The Riddle of the Green

Margot stood before the bathroom mirror, examining the new lines etched around her eyes like the paws of some creature trying to escape. She was forty-two, and her body had become a sphinx of riddles she couldn't solve.

'You need more iron,' David had said that morning, dropping a plastic container onto the counter. 'Eat your spinach.' He didn't look up from his phone, where the glow illuminated his own exhausted face.

She stared at the wilted greens in the container—spinach that had been fresh three days ago, when everything between them had still felt possible. Now it was slimy, decaying, like the conversations they avoided over dinner.

The vitamin bottle sat next to the sink, its orange label promising vitality in a gelatin capsule. Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. They lived in Seattle, where the sun was a rumor. She swallowed one dry, thinking how absurd it was that modern survival required supplements for basic existence.

David appeared in the doorway, his silhouette framed by the hallway's shadows. 'My mother called again,' he said. 'She thinks we should try that couples retreat.'

The sphinx in the mirror watched her, waiting. 'And what do you think?'

'I think we need something.' He stepped closer, his hand hovering near her waist but not touching. 'I don't want to become strangers who share a bed.'

Margot turned to face him. In his eyes, she saw the same fear that haunted her—the possibility that the universe's riddle had no answer, that love required maintenance they'd forgotten how to perform. She thought of the decaying spinach, the false promise of vitamins, the way they'd both become experts at avoiding each other's gaze.

'I'll make you a deal,' she said, surprising herself. 'You cook me dinner using that spinach before it completely rots, and I'll look up the retreat information.'

David's expression softened, something like hope flickering across his tired face. 'I can do that,' he said. 'I can do that.'

The sphinx remained silent, but for the first time in months, Margot thought she might finally be ready to hear the answer.