The Riddle at the Edge of the Pool

Maya stood at the edge of the hotel pool in Luxor, the water still and dark as obsidian. It was 3 AM, and she shouldn't have been awake, but the jet lag had her in its jaws.

She adjusted the wide-brimmed **hat** she'd thrown on over her pajamas—a ridiculous purchase from a boutique in Cairo, the kind of thing women bought when they were trying to become someone else. Someone more adventurous. Someone whose marriage wasn't hollowing out from the inside.

Behind her, the Great **Sphinx** watched from the distance, half-buried in sand, its face eroded by centuries of wind and indifference. David had pointed out earlier that the statue's nose was missing—likely vandalized by Napoleonic soldiers, though the guide had offered alternate theories. "All things eventually lose their face," David had said, and Maya had wondered if he was talking about monuments or them.

She reached into her robe pocket and found the amber prescription bottle. **Vitamin** D, the doctor had prescribed. "You're depleted," she'd said, but Maya knew it wasn't just sunshine she was missing. She dry-swallowed two capsules, gagging slightly, and stared at her reflection in the pool.

The water rippled suddenly, though there was no wind. Maya leaned closer, and for a moment she saw it—that other version of herself, the one before the disappointments had calcified into silence. The Sphinx seemed to be asking her its ancient riddle: What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening? The answer was man, but the real question was something else.

What do you do when you've become a stranger to your own life?

David's key scraped in the lock. Maya stepped back from the edge, heart pounding. She could slip into the water, let it erase everything, or she could turn toward the door and try to begin again.

The water settled into glassy stillness. Maya straightened her hat, took a breath, and turned toward the room where her husband waited, carrying the weight of everything unsaid between them like water in her lungs.