"

"You have mom fruit. That's a whole vibe." She shrugged. "Mine still cuts my grapes in half. It's embarrassing, but also, free grapes."

Marco laughed, and just like that, the sphinx didn't seem so ridiculous anymore. "The sphinx asks riddles, right?"

"In the myths. Why?"

"If you could be anywhere else right now, where would you be?"

Chloe looked at him, really looked at him, and Marco felt naked in a way that had nothing to do with standing around a pool in swim trunks.

"Here," she said. "But with better conversation starters."

Marco grinned. He could work with that.