Zaleekhah walks along Great Rus­sell Street, lost in thought as the hum of rush hour traf­fic sur­rounds her. She had just vis­it­ed a gallery that was sup­port­ed by her fam­i­ly, the Maleks, with the hope of see­ing her cousin Helen, but to her dis­ap­point­ment, Helen was nowhere to be found. As she walks back towards her home, mem­o­ries from her neigh­bors about the own­er of a near­by house­boat come to mind. Unknow­ing­ly, Zaleekhah ends up walk­ing in the direc­tion of a tat­too par­lour called “The For­got­ten God­dess,” intrigued by the idea of what might await her there.

Upon enter­ing the tat­too par­lour, Zaleekhah is imme­di­ate­ly struck by the clean, sophis­ti­cat­ed inte­ri­or. The shop fea­tures a styl­ish emer­ald sofa and warm, invit­ing dec­o­ra­tions that make the space feel inti­mate and com­fort­able. The shop’s own­er, a tall and attrac­tive man, greets her with a smile and assumes she is a poten­tial tat­too client. Zaleekhah iden­ti­fies her­self as the house­boat ten­ant, and it’s soon revealed that the actu­al own­er, Nen, is down­stairs, wait­ing to meet her.

When Nen appears, the two exchange a warm greet­ing, and Nen quick­ly opens up about her fam­i­ly, shar­ing that she has five younger broth­ers. This detail sparks a con­ver­sa­tion about fam­i­ly dynam­ics, which makes Zaleekhah reflect on her own upbring­ing. Unlike Nen’s live­ly house­hold, Zaleekhah’s child­hood had been marked by soli­tude, an expe­ri­ence that gives her a deep­er appre­ci­a­tion for Nen’s close fam­i­ly ties. This exchange fos­ters a mutu­al under­stand­ing between the two, as both women begin to con­nect over their con­trast­ing expe­ri­ences.

As their con­ver­sa­tion con­tin­ues, Zaleekhah casu­al­ly men­tions the leaky kitchen sink in her house­boat, prompt­ing Nen to imme­di­ate­ly offer her help. Nen’s will­ing­ness to assist with such a seem­ing­ly minor issue speaks vol­umes about her gen­eros­i­ty, fur­ther draw­ing Zaleekhah to her. Nen then pre­pares a spe­cial cof­fee for them, using dried laven­der as a key ingre­di­ent. Zaleekhah savors the sooth­ing fla­vor, and the two delve into a con­ver­sa­tion about the his­to­ry and cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance of cuneiform tat­toos, which are craft­ed with sym­bols from an ancient script.

Through­out the evening, Nen shares her pas­sion for mud­lark­ing on the Thames, describ­ing how she has uncov­ered fas­ci­nat­ing arti­facts from his­to­ry. Zaleekhah lis­tens intent­ly, cap­ti­vat­ed by the sto­ries of hid­den trea­sures and the con­nec­tion Nen feels to the past. Their con­ver­sa­tion becomes a cel­e­bra­tion of the inter­sec­tion of his­to­ry, cul­ture, and per­son­al expe­ri­ences, some­thing that res­onates deeply with Zaleekhah, who has always been drawn to the rich­ness of the past. These tales help Zaleekhah momen­tar­i­ly escape the tur­moil of her mind, find­ing com­fort in the explo­ration of the unknown.

As Zaleekhah pre­pares to leave, Nen express­es gen­uine sur­prise at Zaleekhah’s deci­sion to rent a house­boat. She remarks that life on the water may offer unfore­seen joys and expe­ri­ences, and Zaleekhah is left to pon­der this sug­ges­tion. The thought of such a lifestyle stirs mem­o­ries of a child­hood book, which por­trayed a life filled with explo­ration and pos­si­bil­i­ty. The idea of embrac­ing some­thing so dif­fer­ent from her cur­rent life excites her, though she remains uncer­tain of what it would tru­ly mean.

When she exits the tat­too shop, Nen hands her a small slab of dough, its sur­face marked with Zaleekhah’s name in cuneiform. This sim­ple ges­ture, though small, rep­re­sents the start of some­thing new and mean­ing­ful in Zaleekhah’s life. The dough slab serves as a sym­bol of a con­nec­tion that has begun to form, one that car­ries with it the poten­tial for per­son­al growth, heal­ing, and new oppor­tu­ni­ties. As she steps out into the cool evening air, the house­boat, once a place of iso­la­tion, now feels like a poten­tial home for new begin­nings. The night ahead, filled with the sounds of the riv­er and the soft rustling of the trees, feels full of promise, as Zaleekhah takes the first step toward embrac­ing the changes that may come her way.