Zaleekhah enters a cozy café tucked away in the heart of Rus­sell Square, Lon­don, in 2018, a place where she recon­nects with her cousin, Helen. The café, vibrant with lush green­ery and col­or­ful flow­ers, pro­vides a serene set­ting that sharply con­trasts with the grav­i­ty of the news Helen has come to share. Helen’s young daugh­ter is in des­per­ate need of a kid­ney trans­plant, a cri­sis that has cast a heavy shad­ow over their family’s lives. Zaleekhah lis­tens intent­ly, her heart heavy with sym­pa­thy, as Helen dis­cuss­es the daunt­ing chal­lenges of find­ing a suit­able donor. The con­ver­sa­tion is filled with ten­sion, not just over the prac­ti­cal­i­ties of find­ing a donor, but also the emo­tion­al toll this impend­ing med­ical pro­ce­dure is tak­ing on Helen and her fam­i­ly. Despite hope being offered in the form of Helen’s hus­band’s ear­ly return, the loom­ing issue of the trans­plant remains the focal point, cre­at­ing an air of uncer­tain­ty.

Amid their con­ver­sa­tion, Zaleekhah notices the weari­ness in Helen’s voice, the toll that the ongo­ing sit­u­a­tion has clear­ly tak­en on her cousin. Helen, notic­ing a change in Zaleekhah as well, remarks that she no longer seems as joy­ful or at ease as she once did. This com­ment strikes a chord in Zaleekhah, who has been qui­et­ly bat­tling her own strug­gles with depres­sion and sleep­less­ness. She choos­es not to bur­den Helen with her own prob­lems, instead opt­ing to keep her inner tur­moil to her­self, though she can­not help but feel the weight of her emo­tions. As the con­ver­sa­tion shifts, Helen prais­es Zaleekhah’s friend, Nen, shar­ing how they both admire the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships. This men­tion of Nen leads to a slight diver­sion in their dia­logue, allow­ing Zaleekhah to momen­tar­i­ly step away from the heavy top­ic of the trans­plant.

When the con­ver­sa­tion ends, Zaleekhah leaves the café feel­ing an over­whelm­ing mix of emo­tions. She feels a sense of guilt for her own per­son­al strug­gles, espe­cial­ly when com­pared to the sever­i­ty of Helen’s sit­u­a­tion. This intro­spec­tion leads to a piv­otal moment of self-real­iza­tion, where Zaleekhah acknowl­edges that she needs to make changes in her life. Fueled by this need for per­son­al trans­for­ma­tion, she decides to vis­it a tat­too shop in search of Nen, whom she lat­er learns is at the British Muse­um. Upon find­ing Nen sketch­ing a lamassu—an ancient Assyr­i­an creature—Zaleekhah admires her friend’s artis­tic expres­sion. Nen’s work stands in sharp con­trast to the more for­mal, stiff attire worn by the muse­um staff, high­light­ing her unique, cre­ative flair. Their con­ver­sa­tion shifts towards the ther­a­peu­tic pow­er of ancient arti­facts, dis­cussing how these relics pro­vide com­fort, offer­ing a con­nec­tion to the past that can be deeply heal­ing. Nen, shar­ing her own expe­ri­ences, reveals how her fas­ci­na­tion with Ancient Mesopotamia helped her cope with her tumul­tuous men­tal health jour­ney, find­ing solace in the sto­ries and sym­bols of the past.

As their con­ver­sa­tion deep­ens, Nen uses her past strug­gles with alco­hol as a metaphor for the way many peo­ple seek unhealthy refuges from their emo­tion­al pain. This metaphor res­onates with Zaleekhah, who, like Nen, has often turned to cop­ing mech­a­nisms that may not always be the health­i­est. The dis­cus­sion moves into a broad­er explo­ration of life’s com­plex­i­ties, touch­ing on themes of his­to­ry, pow­er, and the per­son­al strug­gles that define each individual’s jour­ney. For the first time in a long while, Zaleekhah feels tru­ly under­stood, and this shared con­nec­tion with Nen pro­vides her with a sense of emo­tion­al release. Inspired by their mean­ing­ful exchange, Zaleekhah decides to get a tat­too, some­thing sym­bol­ic that marks a new begin­ning for her. The tat­too, a sim­ple yet pro­found design of water, rep­re­sents her desire for heal­ing and growth. It serves as a con­stant reminder of her trans­for­ma­tion and the pow­er­ful bond she shares with Nen. This moment sig­nals a turn­ing point for Zaleekhah, one where she begins to embrace the changes she needs to make in her life, mark­ing the start of her jour­ney toward per­son­al heal­ing and a deep­er under­stand­ing of her­self.