The Riddle in the Kitchen

Elaine stood at the counter, her wedding ring catching the morning light as she chopped spinach with rhythmic precision. The knife's chopping against the wooden board was the only sound in a house that had grown too quiet over the past six months.

"You're making that again," Marcus said from the kitchen table. His voice was thinner now, like worn paper.

"It's good for you," she replied, not turning around. "Full of iron. Full of life."

The doctors had become sphinxes to her—enigmatic creatures with their riddles of statistics and prognosis percentages, their inscrutable expressions when she asked the questions that burned in her throat every night as she lay beside him, counting his breaths. They offered vitamin supplements and hope in equal measure, as if either could slow the erosion of the man she'd loved for thirty-two years.

He was reading the newspaper, or pretending to. She knew he'd stopped comprehending the words weeks ago. The orange juice carton sat unopened beside his elbow, condensation weeping down the sides like tears.

"Remember when we met?" he asked suddenly.

Elaine's hand stilled. "The grocery store. You were reaching for the last orange."

"And I let you have it."

"You did. You said you preferred the green ones, even though oranges don't come in green."

He laughed, and the sound was so familiar that her chest tightened with something that was both grief and gratitude. The spinach sat forgotten on the cutting board as she crossed to him, pressing her forehead against his thinning hair.

"I'd do it again," he whispered. "I'd let you have that orange every time."

Outside, the October sun cast long shadows across their lawn. The sphinx's riddle wasn't in the doctor's office anymore, wasn't in the prognosis. It was here, in this kitchen, in the way love could both break and sustain you, how you could hold someone so completely while they were disappearing, slice by slice, breath by breath.

She returned to the spinach. The knife continued its rhythm. Somewhere in the distance, a church bell began to ring.