A person of Neshiyah
Tirzah Peretz, shopkeeper
Shopkeeper
Tirzah Peretz
Shopkeeper, about 94 years old. Born in Neshiyah, like everyone.
Tirzah Peretz keeps the shop on the square, and the shop keeps her. She is a thin, straight-backed woman of eighty-seven, with hands that weigh out flour and lentils without ever looking at the scale. Her habit is to wipe the counter with a damp rag after every customer, slowly, as if settling a small score. She is happiest alone at her ledger, and content not to ask what the guards do beyond the fog line. She believes the fields need working and the edge is the edge; that is enough. The town sees her as patient, a little cold, someone who will sit through a long afternoon and not once wish it shorter. What she wants is for the north post to stay where it is.
Temperament
Content not to ask; slow to believe anyone; hard to anger; happiest alone; able to sit still when it matters.
What people say
Tirzah Peretz 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 40 Tirzah Peretz and Tobiah Sharon talked a long while at the square.
- day 28 Tirzah the younger the shopkeeper measured the distance from the north survey post to the fog with a rangefinder and got two different answers, 212 meters going out and 196 coming back.
- day 20 A guard on the north path sent Tirzah the younger home with wet boots and a reminder that the Council prefers people to mind their trade.
- day 19 A guard on the west path sent Tirzah the younger home with wet boots and a reminder that the Council prefers people to mind their trade.