Carpenter

Leah Navon

Carpenter, about 34 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.

Leah Navon works wood the way some people breathe—slowly, without ceremony, their plane shaving curls that fall like pale ribbon at their boots. They are lean and sun-browned, with forearms corded from the pull of saws, and their habit is to stop mid-task and stare at the river until the current has said whatever it needed to say. The town knows Leah as quiet, reliable, a little quick to flare if a plank splits or a customer haggles too hard. They want only to raise their two boys—born two days apart, both with the same unsettling dream-speech—without explaining that sentence to anyone. They trust the fog is the edge of the world, and they trust the fields need working. Some mornings, at the bench, they whisper the words back to the grain: *the fog is just fog.* It feels like a door left ajar, and they are content not to push it open.

Temperament

Content not to ask; trusting, within reason; hot-tempered; happiest alone; given to sitting by the river.

What people say

Leah Navon 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 Leah Navon says that their new daughter, Talia Navon, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 49 A daughter, Talia Navon, was born to Leah Navon.
• day 47 Leah Navon and Rimon Kfir talked a long while at the square.
• day 46 Leah Navon the carpenter fell ill with the valley fever and lost three days to it.
• day 45 Leah Navon says that their new daughter, Shira Navon, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 45 A daughter, Shira Navon, was born to Leah Navon.
• day 44 Leah Navon says that their new son, Benaiah Navon, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 44 A son, Benaiah Navon, was born to Leah Navon.
• day 42 Leah Navon says that their new son, Perez Navon, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
• day 42 A son, Perez Navon, was born to Leah Navon.
• day 39 Devorah Eshel and Leah Navon talked a long while at the square.
• day 36 Adah Gilad and Leah Navon talked a long while at the mill.
• day 18 Leah the younger was born and dreamed a sentence in a voice like their own: "the fog is just fog."

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