the keeper's cottage · day 419 · night

Evening meal and radio watch

Kevin and Jenny sit at the kitchen table with tin mugs of limpet broth and the last of the corned beef. The storm lantern throws long shadows. The shortwave sits silent on its shelf, aerial insulator still shattered. Outside, the flat sky presses down, windless and humid. The supply boat is due in five days.

The rain continues in a steady, rhythmic drumming against the cottage roof, turning the world into a blur of green. Inside, the air smells of damp wood and the briny scent of drying sea beet. Kevin sits at the table, the weight of the day pressing down, while Jenny manages the throbbing in her ankle under the light.

🔧 Kevin03:59

Broth's good. Corned beef fat carried it.

push the tin mug back on the table, wipe grease from fingers onto thigh, glance at the silent radio

💭 peek at the thought

Five days. Barometer's rising but that sky doesn't look like it's clearing. She's eating slow — ankle's better but the doxy's tearing her stomach up. Should've told her about the coast guard call. About the diversion. No ETA means no boat, and I let her think five days is real.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny03:59

"The salt in the limpets helps." DO: Pick up the pencil and finish the cross-section of the sea beet fruit in the notebook.

💭 peek at the thought

He's talking about the food because the barometer is dropping and he's scared of the storm just like I am.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:00

Salt and the broth. You're down to the last strip of gauze?

lean back in the chair, stretch the bad shoulder, eyes on the radio shelf

💭 peek at the thought

She's logging the seed morphology while her ankle's still hot. Priorities bent sideways. The pencil moves steady though — hand's not shaking like last week.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny04:01

"I have enough for now." DO: Close the notebook and touch the lid of the seed tin.

💭 peek at the thought

I have enough for three more days if the infection doesn't get worse.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:02

Tin's dry. You checked this morning.

stand, take the mugs to the sink, run a finger along the inside of one — clean enough

💭 peek at the thought

Tin's sealed. Gasket held. She knows it. Touches it like a talisman anyway. Five days of food in the tank, six hundred in the stores, and the one thing she checks is the seeds.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny04:03

"It's dry." DO: Rub the swollen ankle, feeling the thbbing pulse deep under the skin.

💭 peek at the thought

It's dry, but the humidity is a waiting game for the paper.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin04:04

Take the metronidazole tonight. With the rice.

set the mugs down, pull the first aid kit from the shelf, set it on the table between us

💭 peek at the thought

Pen mark's faded. Red lines retreated. She's not limping. But she's rubbing it like it belongs to someone else. Doxy at noon, metronidazole still in the pack. She'll skip the evening dose if I don't watch.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny04:05

"I'm on it, Kevin." DO: Reach into the kit and pull out the blister pack.

💭 peek at the thought

He's hovering. I know how the dosing schedule works, but he can't help himself.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.