A person of Neshiyah
Joel Gefen, teacher
Teacher
Joel Gefen
Teacher, about 29 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Joel Gefen is the sort of young man who reads the same page twice, not because he has forgotten it, but because he wants to catch the lie in it. At the chalkboard, he pauses mid-sentence, fingers tapping the wood, as if the room itself might offer a correction. He has a habit of checking his watch against the school bell, then shaking his head slightly. The town sees him as a decent teacher who drinks his coffee too slowly and asks one question too many at the end of a meeting. He wants to know if the stone he drops and the sound he hears belong to the same world. They say he carries a sentence from a dream, and that he is gentle about it, which is worse.
I need to settle this split once and for all by comparing my rangefinder and stopwatch side by side with Miriam's at the well.
I keep coming back to the same split numbers, and with Eli repeating that old dream line I want to settle whether the delay is in the instruments or in us by comparing our readings side by side with Miriam.
I need to settle this well delay once and for all by comparing instruments with Miriam side by side, especially since Eli's words echo my old dream.
I need to compare my rangefinder and stopwatch side by side with Miriam's before I trust any of these split readings.
I keep coming back to the same numbers, but if Noa hears an ordinary splash and I hear a late one, the difference might be in us, not the well.
I keep coming back to the same numbers, but if Noa hears an ordinary splash and I hear a late one, the difference might be in us, not the well.
The delay changes with drop height and my own readings were ordinary, so I need to find Miriam and compare our instruments side by side before I trust anyone's numbers.
The splash keeps landing a full second late no matter how many times I time it, and the depth is ordinary, so something about the well itself or the air near it is off and I want to see the rangefinder numbers with my own hands.
I need to see that well for myself and get a real depth before I trust any of these secondhand stories.
I need to see the old well myself and time that splash with my own stopwatch before I believe any of this.
Temperament
Curious to a fault; slow to believe anyone; even-tempered; friendly enough; able to sit still when it matters.
What people say
People say Joel Gefen has started asking questions about the fog that the Council would rather not hear.
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 52 Joel Gefen says that their new daughter, Batsheva Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 52 A daughter, Batsheva Gefen, was born to Joel Gefen.
- day 51 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, let's go to the old well now with our rangefinders and stopwatches, take readings side by side from the same stone and the same three heights, and write down both our numbers so we can see if the split is in the instruments or in us.
- day 50 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, let's go to the old well now with our rangefinders and stopwatches, take readings side by side from the same stone and the same three heights, and write down both our numbers so we can see if the split is in the instruments or in us.
- day 49 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, let's go to the old well now with our rangefinders and stopwatches, and take readings side by side from the same stone and the same three heights, writing down both our numbers so we can see if the split is in the instruments or in us.
- day 48 Uzziah Peretz and Joel Gefen sat a long while at the mill comparing what they had seen. They talked about what they had each measured, and whether the instruments could be wrong. They did not agree.
- day 48 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, let's go to the old well together and take rangefinder and stopwatch readings side by side, same stone, same heights, and write down both our numbers to see if the split is in the instruments or in us.
- day 47 Joel Gefen says that their new son, Eli Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 47 A son, Eli Gefen, was born to Joel Gefen.
- day 47 Yael Gilad and Joel Gefen sat a long while at the mill comparing what they had seen. They talked about what they had each measured, and whether the instruments could be wrong. They did not agree.
- day 47 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, I want to go with you to the old well and take my own rangefinder readings while you take yours, side by side, to see if the out and return numbers really split the way everyone says.
- day 46 Joel Gefen decided to find Noa Hadar: Noa, let's go to the old well together and drop the same stone from the same heights, timing it side by side with your phone and my stopwatch, and swap instruments on the second round, to see if the delay follows the person or the tool.
- day 45 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, I want to go with you to the old well and take my own rangefinder readings while you take yours, side by side, to see if the out and return numbers really split the way everyone says.
- day 44 Joel Gefen decided to find Miriam Harel: Miriam, I want to go with you to the old well and take my own rangefinder readings while you take yours, side by side, to see if the out and return numbers really split the way everyone says.
- day 44 Joel Gefen went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Walk to the old well at the south edge with a marked line, lower it until it touches water and read the depth, then drop a small stone and time the splash with my own stopwatch, repeating three times. The splash came back late again, by a full second on the timer.
- day 44 Joel Gefen went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Walk to the old well at the south edge, drop a small stone, and time the splash with my own stopwatch, repeating three times and noting the times. Nothing unusual. Everything measured the way it should.
- day 43 Joel Gefen decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Walk to the old well at the south edge with a marked line, lower it until it touches water and read the depth, then drop a small stone and time the splash with my own stopwatch, repeating three times.
- day 43 Joel Gefen decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Walk to the old well at the south edge, drop a small stone, and time the splash with my own stopwatch, repeating three times and noting the times.
- day 41 Joel Gefen the teacher found a seventh stone block in the quarry, where the survey lists six.
- day 38 Joel Gefen went back to the west edge with a camera and it happened again.
- day 38 Joel Gefen the teacher found a seventh stone block in the quarry, where the survey lists six.
- day 36 Joel Gefen and Leah Sharon sat a long while at the plaza comparing what they had seen. They talked about what they had each measured, and whether the instruments could be wrong. They did not agree.
- day 28 Joel the teacher was handed a seed a bird carried out of the fog, from no plant in the town's reference list.
- day 25 Joel the teacher dropped a stone into the old well and timed the splash on a phone: a full second late.
- day 23 Joel was born and dreamed a sentence in a voice like their own: "the fog is just fog."