The Riddle of Empty Rooms

Martha stood before her bathroom mirror, tweezing another silver hair from her temple. At forty-three, she'd become an archaeologist of her own body, excavating signs of decline with clinical precision. Below the sink, Leonard's goldfish—why had he named it Sphinx?—circled its bowl with the bored patience of a creature that had forgotten it was once supposed to have riddles.

Three months since Leonard left. Since he'd said, "You know what's wrong, Martha," and packed his clothes like he was solving a puzzle she couldn't see. Now the goldfish was her roommate, its mouth opening and closing in silent judgment.

"You're not even a sphinx," she told it. "A sphinx asks questions. You just exist."

Her hair had been the first thing Leonard noticed, that wild black mane falling past her shoulders. Now she considered cutting it all off—maybe that was the riddle's answer. Transformation. The sphinx in the museum where she worked guarded secrets of death and rebirth. Oedipus had answered, and the sphinx cast herself down. Martha wondered what she would have to destroy to move forward.

The goldfish bumped against glass, seeking food or freedom or perhaps simply acknowledging the barrier between its world and hers.

"Okay," she said aloud. "Let's try this differently."

She found the scissors in Leonard's old kit, still smelling faintly of his sandalwood cologne. The first snip released a lock that had survived two decades of changes. Another. Another. Hair accumulated on the linoleum like dark seaweed.

When she finished, her reflection was a stranger. Inches of jagged spikes, exposing her neck to the cool air. She looked raw, unfinished, oddly new. Behind her, the goldfish swam to the front of its bowl, watching.

"There," Martha said. "The answer's not solving the riddle. It's becoming something the riddle can't predict."

She walked out of the bathroom, leaving the hair on the floor. The goldfish continued its endless circling, but Martha finally stopped waiting for someone else to tell her what it meant.