the keeper's cottage · day 631 · midday

The Midday Heat

The still air grows stifling inside the cottage as the sun peaks. The barometer continues its slow descent.

Kevin lanced Jenny's infected ankle, draining pus and packing the wound with sea beet poultice and fresh gauze. The procedure was quick but left Jenny pale and shaking.

🌿 Jenny12:47

(A sharp intake of breath)

Reach for the saline bottle and the gauze, wincing as the movement pulls against the swelling.

💭 peek at the thought

My ankle is throbbing in time with the pulse; if that red reaches my knee, I'm calling for the medevac myself.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:47

Let me do it. Sit back.

walk to the porch and fill the galvanized bucket with seawater from the tank spigot, then bring it back to the cottage and set it on the floor beside her chair

💭 peek at the thought

The red line at her knee hasn't faded. She's running out of gauze and the antibiotics are gone. I need to check the wound again and get more seawater for soaking — the poultice helps but it's not enough on its own.

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

🌿 Jenny12:50

I've got this." "Just... let me work.

Move to the kitchen table, open the medical kit with the left hand, pull out the sterile scalpel. </think>THOUGHT: The infection's edge is clearer than I'd hoped—too clear. Sit upright, unwrapping the sterile gauze while the seawater bucket

💭 peek at the thought

He means well, but they're all watching my failure instead of fixing it.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin12:50

You can't see the top edge from there. Hand me the scalpel.

step up behind her chair, right hand out for the scalpel, left hand braced on the table edge

💭 peek at the thought

She's trying to lance it herself with one hand and a mirror. The angle's wrong, she can't see the full spread, and if she nicks the saphenous vein we've got a bleed we can't stop. I've done this on ships — held men down while the bosun cut. She won't let me, but I can't watch her try it blind.

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

🌿 Jenny12:51

(Quiet, tight-lipped) "I can see fine."

Grip the scalpel tighter, looking down at the red bloom on my skin.

💭 peek at the thought

If I give him the blade, he'll see how deep it's actually gone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:52

Jen. Look at me.

hold her gaze, not reaching for the scalpel, not backing down

💭 peek at the thought

Pride's going to cost her the leg. The red line's at her knee — that's lymphangitic spread, not local infection. She needs the pus out clean, not a poke hole. I've drained abscesses in rolling seas with a headlamp and a drunk bosun holding the light. She's got one good hand, a tin mug for a mirror, and stubbornness.

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

🌿 Jenny12:53

(A long silence) "I'm not fine."

Set the scalpel down on the table, away from his hand.

💭 peek at the thought

He's looking at me like I'm a way failing.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:54

I know. Lean back.

pick up the scalpel, flame the blade blue over the stove burner, let it cool on sterile gauze, then kneel beside her chair with the seawater bucket and clean cloth ready

💭 peek at the thought

Three words. First time she's said it in eleven months. The scalpel on the table sounds louder than the storm did. Now I can work.

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

🌿 Jenny12:55

(A way breath) "Be quick."

Lean my head back against the chair, closing my eyes as the rain hits the roof.

💭 peek at the thought

The heat in my ankle is going to sting more than the blade will.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:56

Kevin — clean the skin in widening circles with seawater and cloth, locate the fluctuant center by feel, make a single clean incision at the lowest dependent point, let the pus drain into the bucket, pack with sea beet poultice and fresh gauze, wra

💭 peek at the thought

She trusts me with a blade near her femoral artery. After everything — the storm, the silence, the letter I didn't send — she closes her eyes. Don't waste it.

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.