A person of Neshiyah
Eli Gefen, child
Child
Eli Gefen
Child, about 5 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Eli Gefen is a small, quick thing, four years old, with dirt permanently under the nails and a way of standing very still for a half-second before darting off, like a stone skipping water. They are happiest alone in the turnip rows, singing a low, tuneless song under their breath while pulling weeds with a fury that surprises their small frame. The town knows Eli as the child who asked about the fog once, on day 47, before they could walk, and has not asked since. They believe the fog is the edge of the world—they were told so—but they also carry a sentence from a dream, a splinter they cannot remove: *the fog is just fog*. They want a red wheelbarrow. They do not say this to anyone.
Temperament
Content not to ask; quick to believe what they are told; hot-tempered; happiest alone; never still.
What people say
Eli Gefen 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 47 Joel Gefen says that their new son, Eli Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 47 A son, Eli Gefen, was born to Joel Gefen.