A person of Neshiyah
Shira Gilad, child
Child
Shira Gilad
Child, about 7 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Shira Gilad sits on the riverbank most afternoons, boots caked with mud, watching the water pull at the fog’s edge. She has her father’s flat gaze and a habit of touching her own ear when she is deciding whether to believe you. Around adults she is polite but not warm; she counts to three before answering questions. She wants a knife of her own, the kind the older boys use to cut reeds. The town notes her stillness and calls her steady. But once, at dawn, she told the miller’s wife that the fog was just fog, and said it without fear, as though the world had whispered it to her and she had simply agreed.
Who Shira is
Shira Gilad, a five-year-old girl, daughter of Zev, who sits by the river and repeats a strange sentence from her dreams.
“I am Shira, five years old. I like the river because it whispers, and I whisper back. I have a sentence that comes to me at night, 'the fog is just fog,' and I don't know why I say it. When I look at the fog, it seems like it's watching, but I tell myself it's just mist. My father looks scared when I speak, so I try not to say it too much.”
Shira, in their own words
Raised and taught
My father is warm but cautious; he doesn't want me to ask too many questions, so I learn to be quiet sometimes. I am not yet in school; I learn from watching my father work with numbers and from my mother's quiet songs.
Their life so far
I was born to Zev and lived a warm, safe early childhood. My father has told me, with worry in his eyes, that I wake up saying 'the fog is just fog,' though I never remember learning it. I spend my days by the river, watching the water move and wondering at the fog that touches the walls. I have not yet started formal schooling, but I am curious and ask questions when something is in front of me.
Wants
To understand why I say the fog is just fog, and to keep sitting by the river where I feel calm.
Fears
That my father will be angry at me for saying the words.
Why Shira acts this way
I am curious because the river and the fog are always there, and I want to make sense of them. My father's worry pushes me to ask about my dream words, even though I'm slow to believe what others say.
Keeps to themselves
I sometimes think the fog is hungry, but I don't tell anyone because that would be silly.
How close Shira is to the truth: Asleep
I am just a child, and I believe the fog is ordinary mist, though I notice it often.
What Shira believes now: I think there is an ordinary explanation for the fog, maybe just mist from the river, and that my dream words are just a dream, though I can't explain why I know them.
Temperament
Curious when something is in front of them; slow to believe anyone; even-tempered; friendly enough; given to sitting by the river.
What people say
Shira Gilad 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 63 Shira Gilad the child found a seventh stone block in the quarry, where the survey lists six.
- day 53 Zev Gilad says that their new daughter, Shira Gilad, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 53 A daughter, Shira Gilad, was born to Zev Gilad.
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