A person of Neshiyah
Gad Gefen, teacher
Teacher
Gad Gefen
Teacher, about 84 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Gad Gefen moves through the schoolyard with the slow, sure rhythm of a man who has outlived urgency. At eighty-one, he still bends to pull a weed from the flower bed, tucks it into his pocket as if it owed him something. His hands are stained with chalk and soil, and he answers questions with a nod that means he has heard, not that he will remember. He is happiest when the classroom empties and he can straighten the desks in silence. Last week, he stood with Hannah in the square for nearly an hour, saying little, watching the fog. The town calls him patient, though they mean absent. He wants only the fields to be ready by spring.
Temperament
Content not to ask; quick to believe what they are told; even-tempered; happiest alone; never still.
What people say
Gad Gefen 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 47 Gad Gefen, the teacher, died at 84, of old age. In their last days people said they were asleep.
- day 45 Gad Gefen and Kenan Ofer talked a long while at the mill.
- day 39 Gad Gefen and Hannah Gefen talked a long while at the square.
Gad Gefen died on day 47.
People on this page
Kenan Ofer
Hannah Gefen