Summary

Zaleekhah walks near the River Thames in 2018. Her family stems from another land by another river. The Thames is in fine shape although this was not always the case. Zaleekhah is a scientist, and she has to help people with her name frequently. Her mother gave her the name because she wanted it as a symbol that even though she grew up in England, she was from another part of the world. A week prior, Zaleekah left her husband and rented a houseboat. Her Uncle Malek is the only family she has anywhere nearby.

Zaleekah’s later remembers her uncle once telling her that people like them do not have the luxury of failing, and she thinks about how water is an immigrant. She knows that the tear that she released will continue to live on in different forms. She...