A person of Neshiyah
Hosea Navon, power station engineer
Power station engineer
Hosea Navon
Power station engineer, about 93 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Hosea Navon read the dials at the power station the way other men read prayer books, with a steady thumb tracing the glass and lips moving in silent count. At ninety-three he still climbed the catwalk twice a day, though his knees clicked like a faulty relay, and he never went anywhere without his leather tool roll, though he rarely opened it. He was quick to accept what he was told, and quicker still to test it, which made him the town’s quiet authority on anything that hummed or measured. On day 31 he sat by the Lethe until dusk, and afterward spoke only of a certainty, that this place was made on purpose, by someone not against us. The town let him believe it; he kept the lights on, and that was enough. He wanted only to see one answer where he had found two.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; quick to believe what they are told; even-tempered; always in company; never still.
What people say
Hosea 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 43 Hosea Navon, the power station engineer, died at 93, of old age. In their last days people said they were asleep.
- day 31 Hosea Navon sat by the Lethe doing nothing and came back quietly sure that this place was made on purpose by someone who is not against us.
- day 29 Hosea and Oren the younger talked a long while at the mill.
- day 25 Hosea the power station engineer measured the distance from the north survey post to the fog with a rangefinder and got two different answers, 212 meters going out and 196 coming back.
Hosea Navon died on day 43.