In the chap­ter titled “HZALEEKHAH,” set in 2018 by the Riv­er Thames, Zaleekhah meets her cousin Helen at a café in Rus­sell Square. The ambiance, filled with lush green­ery and vibrant flow­ers, con­trasts stark­ly with the dis­tress­ing news Helen shares: her young daugh­ter requires a kid­ney trans­plant. Zaleekhah express­es her sym­pa­thy, and they dis­cuss the chal­lenges of find­ing a donor while reflect­ing on famil­ial sup­port. Helen’s hus­band is return­ing ear­ly to offer assis­tance, but the con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­u­al­ly cir­cles back to the loom­ing trans­plant issue.

Amidst this, Zaleekhah is struck by her cous­in’s weari­ness and laments her own unend­ing melan­choly. Helen men­tions that Zaleekhah no longer seems hap­py, prompt­ing Zaleekhah to reflect on her own strug­gles with depres­sion and sleep­less­ness, feel­ings she decides not to share with her cousin. The dia­logue shifts when Helen prais­es Zaleekhah’s friend Nen, reveal­ing their shared appre­ci­a­tion for famil­ial com­plex­i­ty.

As Zaleekhah departs the café, she’s con­sumed by thoughts of her con­ver­sa­tion and feels ashamed of her own trou­bles com­pared to Helen’s plight. This prompts an intro­spec­tive moment where she acknowl­edges a press­ing need for change in her life. She then vis­its a tat­too shop look­ing for Nen but learns she’s at the British Muse­um.

Find­ing Nen sketch­ing a **lamas­su** at the muse­um, Zaleekhah admires her friend’s unique style, which sharply con­trasts the more for­mal attire of her col­leagues. Their con­ver­sa­tion touch­es on the ther­a­peu­tic val­ue of ancient arti­facts, their cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance, and the heavy bur­dens of men­tal health. Nen shares how her inter­est in Ancient Mesopotamia pro­vid­ed solace dur­ing her own tumul­tuous jour­ney with men­tal health.

The dis­cus­sion deep­ens as they explore the com­plex­i­ties of his­to­ry, pow­er, and per­son­al strug­gles, with Nen using her expe­ri­ences with alco­hol as a metaphor for seek­ing refuge. The syn­er­gy of their thoughts leads to a shared under­stand­ing of feel­ing lost in life’s cur­rents.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates with Zaleekhah con­tem­plat­ing get­ting a tat­too, sym­bol­iz­ing a turn­ing point, empow­ered by her con­nec­tion with Nen as she leaves the shop with a sig­nif­i­cant mark on her body—a sim­ple yet pro­found rep­re­sen­ta­tion of water, echo­ing her desire for change and heal­ing.