A person of Neshiyah
Uriel Gefen, cafe owner
Cafe owner
Uriel Gefen
Cafe owner, about 30 years old. This is the second life this soul has lived in Neshiyah.
Uriel Gefen, twenty-two, runs the café on the square with a rag always in hand, wiping a counter that is already clean, or straightening a row of tin cups so it catches the light just so. Curious to a fault, they ask every customer three questions before their coffee cools, and believe the answers—all of them—with a trusting shrug. Even-tempered, happiest alone at the back table, they still never sit still, slicing bread or counting beans. The town sees a steady presence, a listener. They want the twins to sleep through a night without calling out that sentence from their own dream, the one they cannot shake: *the fog is just fog*.
I need to compare my rangefinder with Fernando's at the north post to see if the split in my readings is real or just my tool.
I keep coming back to that rangefinder split at the fog—maybe it's time to compare tools with Fernando and see if the well shows the same thing.
I need to check the well depth myself since my own rangefinder gave different readings at the fog, and I want to see if the well shows the same split.
My own well test came back ordinary, but Liesl keeps seeing a late splash and Noa doesn't—I want to compare my rangefinder readings with Fernando's at the fog to see if the split is real or just my tool.
I keep thinking about how my own rangefinder gave two different distances at the fog, and how Liesl's tests keep showing a late splash while Noa's don't—I want to measure the well myself with my own tools and see if the numbers match my fog readings.
Liesl is doing something real. I'll watch what she finds before I say anything else.
Temperament
Curious to a fault; quick to believe what they are told; even-tempered; happiest alone; never still.
What people say
Uriel Gefen 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 51 Uriel Gefen says that their new son, Avner Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 51 A son, Avner Gefen, was born to Uriel Gefen.
- day 51 Uriel Gefen decided to find Fernando: Fernando, can we bring both our rangefinders to the north post and aim at the same fog target side by side? I want to see if my out-and-return readings still split when we're measuring the exact same thing at the same time.
- day 49 Uriel Gefen says that their new daughter, Kinneret Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 49 A daughter, Kinneret Gefen, was born to Uriel Gefen.
- day 49 Uriel Gefen decided to find Fernando: Fernando, can we bring both our rangefinders to the north post and aim at the same fog target side by side? I want to see if my out-and-return readings still split when we're measuring the exact same thing at the same time.
- day 49 Uriel Gefen went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Go to the old well at the south edge with my rangefinder and a marked line. Lower the line to measure the actual depth. Then aim the rangefinder at the water surface three times, recording out and return readings each time. Also drop the same stone from arm, waist, and knee heights, three drops each, timing each splash with my mechanical stopwatch. Nothing unusual. Everything measured the way it should.
- day 48 Uriel Gefen decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Go to the old well at the south edge with my rangefinder and a marked line. Lower the line to measure the actual depth. Then aim the rangefinder at the water surface three times, recording out and return readings each time. Also drop the same stone from arm, waist, and knee heights, three drops each, timing each splash with my mechanical stopwatch.
- day 47 Uriel Gefen decided to find Fernando: Fernando, I measured the fog twice and got 212 going out and 196 coming back. You said your well test was ordinary—can we take our rangefinders to the north post and compare readings side by side on the same target?
- day 47 Uriel Gefen went to the old well at the south edge to test it: Take my rangefinder and a marked line to the old well at the south edge, lower the line to confirm the depth, then aim the rangefinder at the water surface three times recording out and return readings, and drop the same stone from arm, waist, and knee heights timing each splash with my mechanical stopwatch, three drops per height. Nothing unusual. Everything measured the way it should.
- day 46 Uriel Gefen decided to go to the old well at the south edge: Take my rangefinder and a marked line to the old well at the south edge, lower the line to confirm the depth, then aim the rangefinder at the water surface three times recording out and return readings, and drop the same stone from arm, waist, and knee heights timing each splash with my mechanical stopwatch, three drops per height.
- day 46 Uriel Gefen the cafe owner 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 45 Uriel Gefen says that their new daughter, Zipporah Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog does not measure the same twice."
- day 45 A daughter, Zipporah Gefen, was born to Uriel Gefen.
- day 43 Uriel Gefen says that their new daughter, Carmel Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 43 A daughter, Carmel Gefen, was born to Uriel Gefen.
- day 43 Uriel Gefen says that their new daughter, Adah Gefen, wakes from sleep repeating words no one taught: "the fog is just fog."
- day 43 A daughter, Adah Gefen, was born to Uriel Gefen.
- day 42 Liesl and Uriel talk by the river about the babies' fog words and Uriel's dream sentence, and Liesl decides to test her phone's timing against the mechanical stopwatch at the well.
- day 36 Uriel Gefen sat by the Lethe doing nothing and came back quietly sure that this place was made on purpose by someone who is not against us.
- day 22 Uriel the younger was born and dreamed a sentence in a voice like their own: "the fog is just fog."