The Sphinx's Ethernet

Maya's room was her sanctuary, mostly because it was the only place where she didn't feel like the weird girl who talked to statues. The cat statue in question—a plastic sphinx from her Egypt phase—sat on her desk, right next to the tangle of ethernet cables she'd "organized" three times but still looked like a digital hairball.

"You're judging me, aren't you?" she muttered to the sphinx, whose painted-on smile seemed especially smug today.

Her actual cat, Barnaby, chose that moment to leap onto the keyboard, sending Maya's half-written Reddit post flying into the void. He was a sphinx cat, wrinkly and bald as a newborn, and Maya loved him precisely because he looked like he'd survived some kind of experimental science accident.

"Dude!"

Barnaby ignored her, settling into a loaf position directly on the cable modem. The router lights flickered ominously.

The family dinner that night was the usual: Mom asking about college applications, Dad asking about grades, Maya answering in monosyllables while mentally calculating how many more dinners she could fake her way through before someone noticed she hadn't actually submitted anything.

"So, Maya," her brother started, around a mouthful of mashed potatoes. "Heard you're still into that whole... ancient dead people thing?"

The table went quiet. Maya felt that familiar tightening in her chest, the one that said *don't cry don't cry don't you dare cry*.

"Actually," she said, surprising herself with how steady her voice came out, "I've been researching cable management systems. For, like, data centers and stuff."

Total lie. But the look on her brother's face was worth it.

Later that night, Maya sat back at her desk, genuinely googling cable management because why not? The sphinx statue caught her eye again. She'd bought it on a middle school field trip to the museum, back when she'd thought knowing everything about ancient civilizations made her special.

Now she just felt... disconnected. Like she was between versions of herself, the old one still loading while the new one kept buffering.

Barnaby bumped his weird bald head against her hand. His skin was impossibly soft, like warm suede.

"Okay," Maya whispered. "Okay."

She opened a new document. Not a Reddit post this time. An actual college application essay—one she'd been avoiding for weeks. The cursor blinked at her, patient as the sphinx.

"What's your riddle?" she asked the statue. "What's the one thing that changes every time I try to describe it?"

The sphinx said nothing, of course. But somehow, Maya felt like she'd answered her own question.