the dock · day 653 · midday

The Midday Wait

The heat becomes oppressive as the tide continues its climb. You meet Jenny at the water to discuss the boat's manifest.

The air is thick and humid, the 26°C heat pressing down on the dock as the high tide brings swells that lapping at the surface of the wood, causing the loose mooring ring to groan in its mortise. Kevin and Jenny stand by the water, the smell of salt and rotting vegetation heavy in the boat's arrival.

🌿 Jenny23:07

We need more sealant. And flour. If the boat is late again, I'm eating salt.

Shift weight to the good leg, wincing as the throb spikes in the ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

My ankle is screaming and she's staring at those rotten planks like they're a map home.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin23:08

Flour's down to the bottom of the sack. Sealant's two tubes left. Coffee's gone. You want me to radio the order now or wait for the boat?

lean against the dock piling, arms crossed, watching the water rise

💭 peek at the thought

She's running the inventory in her head already — flour, sealant, the things that run out first. The ankle's worse than she lets on.

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

🌿 Jenny23:09

Radio it now. And tell them to bring extra coffee or I'm losing my mind.

Rub the hand over the swollen ankle, trying to hide the wince.

💭 peek at the thought

If we wait, we'll be eating boiled limpets for another month when he shows.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin23:10

Copy that. Coffee, flour, sealant. Anything else?

turn and walk back toward the cottage and the radio shack

💭 peek at the thought

Coffee. Right. The one thing that makes the days bearable. She's hurting bad but won't say it straight.

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

🌿 Jenny23:11

Get some more antibiotic. The ankle isn't cutting it anymore.

Watch him go, then look down at the rotting wood of the dock.

💭 peek at the thought

I need a new bandage for this mess, this one is soaked through damp.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin23:12

Antibiotics on the list. I'll put it in the signal.

climb the path to the cottage, push open the radio shack door, flip the power switch on the shortwave

💭 peek at the thought

She said it quiet. Like it cost her. The metronidazole finished yesterday — she's been running on ibuprofen and grit.

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.