Summary

Alia’s memory is incredibly frail. The TV is always on, and whenever she feels the fear of not being able to grasp something, she focuses on the imperfections around her to steady herself. Her nurse, Umm Najwa comes to wake her up, telling her it is a special day. Alia does not know why and does not want to get up. Sometimes she has moments of lucidity where she can remember faces and names without too much issue, but these moments get more and more fleeting as time goes on. Throughout the chapter, the reader sees evidence of this: names being used and then replaced with phrases like “the girl” (298).

Alia hates dreaming because her dreams do not make sense to her and leave her with even more of a sensation of being unable to remember. She prefers to be alone than in...