Zaleekhah has invit­ed her close friend, Nen, to join a fam­i­ly din­ner with her Uncle Malek and Aunt Malek by the Riv­er Thames in 2018. The set­ting, with its pleas­ant river­side views, holds a sense of qui­et antic­i­pa­tion, but Zaleekhah can­not shake the unease that accom­pa­nies this gath­er­ing. As soon as they arrive, her dis­com­fort grows, espe­cial­ly when Uncle Malek begins to ask Nen increas­ing­ly per­son­al ques­tions, prob­ing into her pro­fes­sion as a tat­too artist and her liv­ing sit­u­a­tion. These ques­tions, though seem­ing­ly inno­cent, come across as intru­sive and push bound­aries. Nen, unfazed by the inten­si­ty of Uncle Malek’s inquiries, calm­ly explains her recent breakup and that she had been forced to rent out her house­boat to make ends meet. When Uncle Malek bold­ly asks about her sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, Nen answers with calm com­po­sure, sur­pris­ing both Zaleekhah and the rest of the fam­i­ly. The moment hangs in the air, leav­ing a sense of dis­com­fort that only inten­si­fies as the con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues.

Aunt Malek, eager to defuse the sit­u­a­tion, offers a warm wel­come, call­ing Nen a “friend” and attempt­ing to soft­en the atmos­phere. How­ev­er, Nen’s response—expressing that they weren’t real­ly friends—adds an awk­ward ten­sion, dis­rupt­ing the moment of sup­posed cama­raderie. The atmos­phere shifts as a toast to friend­ship is pro­posed, but when Nen men­tions that she is sober and has cel­e­brat­ed eight years of sobri­ety, the con­ver­sa­tion veers into uncom­fort­able ter­ri­to­ry. The adults react with a mix­ture of curios­i­ty and dis­ap­proval, with Uncle Malek tak­ing a par­tic­u­lar inter­est in the sub­ject. Zaleekhah, observ­ing Nen’s com­po­sure in the face of judg­ment, feels a grow­ing sense of admi­ra­tion for her friend’s strength. Mean­while, Zaleekhah feels a grow­ing dis­com­fort, increas­ing­ly alien­at­ed from the judg­ments and expec­ta­tions of her rel­a­tives. The ener­gy in the room changes when her glam­orous cousin Helen arrives, bring­ing a burst of vital­i­ty, though the news of Lily’s med­ical tests soon casts a somber tone over the din­ner.

As the evening unfolds, Uncle Malek grows loud­er and more impas­sioned in his drunk­en rant about cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty and the mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Mid­dle East, inter­twin­ing his argu­ments with ref­er­ences to his pride in being British. He uses the Epic of Gil­gamesh as a frame­work for dis­cussing the val­ues of loy­al­ty and fam­i­ly, but his words seem to cut deep­er as the con­ver­sa­tion devolves into heat­ed argu­ments about per­son­al val­ues. His crit­i­cism of Zaleekhah’s lifestyle, espe­cial­ly her choic­es that defy tra­di­tion­al fam­i­ly val­ues, leaves a bit­ter taste in the air. The con­ver­sa­tion turns hos­tile, with Aunt Malek caught between sup­port­ing her hus­band and main­tain­ing some sem­blance of peace. Zaleekhah, over­whelmed by the ten­sion, becomes increas­ing­ly aware of the deep divide with­in her fam­i­ly, where old-world expec­ta­tions clash with mod­ern ide­olo­gies. As the night drags on, Zaleekhah finds her­self grap­pling with the sharp con­trast between her family’s tra­di­tion­al views and her own evolv­ing sense of iden­ti­ty. After din­ner, Zaleekhah and Nen take a walk togeth­er, a moment of respite that allows them to debrief and process the emo­tions stirred by the evening. Nen, ever the philoso­pher, shares a poignant sto­ry about her first fish, tying the expe­ri­ence to her own per­son­al growth and her abil­i­ty to find mean­ing in dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tions. Zaleekhah, reflect­ing on Nen’s wis­dom, feels a sense of con­nec­tion and com­fort in their shared under­stand­ing. The evening cul­mi­nates with Zaleekhah being gift­ed a lapis lazuli neck­lace by Nen, a ges­ture sym­bol­iz­ing their deep­en­ing bond. This chap­ter poignant­ly cap­tures the inter­nal con­flicts faced by Zaleekhah as she nav­i­gates the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly, iden­ti­ty, and the weight of soci­etal expec­ta­tions. Her con­nec­tion with Nen offers a sense of clar­i­ty and hope amidst the tur­bu­lence of her family’s judg­ments, high­light­ing the strength of per­son­al bonds in the face of adver­si­ty.