In the chap­ter “Tues­day,” the char­ac­ters Cyrus Shams, Zee Novak, and Sad James gath­er at the Naples Café, a gath­er­ing place known for its relaxed ambiance among local coun­ter­cul­tur­al­ists. Cyrus shares a new cre­ative project focused on the theme of mar­tyr­dom, hav­ing been inspired by both per­son­al expe­ri­ences and read­ings about his­tor­i­cal mar­tyrs. He reflects on his moth­er’s mean­ing­less death and con­tem­plates if she can be regard­ed as a mar­tyr, express­ing a deep-seat­ed desire to find sig­nif­i­cance in loss.

While dis­cussing poet­ry and the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of mar­tyrs, Cyrus con­sid­ers incor­po­rat­ing var­i­ous his­tor­i­cal fig­ures into his work. Sad James and Zee pro­vide play­ful com­men­tary about the nature of their con­tri­bu­tions to the open mic scene they fre­quent at Naples. The night serves as a com­fort­ing back­drop where they explore heavy themes through the lens of cama­raderie and cre­ativ­i­ty.

Cyrus grap­ples with exis­ten­tial ques­tions tied to his past, includ­ing the impact of his fam­i­ly’s his­to­ry and the trau­mas of war. His mus­ings lead him to artic­u­late a pro­found sense of long­ing for mean­ing beyond mere sur­vival, par­tic­u­lar­ly regard­ing the deaths of loved ones that felt dis­con­nect­ed from larg­er nar­ra­tives of his­to­ry and cul­ture.

Dur­ing the evening, they learn about an art exhib­it fea­tur­ing a dying Iran­ian artist, Orkideh, who invites peo­ple to con­verse with her in her final days. This strikes a chord with Cyrus, who begins to see a poten­tial con­nec­tion to his own project. His friends encour­age him to vis­it Orkideh, point­ing out that this encounter could pro­vide insight into the sig­nif­i­cance of death and mar­tyr­dom that he seeks in his writ­ing.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in Cyrus’s epiphany—he real­izes that he has been stag­nat­ing in his cur­rent life and decides to take action by vis­it­ing the artist, a deci­sion that excites him and marks a desire for deep­er mean­ing in his work and per­son­al jour­ney .

Wait­ing ai