A person of Neshiyah
Gilead Raz, surveyor
Surveyor
Gilead Raz
Surveyor, about 98 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Gilead Raz sets his level on a stone wall at the edge of the North Field, squinting through the haze as if he might finally catch the fog moving. His hands are steady, though his back bows like an old gate. He works in company—always a neighbor or a stray dog at his heel—and he listens with his whole face, nodding at whatever he is told, from weather predictions to the rumor of a lost cart. When a measurement fails, he simply redoes it, unhurried. His one habit is humming a hymn while he paces, off-key. The town trusts him utterly, and he trusts them back. He wants only to finish the boundary before supper.
Temperament
Curious to a fault; quick to believe what they are told; hard to anger; always in company; able to sit still when it matters.
What people say
Gilead Raz 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 50 Rivka Sharon and Gilead Raz talked a long while at the square.