I had been expecting the young man who came to me with his ruined, scarred face. I knew he would want a face-change. I suspected that the freckled mask hanging on my wall would be the right fit for him, so I took it down and hid it. Then I showed him all the other faces on the wall. None of them pleased him. I took the freckled face out of its hiding place. “This one will fit you,” I said. I took off his old face and put on the new face. Then I warned him to return by the very same path that he took to find me.
I knew he would lose his way.
Atchuwitlas the Face-Changer in The Face-Changer, from The Corn Goddess and Other Tales from Indian Canada by Diamond Jenness, 1956.
When in your life were you at odds with the role you were playing or the identity you had? How would you describe your face at the time? When you stepped out of that role, how did your face change?