the keeper's cottage · day 616 · afternoon

Evening at the cottage

Kevin returns from the dock with a broken drill bit and three bolts driven. Jenny comes up from the garden path, cane in hand, the spruce trunk partially cleared. The wood stove is cold. The last of the limpets sit in the pot. The shortwave radio crackles under the tarp. They meet at the porch steps as the light thins.

The humidity is heavy and still, the 30°C air clinging to the cottage walls as the tide recedes far out, exposing the slick rocks and tide pools of the north shore. Kevin works on the dock reinforcements, while Jenny rests in the shade, monitoring her ankle.

🔧 Kevin19:01

North piling's half-sistered. Bit snapped. Need the auger from the shed to finish. You've been on that leg too long.

walk up the porch steps and set the bow saw against the wall, then check the pot of limpets

💭 peek at the thought

Drill bit snapped halfway through the second hole. Three bolts in, but the sister plank's only held at the top. Tide turned before I could finish. She's walking on that ankle — cane or no cane, the swelling's down but the heat's still there. Radio's been quiet all day.

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

🌿 Jenny19:03

The auger is in the shed. I'll get it after I finish this.

Jenny shifts her weight to her good leg and leans against the stone wall, looking out at the unfinished garden path.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks the leg is the only thing failing, but the silence between us is what's actually wearing me down.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:03

I'll get the auger. You sit. Finish the limpets.

turn back down the porch steps toward the shed

💭 peek at the thought

She's favouring the left side hard. The poultice is holding but that ankle needs elevation, not an auger. Garden path can wait. The piling can't — next high tide puts load on three bolts and hope.

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

🌿 Jenny19:05

I'm not done.

Jenny limps into the kitchen, sits heavily at the table, and stares at the cold limpets in the pot.

💭 peek at the thought

He orders me like I'm a specimen pinned to a herbarium board.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:05

Didn't say you were. Said sit. I'll bring the auger and the pot.

continue to the shed, retrieve the 12mm auger bit, then return to the cottage kitchen

💭 peek at the thought

Stubborn as the piling rot. She'll work herself lame if I let her. The limpets are cold anyway — better reheated. I'll fetch the auger, reheat the pot, and she can eat while I finish the sistering. Division of labour. She tends the inside, I tend the outside. It's worked eleven months.

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

🌿 Jenny19:07

The pot is cold anyway.

Jenny pulls her notebook from her lap and begins sketching the inflammation pattern on her ankle she started earlier.

💭 peek at the thought

He's so efficient when he's Making the decisions for me.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin19:12

Stove needs lighting. I'll do it.

open the wood stove door, pull kindling from the porch bin, and lay a fire

💭 peek at the thought

She's documenting the infection like it's a transect. Good. Means she's watching it. Means she knows it's not gone. The cold pot sits between us — easy fix. Stove's cold too. Wood's in the porch bin. I'll light it, heat the limpets, hand her a mug hot. Then the auger goes back in my pocket and I finish the piling before dark.

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

🌿 Jenny19:15

Don't make a mess.

Jenny watches the flames catch, her pencil hovering over the red lines spreading across her skin on the page.

💭 peek at the thought

At least the fire will do something.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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