A person of Neshiyah
Hillel Kfir, child
Child
Hillel Kfir
Child, about 17 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Hillel Kfir is a small, sturdy presence in the town’s daily bustle, often found at the edge of a crowd, watching the older children haul grain sacks or mend fences. They have a quick, red-faced temper that flares and fades like a struck match, but it never lasts—they are too eager to be part of the next thing. When the fog presses close, Hillel is the one who sits absolutely still on the church steps, threading a bit of twine through their fingers, waiting for the work to begin again. They want a knife of their own, a real one, to whittle like the men do. The town sees them as a good child, trustworthy, though they sometimes catch Hillel staring at the grey wall with a strange, quiet certainty, as if they know something the rest of them have forgotten.
Temperament
Content not to ask; quick to believe what they are told; hot-tempered; always in company; able to sit still when it matters.
What people say
Hillel Kfir 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 50 Rachel Hadar and Hillel Kfir came to blows at the mill over nothing much.
- day 49 Hillel Kfir and Caleb Barak talked a long while at the square.
- day 48 Ezra Peretz and Hillel Kfir came to blows at the square over nothing much.
- day 35 Liesl Kfir says that their new daughter, Hillel Kfir, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 35 A daughter, Hillel Kfir, was born to Liesl Kfir.