dormitory beds

It was late at night and time for bed. I was one of a group of people who were swapping places with another group: we were going into their dormitory to sleep and they were leaving, presumably to take over the role we had been occupying. One woman rushed ahead and secured the only unused mattress. She settled as the rest of us tried to find a bed. I decided upon the bed of a youngish Indigenous woman; we smiled politely at one another as she left. The bed was covered in clean if threadbare sheets and had a warm quilt and a soft pillow. It was the only bed in the dormitory that looked cared for. I slipped into the bed to sleep.