Cafe owner

Jethro Ronen

Cafe owner, about 27 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.

Jethro Ronen is nineteen but carries himself like a man who has already buried something, though no one can say what. Behind the counter at their café, they wipe the same cup three times before setting it down, a habit born of having nowhere else to put their hands. They are quick to flush with anger—a slammed tray, a bitten-off word—but it passes like a squall, and they are friendly enough after, offering bread they cannot afford to give. The town sees them as the one who listens without asking, who sits by the Lethe at dusk and returns with nothing to report. They want the fog to be just fog, the way the dream said. They want to believe it, and they are slow to.

Temperament

Content not to ask; slow to believe anyone; hot-tempered; friendly enough; given to sitting by the river.

What people say

Jethro Ronen 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 49 Jethro Ronen says that their new son, Meir Ronen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 49 A son, Meir Ronen, was born to Jethro Ronen.
• day 49 Rimon Gilad and Jethro Ronen talked a long while at the mill.
• day 47 Jethro Ronen says that their new son, Zev Ronen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 47 A son, Zev Ronen, was born to Jethro Ronen.
• day 41 Gavriel Dagan and Jethro Ronen talked a long while at the square.
• day 41 Jethro Ronen the cafe owner fell ill with the valley fever and lost three days to it.
• day 37 Jethro Ronen 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 34 Naomi Dagan and Jethro Ronen talked a long while at the square.
• day 25 Jethro was born and dreamed a sentence in a voice like their own: "the fog is just fog."

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