Orchard keeper

Hosea Raz

Orchard keeper, about 29 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.

Hosea Raz moves through the orchard rows at a pace that seems unhurried until you notice the ground they’ve covered. Their hands are always busy—pruning shears, a loose apple, a knot of twine—and their eyes scan the branches with a quiet, restless attention. Townfolk say Hosea can spot a blighted fruit from twenty paces, but they’ll believe a stranger’s weather prediction only after three seasons of proof. They are friendly in a distant way, quick to nod, slow to linger. What they want is to stand at the fog line once and touch it, just to see. The record notes they were born mid-dream, already murmuring. The fog is just fog, they told the midwife, and they’ve never quite let it go.

Temperament

Curious when something is in front of them; slow to believe anyone; hard to anger; friendly enough; never still.

What people say

Hosea Raz 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 Hosea Raz says that their new daughter, Naomi Raz, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 50 A daughter, Naomi Raz, was born to Hosea Raz.
• day 50 Hosea Raz says that their new son, Nathan Raz, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 50 A son, Nathan Raz, was born to Hosea Raz.
• day 49 Hosea Raz says that their new daughter, Maayan Raz, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 49 A daughter, Maayan Raz, was born to Hosea Raz.
• day 23 Hosea the younger was born and dreamed a sentence in a voice like their own: "the fog is just fog."

All the people · The town, live