𝚂𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙴𝙽 - 𝙱. 𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙽𝙴𝚂

Chapter 2

The Laundry Machine

Bucky stood in the laundry room, trying to get the laundry machine to work. Each time he put in a coin it ate it up. He smacked the top of it in frustration.

"Oh! Sorry!" A voice with an English accent squeaked from behind him.

Bucky turned quickly to see who it was.
It was a young woman. She had a small bin full of clothes in front of her.

He pushed his hat further down his face. "It's fine."

There was a small pause between them.

"Um, the machines are really old." She said. "Can I help you?"

He felt her eyes on him. He looked back at the machine and the small dent he made in it, then back at the girl with her bucket of clothes.

"Yes."

She tip-toed over beside him placing her bin on the floor and pulled out a little coin with a string attached to it. She put the coin into the slot and turned on the machine, letting him plug in the minutes.

"Do you speak English?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Yes."

"Oh, well that makes this easier." She breathed out in relief. "Just gently pull the string out when you're done."

He nodded, looking at her cheap little contraption.

She turned to him and awkwardly smiled. "You can have it as a welcome to the apartment gift."

"Oh. Thank you." Bucky looked over his shoulder at her. She was 20 something and had a tired look on her. She had kind eyes, those types that made you trust them without caution. She was wearing a little yellow sundress. He hesitated when speaking his next words. "What's your name?"

What harm could that do? A name?

"Lois."

"Lois." He repeated. "That's an..."

With a short giggle she cut him off, "An old name, I know." She leaned over and grabbed her bin. "My dad was a big Superman fan. Star-wars too. You could probably take a guess what my middle name is."

He didn't know what Star-wars was but he would write that down in his notebook. He did know what superman was and remembered reading Superman comics with Steve when they were dorky teenagers.

He smiled just a little, making her eyes widen. Lois seemed to like that and felt a surge of confidence to continue the conversation.

"How are you finding Romania, Mr. Barnes?"

All sirens went off in Bucky's scrambled brain. He snapped his head towards.

"The landlady, Mrs. Vulpe, she told me that I would be getting a new neighbour and I wanted to know if they were a man or whatever." She explained.

Bucky's eyes narrowed. "A man?"

"I'm sorry if that sounds odd. I just wanted to know for safety reasons, noise too." She looked at him, cautiously.

"Oh." He nodded. He could only imply that she was nervous around men.

She took a deep breath out, "Ok." She moved over to lean on the drying machine. "So, are you new to Bucharest?"

He didn't understand why she wanted to talk to him so much.

"Yes." He answered.

"I've been here for a year now. I'm in an abroad nursing program. Are you here working too?"