Countryhumans Oneshots

America and the Struggles of Having a Human Face

1607

Roanoke—Jamestown didn't think he looked different. But something looked...wrong. Jamestown poked at his nose. Was it bigger? Or was it just that he had grown and wasn't as sick anymore?

His human skin was still as white as everyone else's. There wasn't that much of a difference in shade, right?

Maybe he was worrying too much now that he was an English colony again. Perhaps he was trying too hard to be perfect for them.

But he had been a failure once, so he should be perfect now to compensate for that. It only made sense.

He didn't want to disappoint his family again. He didn't want to be abandoned and left behind again.

He didn't want to be alone.

Jamestown still felt confused, though. Before his father had returned for him, he had been living with the other people from his colony with his auntie.

His auntie looked really different from him. Her nose was wide, while his was skinny. Her skin was a pretty color, darker than Jamestown's. Jamestown always thought she was pretty, but his fathe–England, kept saying those were terrible things to be.

Jamestown was confused. He didn't know how he should look to be perfect.

According to England, his auntie might have looked bad, but she wasn't sick like Roan–Jamestown had been, so that couldn't really be true, could it?

Jamestown poked at the human face in the mirror again.

He didn't know if it was his.

1612

Jamestown understood what it meant to be a perfect colony.

He was loyal. He did as he was told. He did not associate with the natives. He made sure he looked and acted like a proper Englishman.

Looking at his human face, Jamestown saw that. Sure, it wasn't perfect. England had helped him see all his flaws, from hair a bit too long and dark to a nose that was a little too wide.

When Jamestown had heard that, he panicked, as England told him those same deformities had been what caused him—Roanoke to fail. Jamestown was terrified. Between that and the Starving, he was afraid he would fail, be left behind again, and, this time, not survive.

England had assured him this would not happen and reassured Jamestown that his deformities would be fixed as long as he obeyed. After all, during martial law, England helped Jamestown fix some of his deformities, like his hair and delusions of another person living in his head.

Jamestown looked at his face again, wishing it could just be fixed now! He pinched his nose again, trying to squish it and make it smaller, but all it did was stop him from inhaling. Frustrated, he threw the mirror at the wall.

Why did perfection have to take so long?

England said it was his fault.

But Jamestown wanted it so badly! Why did the universe have to make his human face? Jamestown wished to make his own human face, one that looked the way it should! One that looked like a colonist! One that looked like his people!

Why did he get cursed with this?

Why couldn't he fix it now?

England said it would take obedience and patience, but Jamestown didn't want to wait that long. He didn't want to be abandoned again! He just wanted his family, but his stupid deformities got in the way of that!

Why did he have to look like that?

1732

British America was taller now. He had been growing a lot over the years, but with the addition of this newest colony, Georgia, he was much taller than Uncle England and Uncle Scotland.