Post by lucrezia conti on Nov 11, 2022 23:09:31 GMT -7
Summer 1971
Never before in her life had Lucrezia felt as though she might melt. The heat from the sun was the sort that seared at her pale skin. Her legs almost felt raw and red already, simply because she was anticipating that they would be raw and red by the day's end. She was lying flat on her back, feeling like a wooden plank that could easily integrate itself straight into the floorboards if only she tried hard enough, though she considered flipping over onto her stomach so that at least her eventual sunburn might end up more even. It would be like cooking meat, Lucrezia thought for a moment, until she realized that she, too, was technically meat. She was cooking meat from the dusty hardwood floor of an Iranian hostel: herself.
Even though it was physically there as promised, the fan that was supposed to be available in the hostel room didn't work, and it hadn't at least since she had arrived there two days prior. Instead, Lucrezia found herself glancing over at the fan's blades every so often, hoping that thinking about it enough might cause them to spin just a little bit. Opening the windows might have had the same effect if there were enough of a breeze at just the right angle, but that would have required her to get up from off the floor regardless.
Vacantly, Lucrezia stared up at the ceiling as beads of sweat fell from her forehead and into her hair, sticking it to the sides of her face. Lucrezia had learned already that there was no way to feel entirely clean while traveling as she and so many others were. It wasn't luxurious in any way, and nearly everyone had abandoned the levels of hygiene that they would have maintained if they were back at home in their own countries. The idea (and the body odor) was bothersome at first, but Lucrezia had become used to it. She didn't always have hot water or shampoo with which to shower after a long day, but it wasn't actually as bad as it might have sounded. It was almost like asceticism, like there was some higher purpose for their deprivation.
Everyone who was making a journey similar to hers knew at least a few fellow travelers who had gotten deeply interested in some Eastern religion or philosophy. Lucrezia didn't adhere to any of them in the way that some people did, but she found them interesting. There were similarities and differences with what she was familiar, which was almost exclusively Catholicism. She appreciated how at peace the people seemed, like how they could meditate and seemingly clear their minds of all their thoughts.
Religion aside, Lucrezia wouldn't have minded knowing a bit of meditation. Maybe she would have been able to fall asleep that way instead of thinking about how she was practically boiling alive—or at least it felt that way. She didn't want to die of heatstroke in her sleep, though, so maybe it was better to be wide awake and miserable. Neither sounded particularly pleasant when she really stopped and started to think about it.
Going to sleep was also out of the question as Lucrezia heard the door open from behind her. She couldn't see who had entered the room, but she could hear the footsteps of their bare feet against the floorboards. She sat up—partly to avoid being stepped on and partly to see who it was—and realized that it was a young woman who was a new arrival, apparently set to take the bunk above hers.
Of the options in a hostel room, the bottom bunk was preferable, and Lucrezia knew that she was lucky to have gotten the bed that she had. Climbing up and down a ladder constantly was frustrating, especially after the millionth time of having to do it. And it also mattered who else happened to be occupying the bunk bed. Ideally, that was only one other person, but some people enjoyed bringing partners back with them when they could get away with it.
No second newcomer was in the room—for the time being, anyway—so Lucrezia could breathe a sigh of relief. The girl who had shown up was equally as pasty white as she was, with straw-colored blonde hair. From her appearance, she had to be European or from the United States, Lucrezia thought to herself. She had used English more often since she had been traveling than she had at any time that she could recall, and using the language seemed to be her best option. "Hello," she said, trying to sound more cheerful than she felt in the heat. "I'm Lucrezia."
"Nancy," the blonde answered her, clearly an American from her accent. She looked like she was a few years older, Lucrezia noticed, but not so old that she had lost her sense of adventure. Nearly everyone traveling in their direction was in roughly the same age cohort, give or take ten years.
Anyone much older would have been too set in their ways and too established in a "real" job to drop everything and explore parts of the world that they had never seen, Lucrezia knew, and she nodded in reply to Nancy's having given her name. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Lucrezia answered, not that she was overly thrilled by Nancy within minutes of meeting her. There were many Americans whom she had met by that point, and they all just blended together after the first few.
"Gosh!" Nancy remarked. "It's hot out there today, isn't it?" It was a simple question, but Nancy had felt the need to increase the volume of her speech because she mistakenly believed that doing so would make her easier to understand.
"It is," Lucrezia agreed. She was sure that Nancy could see that she was already drenched in sweat from her spot on the floor. At the same time, she didn't want to bother correcting the young American woman to explain to her that she really didn't need her to speak so loudly.
Viewing that moment as a good opportunity to get up off the floor, Lucrezia pulled herself up until she was standing again, ending up with some dust on the palms of her hands in the process. Once she was standing, she brushed her hands off on her legs and then sat down on her bunk, swinging her legs over onto the bed so that they wouldn't be in Nancy's way as she got herself and her belongings situated.
Essentially living with strangers in such close quarters was another uncomfortable sensation initially, but it became more normal with time. It was made somewhat easier for Lucrezia because she wasn't an only child and had the experience of not necessarily having her own space or privacy all the time. She was the oldest of three children and had two younger brothers, so she felt that that dynamic also worked in her favor.
Younger brothers and young, curious travelers weren't entirely the same, though, as Lucrezia remembered when Nancy slung what must have been half of her worldly possessions onto the top bunk. The bed and mattress held up, fortunately, but Lucrezia was honestly taken aback that anyone had decided to go halfway across the world from their own country with so much stuff. Most of the Americans she had met were more of the "renounce all worldly possessions" persuasion, so it was a little bit jarring. What was on the bunk on top of hers didn't even include Nancy's suitcase, Lucrezia realized. That was still sitting on the floor near where she had been lying.
Only able to make so much small talk over their respective journeys without feeling as though her brain, too, was beginning to fry, Lucrezia figured that it would be polite of her to warn Nancy about the pointless fan. "The fan is broken," Lucrezia told her, staring ahead rather than focusing on what Nancy was doing. The broken fan hadn't been her doing, though, and she felt compelled to inform her of as much. "I didn't break it. It won't turn on," she added. It would have been so much nicer if they had some air circulating.
"Ugh," Nancy groaned. "I'm going to request another room." Lucrezia wasn't offended in the slightest and didn't blame her for wanting another room with a working fan, but she had to wonder if part of the American's reason for wanting out was because she had too much junk for the room they were in.
Unfortunately, Lucrezia wasn't positive that requesting another room would work. The hostel in which they were staying was one of the few decent options around that had had space available, and that space was limited. If there were another room available, Nancy would be lucky to get it before someone else did. At the same time, she wouldn't have been holding her breath if she were her. There was a pretty good chance that there wouldn't be a working fan in there, either, but she wasn't going to say that she had told Nancy so.
Pausing for a few seconds without doing or saying anything, Nancy seemed to be weighing her options. If she really wanted another room, then time was more than likely of the essence. Lucrezia didn't think that Nancy really wanted to gather up everything that she had just dumped above her, though, so there was that point in favor of her staying put. Then again, she hadn't made herself completely at home there yet, so there was still enough of a reason for her to switch while it wouldn't be even more of an inconvenience.
Not really caring either way but still curious about what the outcome would be, Lucrezia watched and waited. Nancy looked back and forth between the bed and the door, paused again, and then asked her if she could keep an eye on her belongings to make sure that nobody took them while she was gone.
Even though she didn't think that someone would come in and run off with so much in the amount of time it would take Nancy to check with someone at the hostel's desk about switching rooms, Lucrezia nodded her head in agreement with what Nancy had asked of her. "Of course," she replied, not too worried about it herself. Without having to get up from her bunk, she would know very quickly if someone else actually were attempting to steal anything that Nancy had brought. No one could just pop through the ceiling, grab everything, and disappear; she'd see them approaching.
Venturing a guess that Nancy would be back almost as soon as she had left the room, Lucrezia stared at the door, only turning her head at first before deciding that it would be far easier to flip over so that she was lying on her side. She wouldn't have to crane her neck, which was more comfortable. Really, she didn't know why she was bothering. Absolutely no one was going to take the time to steal anything of Nancy's off the bunk above her, but she also didn't want to end up getting yelled at by Nancy if she found her to be slacking off on her supposed "guard duty" or whatever it was.
Eventually, the door did open again, but it was only Nancy, back again and shrugging her shoulders in apparent defeat. She had tried to get a different room, at least, but it had worked about as well as Lucrezia had assumed it would. That was to say, in other words, that it hadn't worked out for her.
Realizing that she might have come across as rude for wanting to switch rooms in the first place, Nancy's demeanor suddenly changed from what it had been when she had first entered. She was chipper in the way that nearly every other American seemed to be, even in films. They all had that kind of personality, she thought, the kind where they acted as though they had never met a stranger in their lives. Italians were sociable, but Americans were just different—and at times confusing.
Grinning now, Nancy looked over at her. "You're from Europe, aren't you?" she asked. Her voice was still uncomfortably loud as she spoke, and Lucrezia wanted to remind her that she had only spoken to her in English. Apart from the obviousness of her accent, she could have been fully fluent in English for all she knew.
Other than wondering sarcastically what possibly could have made Nancy guess that she was European, Lucrezia wasn't sure what to say to that at first. There was what she wanted to say and what she knew was probably more polite to tell her. She went with the second option, forcing a small smile to try to match Nancy's friendliness. "I am," she confirmed. "I'm from Italy."
Nodding, Nancy's smile broadened. "Oh, I've been there!" she exclaimed, as though they weren't introducing themselves to one another in a hostel room in Iran anyway. At least she sounded as though she had been left with a positive impression of Italy because she added, "I just loved Rome!"
Not for a second did Lucrezia want to get into a conversation about all of Italy's various regions and how they differed, but she nodded her head in return. "Wonderful," she told Nancy. She didn't mind that her roommate had visited Italy, but that didn't mean that they had anything in common.
At least their conversation, brief though it was, had helped Lucrezia to forget about the searing heat. She knew that it would have come back to her mind sooner or later, though, because she couldn't imagine that Nancy wouldn't find some way to bring the heatwave back into their discussion—and some way to complain about how hot it was, probably. That seemed like something that she might do, thought Lucrezia.
Lying on her back again since she didn't have to watch the door any longer, Lucrezia could feel her shirt sticking to her skin. She could have gotten up and gone to shower, but then she would still end up with sweat-drenched clothes after that. And then that would mean wasting money, since she would have to do laundry sooner than if she had just waited.
Exhausted without having done much of anything all day because she didn't see the point in exploring and ending up sick from the weather, Lucrezia glanced over at Nancy's legs as she reached upwards towards the top bunk. She probably could have used the ladder to her advantage in order to gain an extra few inches in height, but she wasn't so short that she was struggling with it.
The amount of whatever Nancy had put on her bed prior to leaving the room had to have been more than she had realized, too, because Lucrezia could hear her muttering under her breath and saying something about it. Nancy then hopped up on the ladder, putting both her feet on its first rung from the bottom as she reached to grab something from farther back than she could access with the length of her arms alone.
"Yes!" she could hear Nancy whisper to herself in victory as she retrieved whatever she had been aiming to get back from off of the top bunk without having to climb all the way up onto it. Lucrezia couldn't tell what she had been trying to pick up again, but it couldn't have been too heavy. Otherwise, she would have felt it or heard it shifting positions from being directly above her. Part of her brain told her to be nosy about it; the other part of her brain was sure that whatever it was would be underwhelming.
Obeying the whims of that second part of her brain that told her to be nosy, Lucrezia tried to stay patient and not call attention to what she was thinking. She knew that she wasn't doing anything that was against the law anywhere in the world, but it still felt the tiniest bit morally wrong, like she didn't need to be doing it. Simultaneously, though, her brain argued back that no one carried so much with them from the United States to Iran. It simply wasn't practical, and Lucrezia was doubtful that it was very economical, either. Staying in a hostel meant that either Nancy didn't have much money or she was striving for some sort of "authenticity", even though Lucrezia was pretty certain that most people in Tehran had a standard of living that was about the same as most people in Europe or the United States.
Unexpectedly, Nancy actually apologized then for the mess that she had made, even if it was confined to what was technically her own space. Half of what she was saying ran together, but Lucrezia caught the general idea of it. In short, Nancy was sorry for the mess, hadn't realized that she had brought so much with her, and wouldn't encroach on any of Lucrezia's space with her personal items.
"Don't worry," Lucrezia assured her. She had experienced bigger problems with past roommates. A little bit of a mess—provided that it wasn't attracting any insects or rodents or anything—wasn't really a problem.
Opening her suitcase on the floor after her apology, Nancy had everything shoved in there haphazardly. Lucrezia didn't know how she could find anything at all; nothing appeared to be folded, and Nancy's rifling through her clothing every few seconds didn't help keep them neat and tidy. It was strange because Lucrezia didn't view herself as being obsessed with organization and cleanliness, but she was beginning to rethink that as items from inside Nancy's suitcase flew every which way.
Watching Nancy's unpacking process but trying not to stare, Lucrezia noticed that Nancy had with her a number of different brochures of some sort. They must have been travel brochures. Most likely, that was the case. Information on destinations traveled via guidebooks and word of mouth, plus the occasional bulletin board. There wasn't some operator they could dial for information on the entire route from Turkey to Nepal and beyond.
Now able to see one of the pamphlets as it rested on the floor instead of being inside Nancy's suitcase, Lucrezia read the most prominent text printed on it. It was for a charity of some sort, a New Salem Philanthropic Society. Lucrezia had never heard of it, though, so she guessed that it had to be some American thing. She didn't think much of it; someone had probably handed it to Nancy in passing.
Even though it was physically there as promised, the fan that was supposed to be available in the hostel room didn't work, and it hadn't at least since she had arrived there two days prior. Instead, Lucrezia found herself glancing over at the fan's blades every so often, hoping that thinking about it enough might cause them to spin just a little bit. Opening the windows might have had the same effect if there were enough of a breeze at just the right angle, but that would have required her to get up from off the floor regardless.
Vacantly, Lucrezia stared up at the ceiling as beads of sweat fell from her forehead and into her hair, sticking it to the sides of her face. Lucrezia had learned already that there was no way to feel entirely clean while traveling as she and so many others were. It wasn't luxurious in any way, and nearly everyone had abandoned the levels of hygiene that they would have maintained if they were back at home in their own countries. The idea (and the body odor) was bothersome at first, but Lucrezia had become used to it. She didn't always have hot water or shampoo with which to shower after a long day, but it wasn't actually as bad as it might have sounded. It was almost like asceticism, like there was some higher purpose for their deprivation.
Everyone who was making a journey similar to hers knew at least a few fellow travelers who had gotten deeply interested in some Eastern religion or philosophy. Lucrezia didn't adhere to any of them in the way that some people did, but she found them interesting. There were similarities and differences with what she was familiar, which was almost exclusively Catholicism. She appreciated how at peace the people seemed, like how they could meditate and seemingly clear their minds of all their thoughts.
Religion aside, Lucrezia wouldn't have minded knowing a bit of meditation. Maybe she would have been able to fall asleep that way instead of thinking about how she was practically boiling alive—or at least it felt that way. She didn't want to die of heatstroke in her sleep, though, so maybe it was better to be wide awake and miserable. Neither sounded particularly pleasant when she really stopped and started to think about it.
Going to sleep was also out of the question as Lucrezia heard the door open from behind her. She couldn't see who had entered the room, but she could hear the footsteps of their bare feet against the floorboards. She sat up—partly to avoid being stepped on and partly to see who it was—and realized that it was a young woman who was a new arrival, apparently set to take the bunk above hers.
Of the options in a hostel room, the bottom bunk was preferable, and Lucrezia knew that she was lucky to have gotten the bed that she had. Climbing up and down a ladder constantly was frustrating, especially after the millionth time of having to do it. And it also mattered who else happened to be occupying the bunk bed. Ideally, that was only one other person, but some people enjoyed bringing partners back with them when they could get away with it.
No second newcomer was in the room—for the time being, anyway—so Lucrezia could breathe a sigh of relief. The girl who had shown up was equally as pasty white as she was, with straw-colored blonde hair. From her appearance, she had to be European or from the United States, Lucrezia thought to herself. She had used English more often since she had been traveling than she had at any time that she could recall, and using the language seemed to be her best option. "Hello," she said, trying to sound more cheerful than she felt in the heat. "I'm Lucrezia."
"Nancy," the blonde answered her, clearly an American from her accent. She looked like she was a few years older, Lucrezia noticed, but not so old that she had lost her sense of adventure. Nearly everyone traveling in their direction was in roughly the same age cohort, give or take ten years.
Anyone much older would have been too set in their ways and too established in a "real" job to drop everything and explore parts of the world that they had never seen, Lucrezia knew, and she nodded in reply to Nancy's having given her name. "It's a pleasure to meet you," Lucrezia answered, not that she was overly thrilled by Nancy within minutes of meeting her. There were many Americans whom she had met by that point, and they all just blended together after the first few.
"Gosh!" Nancy remarked. "It's hot out there today, isn't it?" It was a simple question, but Nancy had felt the need to increase the volume of her speech because she mistakenly believed that doing so would make her easier to understand.
"It is," Lucrezia agreed. She was sure that Nancy could see that she was already drenched in sweat from her spot on the floor. At the same time, she didn't want to bother correcting the young American woman to explain to her that she really didn't need her to speak so loudly.
Viewing that moment as a good opportunity to get up off the floor, Lucrezia pulled herself up until she was standing again, ending up with some dust on the palms of her hands in the process. Once she was standing, she brushed her hands off on her legs and then sat down on her bunk, swinging her legs over onto the bed so that they wouldn't be in Nancy's way as she got herself and her belongings situated.
Essentially living with strangers in such close quarters was another uncomfortable sensation initially, but it became more normal with time. It was made somewhat easier for Lucrezia because she wasn't an only child and had the experience of not necessarily having her own space or privacy all the time. She was the oldest of three children and had two younger brothers, so she felt that that dynamic also worked in her favor.
Younger brothers and young, curious travelers weren't entirely the same, though, as Lucrezia remembered when Nancy slung what must have been half of her worldly possessions onto the top bunk. The bed and mattress held up, fortunately, but Lucrezia was honestly taken aback that anyone had decided to go halfway across the world from their own country with so much stuff. Most of the Americans she had met were more of the "renounce all worldly possessions" persuasion, so it was a little bit jarring. What was on the bunk on top of hers didn't even include Nancy's suitcase, Lucrezia realized. That was still sitting on the floor near where she had been lying.
Only able to make so much small talk over their respective journeys without feeling as though her brain, too, was beginning to fry, Lucrezia figured that it would be polite of her to warn Nancy about the pointless fan. "The fan is broken," Lucrezia told her, staring ahead rather than focusing on what Nancy was doing. The broken fan hadn't been her doing, though, and she felt compelled to inform her of as much. "I didn't break it. It won't turn on," she added. It would have been so much nicer if they had some air circulating.
"Ugh," Nancy groaned. "I'm going to request another room." Lucrezia wasn't offended in the slightest and didn't blame her for wanting another room with a working fan, but she had to wonder if part of the American's reason for wanting out was because she had too much junk for the room they were in.
Unfortunately, Lucrezia wasn't positive that requesting another room would work. The hostel in which they were staying was one of the few decent options around that had had space available, and that space was limited. If there were another room available, Nancy would be lucky to get it before someone else did. At the same time, she wouldn't have been holding her breath if she were her. There was a pretty good chance that there wouldn't be a working fan in there, either, but she wasn't going to say that she had told Nancy so.
Pausing for a few seconds without doing or saying anything, Nancy seemed to be weighing her options. If she really wanted another room, then time was more than likely of the essence. Lucrezia didn't think that Nancy really wanted to gather up everything that she had just dumped above her, though, so there was that point in favor of her staying put. Then again, she hadn't made herself completely at home there yet, so there was still enough of a reason for her to switch while it wouldn't be even more of an inconvenience.
Not really caring either way but still curious about what the outcome would be, Lucrezia watched and waited. Nancy looked back and forth between the bed and the door, paused again, and then asked her if she could keep an eye on her belongings to make sure that nobody took them while she was gone.
Even though she didn't think that someone would come in and run off with so much in the amount of time it would take Nancy to check with someone at the hostel's desk about switching rooms, Lucrezia nodded her head in agreement with what Nancy had asked of her. "Of course," she replied, not too worried about it herself. Without having to get up from her bunk, she would know very quickly if someone else actually were attempting to steal anything that Nancy had brought. No one could just pop through the ceiling, grab everything, and disappear; she'd see them approaching.
Venturing a guess that Nancy would be back almost as soon as she had left the room, Lucrezia stared at the door, only turning her head at first before deciding that it would be far easier to flip over so that she was lying on her side. She wouldn't have to crane her neck, which was more comfortable. Really, she didn't know why she was bothering. Absolutely no one was going to take the time to steal anything of Nancy's off the bunk above her, but she also didn't want to end up getting yelled at by Nancy if she found her to be slacking off on her supposed "guard duty" or whatever it was.
Eventually, the door did open again, but it was only Nancy, back again and shrugging her shoulders in apparent defeat. She had tried to get a different room, at least, but it had worked about as well as Lucrezia had assumed it would. That was to say, in other words, that it hadn't worked out for her.
Realizing that she might have come across as rude for wanting to switch rooms in the first place, Nancy's demeanor suddenly changed from what it had been when she had first entered. She was chipper in the way that nearly every other American seemed to be, even in films. They all had that kind of personality, she thought, the kind where they acted as though they had never met a stranger in their lives. Italians were sociable, but Americans were just different—and at times confusing.
Grinning now, Nancy looked over at her. "You're from Europe, aren't you?" she asked. Her voice was still uncomfortably loud as she spoke, and Lucrezia wanted to remind her that she had only spoken to her in English. Apart from the obviousness of her accent, she could have been fully fluent in English for all she knew.
Other than wondering sarcastically what possibly could have made Nancy guess that she was European, Lucrezia wasn't sure what to say to that at first. There was what she wanted to say and what she knew was probably more polite to tell her. She went with the second option, forcing a small smile to try to match Nancy's friendliness. "I am," she confirmed. "I'm from Italy."
Nodding, Nancy's smile broadened. "Oh, I've been there!" she exclaimed, as though they weren't introducing themselves to one another in a hostel room in Iran anyway. At least she sounded as though she had been left with a positive impression of Italy because she added, "I just loved Rome!"
Not for a second did Lucrezia want to get into a conversation about all of Italy's various regions and how they differed, but she nodded her head in return. "Wonderful," she told Nancy. She didn't mind that her roommate had visited Italy, but that didn't mean that they had anything in common.
At least their conversation, brief though it was, had helped Lucrezia to forget about the searing heat. She knew that it would have come back to her mind sooner or later, though, because she couldn't imagine that Nancy wouldn't find some way to bring the heatwave back into their discussion—and some way to complain about how hot it was, probably. That seemed like something that she might do, thought Lucrezia.
Lying on her back again since she didn't have to watch the door any longer, Lucrezia could feel her shirt sticking to her skin. She could have gotten up and gone to shower, but then she would still end up with sweat-drenched clothes after that. And then that would mean wasting money, since she would have to do laundry sooner than if she had just waited.
Exhausted without having done much of anything all day because she didn't see the point in exploring and ending up sick from the weather, Lucrezia glanced over at Nancy's legs as she reached upwards towards the top bunk. She probably could have used the ladder to her advantage in order to gain an extra few inches in height, but she wasn't so short that she was struggling with it.
The amount of whatever Nancy had put on her bed prior to leaving the room had to have been more than she had realized, too, because Lucrezia could hear her muttering under her breath and saying something about it. Nancy then hopped up on the ladder, putting both her feet on its first rung from the bottom as she reached to grab something from farther back than she could access with the length of her arms alone.
"Yes!" she could hear Nancy whisper to herself in victory as she retrieved whatever she had been aiming to get back from off of the top bunk without having to climb all the way up onto it. Lucrezia couldn't tell what she had been trying to pick up again, but it couldn't have been too heavy. Otherwise, she would have felt it or heard it shifting positions from being directly above her. Part of her brain told her to be nosy about it; the other part of her brain was sure that whatever it was would be underwhelming.
Obeying the whims of that second part of her brain that told her to be nosy, Lucrezia tried to stay patient and not call attention to what she was thinking. She knew that she wasn't doing anything that was against the law anywhere in the world, but it still felt the tiniest bit morally wrong, like she didn't need to be doing it. Simultaneously, though, her brain argued back that no one carried so much with them from the United States to Iran. It simply wasn't practical, and Lucrezia was doubtful that it was very economical, either. Staying in a hostel meant that either Nancy didn't have much money or she was striving for some sort of "authenticity", even though Lucrezia was pretty certain that most people in Tehran had a standard of living that was about the same as most people in Europe or the United States.
Unexpectedly, Nancy actually apologized then for the mess that she had made, even if it was confined to what was technically her own space. Half of what she was saying ran together, but Lucrezia caught the general idea of it. In short, Nancy was sorry for the mess, hadn't realized that she had brought so much with her, and wouldn't encroach on any of Lucrezia's space with her personal items.
"Don't worry," Lucrezia assured her. She had experienced bigger problems with past roommates. A little bit of a mess—provided that it wasn't attracting any insects or rodents or anything—wasn't really a problem.
Opening her suitcase on the floor after her apology, Nancy had everything shoved in there haphazardly. Lucrezia didn't know how she could find anything at all; nothing appeared to be folded, and Nancy's rifling through her clothing every few seconds didn't help keep them neat and tidy. It was strange because Lucrezia didn't view herself as being obsessed with organization and cleanliness, but she was beginning to rethink that as items from inside Nancy's suitcase flew every which way.
Watching Nancy's unpacking process but trying not to stare, Lucrezia noticed that Nancy had with her a number of different brochures of some sort. They must have been travel brochures. Most likely, that was the case. Information on destinations traveled via guidebooks and word of mouth, plus the occasional bulletin board. There wasn't some operator they could dial for information on the entire route from Turkey to Nepal and beyond.
Now able to see one of the pamphlets as it rested on the floor instead of being inside Nancy's suitcase, Lucrezia read the most prominent text printed on it. It was for a charity of some sort, a New Salem Philanthropic Society. Lucrezia had never heard of it, though, so she guessed that it had to be some American thing. She didn't think much of it; someone had probably handed it to Nancy in passing.
