A person of Neshiyah
Perez Raz, electrician
Electrician
Perez Raz
Electrician, about 104 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Perez Raz is the town’s oldest electrician, though the wires he runs now are mostly for the new lamps in the square. He wears a canvas apron over a wool shirt even in July, and his hands, liver-spotted and steady, move through a junction box like a man reading a familiar prayer. He does not ask questions about the fog; he has seen it hold still for seventy years, and that is enough. When a customer talks too long, he sets down his pliers and waits, silent, until they finish. He wants one more season of tomatoes in his backyard plot, and he tends it nightly, cursing the crows. The town calls him old Raz, and they bring him coffee, knowing he will fix what is broken without ever telling them how.
Temperament
Content not to ask; slow to believe anyone; hot-tempered; always in company; able to sit still when it matters.
What people say
Perez Raz 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 48 Perez Raz, the electrician, died at 104, of old age. In their last days people said they were asleep.
Perez Raz died on day 48.