There, she had been forced to sell her beloved parrot Chiquito just so that she could get a bus ticket back to Lawndale. She had spent the entire 15-hour ride sitting next to a man with extremely bad body odor.
She wondered where she should go first. She considered checking up on her friends, seeing if they still lived in Lawndale. She didn't want to go back home just yet -- her mother and father were so out of touch with the global situation that she usually ended up having a one-sided shouting match at them, while they offered platitudes about letting things unfold along their natural course and other such rot.
She noticed a young woman sitting on the bench, smoking and reading Karl Marx. The woman wore a long green jacket and a black skirt that went nearly down to her feet. A pair of round-framed spectacles sat upon her face. Penny sniffed at the air; that was no American tobacco.
She decided to introduce herself. "Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossibel without feminine upheaval," she quoted.
The woman looked up, quirking an eyebrow. "Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included," she replied, in a thick Russian accent. "So, you know Marx?"
"I do. I just got kicked out of Guatemala for trying to spread his philosophy."
Now the woman's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Not just an intellectual, but a hero to the people as well. Such valor deserves reward."
"Oh, that's okay, you really don't have to-"
"Nonsense. Besides, since I do not have an Order of Lenin on me, you will have to settle for a pizza."
Penny's stomach suddenly gurgled a victory gurgle, and she had no choice but to accept.
"My name's Penny. Penny Lane."
"Darya Anastasia Mordvinov."
