By the tenth day, Olivia had settled into her routine, which made things easier for her. She tried walking around the camp, to see the surroundings that she hadn't seen in her torturous daily hikes. She realized that getting out of the compound wouldn't be an issue, but there was nowhere for her to go.
On the night of the tenth day, Azra measured and weighed Olivia before starting her going to bed routine. Azra looked at her approvingly as she jotted down the figures on a clipboard.
"Very good, you are making progress." Azra spoke with a heavy accent. Olivia was surprised to hear her talk much. "You keep making progress and your life here will be easier."
"I don't really see how that would happen."
"Let me show you," Azra said, and she pulled back her headscarf and coif near her neck, revealing the top of a baby pink down jacket.
"Do you also have to wear a fat suit?" Olivia asked, somewhat bewildered.
"This is very different from the suit your wearing. It's much lighter and doesn't have a hood. It actually comes in two pieces, is just a regular jacket and quilted pants basically. It's part of our uniform, so the staff has an idea of what the campers are wearing. And it doesn't lock, we can remove it when we need to. Also, girls that are making good progress and following rules are allowed to wear it instead of the blue suits."
"It does look better than this horrible thing I have on." Azra raised her eyebrows and walked away.
On Saturday, after the doing the dishes, Azra took Olivia back to her room, where a long black garment was hanging.
"Today is field trip day, we're going to the village." Olivia widely smiled, but her smile extinguished as Azra approached with the long black garment.
"What is that?"
"It's a jilbab. The people of the town are very conservative, and a bit suspicious of what we do here. We feel that wearing the jilbab helps the girls seem more modest during outings to the town."
"But that's a winter coat! Are you going to make me wear that?"
"It's cut similar to a winter coat, but it's made of a much lighter wool fabric. But yes, we also have a winter weight jilbab, of thicker wool and lined with fur. I'm sure you don't want to wear that one, do you?"
Azra began pulling the sleeves up Olivia's arms.
"This is supposed to be light? I'm going to boil inside all of this!"
"Yes, it might get a bit too warm, but that's the price of modesty. Try to remain calm and you will be a bit more comfortable."
Azra finished buttoning down Olivia's coat, which reached all the way to the floor. She was then led to the entrance of the camp, where the camp's van was parked.
The ride to the town took over 45 minutes, it was slow progress along a rugged dirt road. The town itself was small, a tiny village supporting the local herding families. A few stores catered food staples, agricultural products, and other basic sundries. The van parked in a shaded area and the girls were asked to stop outside. The girls were herded along the main street, lined on both sides by the retail stores. To Olivia and the other new girls, the leisurely pace of the walk was a pleasant surprise, compared to the brisk pace of the morning hikes. The ten girls were happy for the change of scenery, even if it meant wearing another stiflingly hot layer on top of the already burdensome fat suit.
It was the first time Olivia had a good look at the close by town. It was bare. The stores and buildings were clean and well kept, but there was very little decorations. There were almost no signs, and the ones that were there, Olivia could not read, as even the alphabet was foreign to her. The town was small, and the few buildings were spaced apart. She could see a couple of stores selling very "conservative" clothing, which despite being all covering, looked lighter than what she was wearing. There were stores selling artisanal wares such as clay pots and plates. There was also store selling what looked to be cheap Chinese electronics and knockoff DVDS. All of the pupils and the chaperons were similarly looking around and enjoying the somewhat relative change of scenery, when Olivia saw an alley and her instincts sprung into action. She looked around, realized she was walking last in line, and without thinking quickly stepped into the alley. She waited for few seconds and started walking through the alley. After reaching the decrepit street behind the stores she began to access her situation. She was finally on her own, but stuck in a forsaken town in the middle of nowhere. No money, no documents. And to make things worse she was locked in a ridiculous suit, which would be useful if she decided to climb Mount Everest, but for her current endeavor would most likely result in a heat stroke. She could try to hitch on bus out of here, but before she had to deal with her fat suit. She looked around and saw a thrash can. Olivia discarded her jilbab. She considered also discarding her abaya, but figured she would stick out a lot more in her blue fat suit. She started to try to fumble with the lock and the chain, but it was no use. She tried to claw at the fat suit with her nails in desperation, but the only thing she got was to start overheating and making her even more uncomfortable. She started walking around looking and through trash cans for a knife or something sharp, but the only thing she could find was the dull lid of a tin can. She tried to use the sharp edge of the lid to cut through the fat suit, but the nylon material was simply too strong. After half an hour, Olivia decided to leave the suit as it was and look for a safe place to spend the night. It was getting dark. The town was very small, and she was too unfamiliar with her surrounding. She was exhausted and famished. She was still frustrated and locked in her hated fat suit, but she couldn't think straight, her eye lids were heavy. She knew she wasn't safe were she was behind the stores, but couldn't lift her feet. Her thick hot boots felt like made of concrete. The warmth of Olivia's fat suit snuggled her, until she felt asleep...
Part 4
