the keeper's cottage · day 621 · midday

The Rising Tide

Kevin approaches the bed as the water climbs higher against the dock outside. The humid air is thick with the smell of salt and medicinal herbs.

Kevin examines Jenny's ankle and finds the redness has spread an inch past the noon mark. He uses a heated scalpel to debride the pus-filled pocket, then applies a fresh, potent poultice of crushed sea beet and activated charcoal to draw the infection out.

🔧 Kevin00:34

Kevin — check Jenny's ankle — peel back the poultice wrap and compare the red line to the pen marks from this morning.

💭 peek at the thought

The water's rising faster than the tide tables said. She's still sleeping — good. Fever's down but that ankle needs another look before the heat of the day.

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

🌿 Jenny00:37

Don't touch the edge yet. It's burning.

flince and pull the leg back slightly, my fingers turning white as he kneels.

💭 peek at the thought

It's moving faster. If it hits the knee, I won't be able to walk to the radio.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:37

Alright. Center only. Talk me through it — worse than this morning, or different?

Gently lift the center of the poultice without disturbing the edges, check the wound bed for pus color and smell, feel for heat radiating from the calf versus the ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

She's guarding it. The edge is where the new skin's trying to knit — raw and tender. I'll work the center first, let the heat tell me where the infection's still sitting.

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

🌿 Jenny00:41

It's tighter. The red line is past the mark I made at noon.

bite my lip to stifle a groan, watching his hand move through the gauze.

💭 peek at the thought

The heat is moving upward. It's pulsing in time with my heart.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:41

How far past?

Pull the gauze back completely, measure the new red line against the pen mark with a ruler, note the time and distance in the notebook.

💭 peek at the thought

Past the noon mark in six hours. That's not good. The antibiotics finished yesterday — either the course wasn't long enough or it's not the right bug. Need to debride the edge again, fresh poultice, and if the line moves past the knee by morning we're cutting it open to drain. No way to medevac in this weather.

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

🌿 Jenny00:43

An inch. Maybe more. It's moving too fast, Kevin.

clutch the bedsheets, my breath coming in shallow hitches as I watch the ruler.

💭 peek at the thought

It's an inch. Maybe two. It's racing toward the knee.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:43

Right. Fresh poultice now — more mint, more charcoal, less honey so it draws harder. Then I'm opening the edge where it's pointing. Let the pus out before it tracks deeper.

Mix a stronger drawing poultice — crushed sea beet, mint, activated charcoal from the fire, vinegar instead of honey — pack it thick over the advancing edge, tape the margins. Heat the scalpel in the flame until it glows dull red.

💭 peek at the thought

An inch in six hours. That's lymphangitic spread — streaking up the lymphatics. The doxycycline and metronidazole should've covered the anaerobes and most gram-negatives from seawater. Unless it's something resistant, or something the antibiotics don't touch. Vibrio moves this fast. So does Strep. If it hits the femoral nodes she goes septic inside hours. No coastguard. No boat. Me and a scalpel and the sea beet.

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

🌿 Jenny00:45

Jenny — squeeze my eyes shut as the scent of the heated metal fills the small room.

💭 peek at the thought

The heat from the leg is a physical weight. I can feel it under the skin.그런SAY: Okay. Just... don't let it reach the knee.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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