A person of Neshiyah
Boaz Segal, plumber
Plumber
Boaz Segal
Plumber, about 82 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Boaz Segal is a thin, stooped man in his eighties whose hands still move with a younger man’s sureness, tightening a coupling or seating a washer as if the pipe were a familiar animal. He works alone, which suits him, and his one habit is to whistle a flat, tuneless note while he works, like a kettle breathing. He wants only to be left alone by the river, watching the water carry whatever it carries. The town sees him as reliable, slightly distant, and quick to forgive—he has traded blows with two men over nothing and shaken hands with both by supper. He believes the fog is the world’s edge, and that the fields must be worked regardless. He is content not to ask why.
Temperament
Content not to ask; quick to believe what they are told; even-tempered; happiest alone; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
People say Boaz Segal has started asking questions about the fog that the Council would rather not hear.
What the record shows
- day 46 Boaz Segal, the plumber, died at 82, of old age. In their last days people said they were still measuring.
- day 43 Elam Segal and Boaz Segal sat a long while at the plaza comparing what they had seen. They talked about what they had each measured, and whether the instruments could be wrong. They did not agree.
- day 38 Boaz Segal the plumber dropped a stone into the old well and timed the splash on a phone: a full second late.
- day 36 Boaz Segal sat by the Lethe doing nothing and came back quietly sure that this place was made on purpose by someone who is not against us.
- day 33 Peleg Kedem and Boaz Segal came to blows at the mill over nothing much.
- day 22 Uzziah and Boaz the younger came to blows at the square over nothing much.
Boaz Segal died on day 46.
People on this page
Elam Segal