A person of Neshiyah
Ezra Peretz, bookkeeper
Bookkeeper
Ezra Peretz
Bookkeeper, about 89 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Ezra Peretz, eighty-one this spring, keeps the town’s ledgers in a squat stone office near the mill, where the light falls gray and even. At work he wears a green cloth cap pulled low and spectacles on a cord, and he taps the ink bottle twice before every entry, as if asking its permission. He is happiest alone, and most afternoons he sits on the riverbank with his boots off, watching the water carry off what it will. His temper flares quick—he once fined young Lior Shalev for measuring the fog with a stick, not because it was wrong but because it was loud. He wants the numbers to add up cleanly by dusk. The town tolerates him as it tolerates weather: useful, unremarkable, and always there.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; quick to believe what they are told; hot-tempered; happiest alone; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
Ezra Peretz believes what everyone believes: the fog is the edge of the world, and the fields need working whether it is true or not.
What the record shows
- day 48 Ezra Peretz and Hillel Kfir came to blows at the square over nothing much.
- day 41 Guard Ezra Peretz fined Lior Shalev for measuring the fog.
- day 17 Ezra the younger the shepherd measured the distance to the north fog and got two different answers, 212 paces out and 196 back.