A person of Neshiyah
Elam Segal, teacher
Teacher
Elam Segal
Teacher, about 40 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Elam Segal is a man built of restless angles—elbows on desks, fingers drumming, weight shifting from foot to foot as he talks. At the schoolhouse, he teaches arithmetic with chalk dust on his sleeves and a habit of tapping the blackboard three times before every sum, as if asking the numbers to pay attention. He wants the quarry to make sense: the seventh stone block, the measurements that never quite match, the well’s stubborn depth. The town sees him as earnest but jumpy, the sort who brings you a wild idea over coffee and leaves before you’ve answered. His daughter’s words—*the fog is just fog*—sit in him like a splinter he can’t stop worrying.
I need to settle whether that late second follows Liesl or the stopwatch once and for all, so I'll do the full swap with her at the well.
I need to settle whether that late second follows Liesl or the stopwatch, once and for all, with a clean swap test.
I keep circling the same question: is that late second in the air, in the well, or in Liesl herself?
Liesl's stopwatch keeps reading late even from a distance, but Noa's phone and my own stopwatch are ordinary—I need to test if the delay follows the stopwatch itself or only Liesl's timing.
I keep getting turned back before I can finish measuring at the well, and I need Liesl there so the guard lets me through.
I keep getting turned back before I can finish my rangefinder readings at the well, and I want to see if that split matches the fog's directional difference.
The well keeps giving me that late splash even though the depth is ordinary, and I want to see if my rangefinder shows the same split there as it does at the fog.
The well keeps giving the same late splash, but I still wonder if my rangefinder will show the same split as the fog when I aim it at the water.
I keep thinking about those stone blocks and whether I miscounted, but I also want to see if the well and the fog share the same strange directional difference.
Devorah's words match my dream, and Liesl says other babies say the same. I'll count the quarry stones again to rule out my own mistake.
The baby keeps saying the fog is just fog—that's my dream words, and I need to understand why before I can rest.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; quick to believe what they are told; hot-tempered; friendly enough; never still.
What people say
Elam Segal believes what everyone believes: the fog is the edge of the world, and the fields need working whether it is true or not.
The dream
Since the morning they were born they have carried a sentence in a voice like their own: “the fog is just fog.”
What the record shows
- day 51 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, let's go to the old well one more time. We'll each hold the other's stopwatch, drop the same stone from the same height, and time the splash three times. If your watch reads late while I'm holding it, it's the device. If only your hand reads late, it's you.
- day 50 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, let's go to the old well one more time. We'll each hold the other's stopwatch, drop the same stone from the same height, and time the splash three times. If your watch reads late while I'm holding it, it's the device. If only your hand reads late, it's you.
- day 49 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, I want to try one more thing: you hold my stopwatch and time a drop I make, and I hold yours and time the same drop—swap completely, from opposite sides of the well. If the late second follows the watch, we'll see it. If it follows you, we'll see that too.
- day 48 Elam Segal says that their new daughter, Batsheva Segal, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 48 A daughter, Batsheva Segal, was born to Elam Segal.
- day 48 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, can we go to the well one more time? I want to hold your stopwatch and time a drop that you make, while you hold my stopwatch and time the same drop—swap devices completely, from opposite sides, to see if the late second follows the watch or the person.
- day 47 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, I need your help—can we go to the old well together? I want to measure the rangefinder out and return readings properly, and I need someone to back me up so the guard lets me finish.
- day 46 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, I need your help—can we go to the old well together? I want to measure the rangefinder out and return readings properly, and I need someone to back me up so the guard lets me finish.
- day 46 Elam Segal went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Go to the old well at the south edge, lower my marked line once more to confirm the depth is forty-one feet, then aim my rangefinder at the water surface three times, recording the out and return readings each time, and also drop a stone to time the splash once more. A guard turned them back at the fog line before they could finish.
- day 45 Elam Segal decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Go to the old well at the south edge, lower my marked line once more to confirm the depth is forty-one feet, then aim my rangefinder at the water surface three times, recording the out and return readings each time, and also drop a stone to time the splash once more.
- day 45 Elam Segal went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Go to the old well at the south edge, lower my marked line to confirm the depth is forty-one feet, then aim my rangefinder at the water surface three times, recording the out and return readings each time, and also drop a stone to time the splash once more. A guard turned them back at the fog line before they could finish.
- day 44 Elam Segal decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Go to the old well at the south edge, lower my marked line to confirm the depth is forty-one feet, then aim my rangefinder at the water surface three times, recording the out and return readings each time, and also drop a stone to time the splash once more.
- day 44 Elam Segal went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Go to the old well at the south edge with a marked line and my stopwatch. Lower the line to measure the true depth, then drop a stone and time the splash three times. Also use my rangefinder to measure the distance from the well mouth to the water surface and back, and compare all readings. The splash came back late again, by a full second on the timer.
- day 43 Elam Segal brings his daughter's dream-words to Liesl Kfir at a cafe table; they compare it to her own babies' words and the well delay, and Liesl agrees to test the well with her stopwatch while Elam checks the quarry stones again.
- 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 43 Elam Segal decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Go to the old well at the south edge with a marked line and my stopwatch. Lower the line to measure the true depth, then drop a stone and time the splash three times. Also use my rangefinder to measure the distance from the well mouth to the water surface and back, and compare all readings.
- day 43 Elam Segal decided to find Liesl Kfir: Liesl, my daughter Devorah woke up saying 'the fog is just fog,' the exact words from my own dream. You thought babies might be picking up something in the air or water. Can we talk about what that could mean?
- day 41 Elam Segal and Levi Erez 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 40 Elam Segal the teacher found a seventh stone block in the quarry, where the survey lists six.
- day 39 Elam Segal says that their new daughter, Devorah Segal, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 39 A daughter, Devorah Segal, was born to Elam Segal.
- day 38 Elam Segal says that their new son, Jael Segal, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 38 A son, Jael Segal, was born to Elam Segal.
- day 38 Elam Segal says that their new daughter, Samuel Segal, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog does not measure the same twice."
- day 38 A daughter, Samuel Segal, was born to Elam Segal.