In the chap­ter titled “Zaleekhah,” set by the Riv­er Thames in 2018, we meet the tit­u­lar char­ac­ter as she awak­ens from a trou­bled sleep at 3:34 a.m., a time she has come to asso­ciate with deep melan­choly. She turns on her lap­top and is con­front­ed with alarm­ing news about scor­pi­on inva­sions in Egypt, trig­gered by severe weath­er. As she con­tem­plates the chaos, she takes sleep­ing pills, sig­ni­fy­ing her dis­tress and need for escape.

Zaleekhah receives a poignant mes­sage from her hus­band, Bri­an, reveal­ing his inten­tion to file for divorce, which makes her reflect on their rela­tion­ship and how to con­vey the news to her uncle. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, cheer­ful birth­day mes­sages from col­leagues pro­vide a stark con­trast to her emo­tion­al tur­moil. An unex­pect­ed vis­it from her friend Nen inter­rupts her somber thoughts. Nen’s cheer­ful demeanor and thought­ful gift—gingerbread bis­cuits shaped like Mesopotami­an tablets—lighten the mood. The bis­cuits, inscribed in cuneiform, reveal a play­ful ele­ment in their friend­ship, with each bis­cuit rep­re­sent­ing a word.

Their con­ver­sa­tion flows from the whim­si­cal to the pro­found as Zaleekhah learns about Nen’s tat­too busi­ness, which incor­po­rates cuneiform inspired by ancient aes­thet­ics. Nen express­es a pas­sion for female fig­ures in his­to­ry, spark­ing a dis­cus­sion about the roles women have played, often for­got­ten or over­looked in nar­ra­tives. Zaleekhah reveals her own his­to­ry of loss, shar­ing that her par­ents died in a flash flood when she was young, shap­ing her rela­tion­ship with water and her cho­sen pro­fes­sion. The chap­ter show­cas­es a blend of per­son­al grief and bur­geon­ing friend­ship, as Zaleekhah finds solace in Nen’s under­stand­ing.

As they share sto­ries, Nen hints at the deep­er sig­nif­i­cance of tat­toos as sto­ry­telling. The con­ver­sa­tion is punc­tu­at­ed by moments of laugh­ter and warmth, lift­ing Zaleekhah from her somber thoughts. As Nen departs, Zaleekhah feels inspired, lead­ing her to unex­pect­ed­ly invite Nen to a birth­day din­ner at her uncle’s house that evening. This ges­ture reflects a blos­som­ing con­nec­tion, a pos­si­ble turn­ing point from her soli­tude towards new com­pan­ion­ship amidst her strug­gles.