What the Palm Reader Saw

The cat appeared at dusk every evening, a skeletal calico with one ear chewed off, and Elena fed it scraps from their room service tray despite Marcus's warning about local strays. They'd been in Sharm el-Sheik for five days, supposedly to reconcile, though mostly they drank gin on their balcony and pretended not to see each other's tears.

That afternoon, while Marcus was at the spa, Elena had wandered into the tent where the old woman read palms. The woman traced the lines on Elena's hand with nicotine-stained fingers, speaking in broken English about the empty space at her life line where a child should have been. When Elena returned to their room, Marcus found her bottle of prenatal vitamins on the nightstand and asked, pointedly, if she'd thrown them away yet.

"They're just vitamins," she'd said.

"They're a delusion, Elena. The doctor said—"

"I know what the doctor said."

Now the cat mewed at their door, and Marcus opened it to retrieve the tray, letting the animal inside. It circled the room where they'd spent nights not touching, then settled beneath the desk where Elena's laptop held all the rejected fertility clinic invoices.

Tomorrow they'd visit the Sphinx, three hours' drive through desert heat. Marcus had booked it months ago, back when they still believed in symbols and rebirth. Tonight, Elena lay on her side watching the cat clean its matted fur, while Marcus stood on the balcony smoking something he'd bought from a waiter.

"The palm reader said I'd meet someone," Elena called through the open doors.

Marcus exhaled smoke into the darkness. "Someone else?"

"She said there was a journey still ahead. She said the line changes, if you let it."

He came inside and sat on the edge of the bed. The cat watched them both with its good eye. "What did you tell her about us?"

"Everything." Elena pressed her palm against his cheek. "She said the Sphinx asks riddles but keeps its secrets. She said some questions don't have answers."

Marcus took her hand, interlaced their fingers. Their wedding rings caught moonlight through the balcony doors. "Maybe that's the answer."

The cat jumped onto the bed between them, purring like a small, stubborn engine, and they didn't move it.