the keeper's cottage · day 432 · evening

Evening of Day 432

Kevin and Jenny are at the kitchen table as the light fades. The air is heavy with the dry season heat, and the prospect of the supply boat arriving in two days weighs heavy on their minds.

Kevin spent the afternoon monitoring the north piling, finding the void under the sister plank shifting as the tide rose. Jenny stayed at the cottage, focusing on her botanical sketches and managing her ankle for signs of spreading infection.

🌿 Jenny16:05

The boat is two days out, Kevin. It has to show up.

Jenny rubs her swollen ankle with a wince and picks up her pencil over the sea beet sketch.

💭 peek at the thought

If that boat doesn't come with stronger antibiotics, I'm going to lose the leg and I'll never plant a single one of these seeds.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:05

Two days if the weather holds. If it doesn't, we've got limpets, beans, and the garden.

Pour water from the kettle into two tin mugs, set one in front of her.

💭 peek at the thought

She's stating it like a fact, not a hope. The barometer's been steady at 981 all afternoon but that flat sky's been building since noon. If the boat doesn't come, we're down to the last of the corned beef and the limpets. And her ankle's not right — the streaks went past the calf this morning.

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

🌿 Jenny16:07

Limpets again? I'm tired of tasting the salt and the rubber.

Jenny takes the mug, her fingers trembling slightly, and stares at the de-salted sketches.

💭 peek at the thought

The garden is a mess of weeds and I can't even stand up to pull a thing right now.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:07

We'll have the sea beet tomorrow. Fresh, not dried. I'll hit the north pools at low tide.

Push the notebook toward her, open to the sea beet transect page. Then stand and walk to the rain tank, tap the side to check the level. 391 litres. Enough for now.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not just talking about food. The sketches are detailed — salt glands, leaf cross-sections — she's been working on them since the crate came in. The tremor in her fingers isn't just from the pain; it's the frustration of being stuck, of her work meaning nothing if we don't get off this rock.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny16:09

Just be careful with the current. The tide is coming faster than you think.

Jenny takes a slow sip of the water and begins to shade the salt glands on the sea beet leaf in the sketch.

💭 peek at the thought

If he way out to the pools with that swell, he'll take a tumble when the tide turns.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:09

I'll take the dinghy round. Anchor off the point, swim in. Not walking the rocks with that ankle watching.

Turn back to the table, pick up the pencil she left beside the mug, roll it between thumb and forefinger. The graphite's worn down to a nub.

💭 peek at the thought

She's watched the tides longer than I have this year. The current at the north pools doesn't forgive mistakes — especially not with the void under the sister plank eating the shoreline. She's not saying it to mother me. She's saying it because she knows I'll go anyway.

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

🌿 Jenny16:11

The rocks are sharp there. Don't way the hull.

Jenny stops sketching and looks down at the red streaks peeking from under the edge of her bandage.

💭 peek at the thought

The water is too warm for a swim, and he's too stubborn to see it.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:14

I'll beach it on the sand spit. Hull's got the epoxy patch on the starboard garboard — holds.

Set the pencil down. Walk to the porch door, pull the spare spark plug from the shelf, turn it over in my hand. The ceramic's clean. The gap's set.

💭 peek at the thought

The streaks are darker than this morning. She knows it. I know it. The metronidazole's not catching up. She's worried about the dinghy hull because it's something she can name — not the infection climbing her leg, not the boat that might not come, not the brother who won't answer.

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

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