A person of Neshiyah
Gilead Erez, child
Child
Gilead Erez
Child, about 1 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Gilead Erez is a small, serious child who squints at the world as if checking its seams. At the river, they sit with their legs crossed, watching the water carry leaves past the fog line, patient the way the old men are patient. Their hands are always occupied—picking at bark, smoothing stones, testing the give of wet mud—but their gaze stays level, unblinking, measuring whoever approaches. They rarely ask for anything, but they want the sentence to stop repeating: *the fog is just fog.* The town assumes it is a childish fancy, a rhyme caught from sleep. Oren says nothing else about it. Gilead smiles when smiled at, but the smile stays shallow, like a ripple that never reaches the bank.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; slow to believe anyone; even-tempered; friendly enough; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
Gilead Erez 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 Oren Erez says that their new son, Gilead Erez, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 51 A son, Gilead Erez, was born to Oren Erez.