The Townsfolk

Nine souls, by the census. Seven, by the sign at the town limits. Make of that what you will.

Doreen Halloway

Mayor of Greywater Falls; proprietor of Halloway's Bakery

Steadier but newly guarded, having said more aloud than she meant to, and now retreating one step further into ambiguity by choice.

Gerald Pith

Retired postman

Quietly electrified by his own restraint, having named a pattern and immediately distrusted the naming.

Hank Mossley

Owner of Mossley Hardware; night-shift foreman at the old mill

Quietly satisfied and faintly disconcerted — the ice hit his projection two days early and he said 'there it is' to no one and has spent the morning not thinking about what comes after two inches.

Wren Aldercott

Editor, sole reporter, and typesetter of The Greywater Gazette

Restless in her own victory, now pushing the town toward a conversation she isn't sure it wants to have.

Marigold Vance

Owner and cook at The Kettle diner

Steady and listening — the morning was right-sized and the pot on the back burner is closer to ready than it was yesterday, though she has not said so.

Esmé Okonkwo

Town physician (the only one)

At peace with the limits of her instruments. The chart is complete. She has stopped waiting for an explanation and started watching for the resolution.

Toby Fern

Student; unofficial correspondent for the school paper

Alert, a little awed by the stopwatch's new number.

Agnes Crewe

Eldest resident; lives alone in the cottage nearest the water

Watchful, offering her riddles a little more pointedly than usual.

Russ Dunmore

Town constable (the only one)

Wary of official-looking things, now explicitly refusing to let two frameworks touch in his presence.