The Man from America

From the Journal of Private Schwartz, written in France, 1944.

            It's been a month or so since I have been conscripted, I was so certain that I was doing the right thing when I was conscripted to fight for the Fuhrer and for Germany. But after what had happened today, I don't think that I can ever be the same man I was one month ago. I was ordered to attack the American lines when a I lost consciousness in the middle of the raid, I think it was due to artillery fire attacking a nearby building. Which side fired the shot remains a mystery. When I woke, I found the lower part of my right leg to be missing, along with my left foot, my right eye, and my arm. Strangely, I found that I was covered in bandages, but I don't remember any there who could have placed them there. I couldn't move much, but I could look around, albeit a little painfully. I found myself in the ruins of a house, the furniture was chopped up to pieces, and someone used them to fuel a fireplace that was placed in the middle of the room. Across the other side of the fire was a crate filled with various tools sticking out, including food, ammunition, medical equipment, and my guns.

Then the American entered the room. He had a dirt-smeared uniform, but I could tell by the patch on his shoulder, that he was American. When I saw him I instinctively closed my eye to a squint, and I observed him, trying to figure out his weaknesses. But my eyes got distracted by something the odd attributes he had. His countenance was youthful, and his face showed more of a student's face rather than that of a soldier. But his eyes showed weariness, as if he saw many things that could not be unseen. He picked up something from the crate, and he approached me. For a moment I considered attacking him, but then I recalled that half of my body was missing. And so I sat vigil, and to my amazement, he began to replace the bandages with newer ones. He looked me in the eyes, and he told me that he knew I was awake, and that I should not be afraid. I opened my eye, and I saw his face properly. He had messy brown hair, and his skin would be of a flawless pearly white if it weren't for the mud smeared here and there.

He smiled, and he told me to sit still so that he could do a thorough examination. I asked him why he was healing me, his enemy? He said that it was a long story, and that I would have to know him personally in order for me to understand. I told him that I wasn't going anywhere, and I could wait. And so he began his tale, he told me:

"Some time ago, around a hundred years or so, to what the humans called the early 1800's, I left my home world to see the stars. Private, I need you to understand, that I was not born an American. I left on an old ship, a "slug-bug" of the stars, to go on an adventure. There were some technical issues with my ship: something in the navigation was off, the engines were faulty, the radiation sensor kept going off, just to name a few. Nevertheless, I found myself at the dangerous and adventurous edge of space, on an uncharted planet in uncharted territory, I was on Earth, or rather, I crashed there, smack-dab in America.

"To say that I, more or less, was excited at the prospect of exploring this new planet in at least one aspect, would be an understatement. I ran around the area, leaving my ship to explore the area around me. I found a small town filled with natives, or humans, as I would find out they were called later on. I immediately found that my ship was irreparable, as it needed to have been tended to as soon as I crashed. I also found that, to my astonishment, the native people were almost identical to my own, biologically speaking, of course. I quickly found out that our two species were very different. They were much more primitive, technically speaking. They had a small community, with little to no outer space traveling, or any traveling, for that matter. I found this small town to be relatively peaceful. I found it to be dreary, sleepy, carefree, and so much slower than what I used to live by back home.

"For a while I lived in the remnants of my ship, which I moved to a cave by the seaside. I decided that I should probably learn the local language, currency, level of technology, and such prior to actually interacting with them. It took me about a week until I felt that I had learned enough. But by the time I had arrived, I soon found that there were many things that should be learned that could only be learned in one way. I remember the odd looks aimed at me as I strolled through town. I also remembered the young woman who laughed at me when I asked for an information center, apparently it was called a library around here. She led me there, and helped me find all sorts of information that I needed. I found that the town was called Newton, after a certain man who had made notable scientific discoveries. I also found maps of the surrounding countryside, which also revealed that I was in what was called a 'state', which was a smaller part of a 'nation' called the United States of America. They revealed that I was in the State of Virginia, and that the Town of Newton was not very notable in many forms. The city was on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, with a small port to the east and some farmland to the west.