A person of Neshiyah
Leah Sharon, network technician
Network technician
Leah Sharon
Network technician, about 76 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Leah Sharon’s hands were steady on the fiber terminations, a lifetime of pinning light to glass. She wore a gray cardigan patched at the elbow with electrical tape, and she kept her own counsel, which the town respected the way it respected a locked gate. At seventy-six she still climbed the utility poles, and when the mood took her, she sat on the riverbank with a thermos, watching the water carry things away. She wanted to know if the fog measured true, and she had asked the instruments twice. The Council’s guards turned her back at the east road, then the west. She did not argue. People said she slept at the end, and that was enough.
Temperament
Content not to ask; slow to believe anyone; hot-tempered; happiest alone; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
Leah Sharon 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 42 Leah Sharon, the network technician, died at 76, of old age. In their last days people said they were asleep.
- day 42 A guard at the end of the east road turned Leah Sharon back at the fog line with a reminder that the Council prefers people to stay at their work.
- 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 22 A guard at the end of the west road turned Leah the younger back at the fog line with a reminder that the Council prefers people to stay at their work.
Leah Sharon died on day 42.
People on this page
Joel Gefen