A person of Neshiyah
Hezekiah Navon, orchard keeper
Orchard keeper
Hezekiah Navon
Orchard keeper, about 111 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Hezekiah Navon is a thin, bent figure moving through the orchard rows before the mist has fully lifted, his pruning shears catching the low light like a small, silver fish. At a hundred and three, he is not quick, but he is never still; he will stop to turn a leaf over, to study a crack in the bark, to ask a passing child a question he already knows the answer to. He believes the fog is the edge of the world, and that the fields need working whether that is true or not. The town sees him as a fixture, like the old stone wall—useful, quiet, and slightly out of time. He wants only for the apple trees to outlive him, which they will.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; quick to believe what they are told; hard to anger; happiest alone; never still.
What people say
Hezekiah Navon 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 26 A guard at the end of the east road turned Hezekiah back at the fog line with a reminder that the Council prefers people to stay at their work.
- day 20 Hezekiah the baker fell ill with the valley fever and lost three days to it.