A person of Neshiyah
Miriam Navon, mechanic
Mechanic
Miriam Navon
Mechanic, about 77 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Miriam Navon keeps her hands in other people’s engines, the way some women keep prayer beads. At seventy-seven, her fingers are scarred and sure, and she can find a bad valve by the sound a carburetor makes before it coughs. She is friendly enough, but her eyes go flat when a man talks too long without saying anything useful. In the evenings she sits by the river, not fishing, just watching the current carry what it carries. Her one habit is measuring things—a stone dropped down the old well, the time it takes for the splash to come back. A full second late, she said, and she said it twice, slowly, like she was tasting it. The town calls her harmless. The Council calls her something else. She wants the fog to answer for itself.
Temperament
Curious to a fault; slow to believe anyone; even-tempered; friendly enough; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
People say Miriam Navon has started asking questions about the fog that the Council would rather not hear.
What the record shows
- day 38 Miriam Navon, the mechanic, died at 77, of old age. In their last days people said they were still measuring.
- day 36 Guard Oren Kedem fined Miriam Navon for measuring the fog.
- day 35 Miriam Navon the mechanic dropped a stone into the old well and timed the splash on a phone: a full second late.
- day 27 Meir and Miriam talked a long while at the mill.
- day 19 A guard on the north path sent Miriam home with wet boots and a reminder that the Council prefers people to mind their trade.
Miriam Navon died on day 38.
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