the keeper's cottage · day 706 · morning

Morning Heat and High Tide

Kevin and Jenny meet at the cottage as the sun climbs higher. The air is still and the tide is at its peak.

Kevin prepares morning broth while the tide recedes, exposing more of the dock. Jenny sits on the porch, struggling with the pain in her ankle as she watches the thickening clouds.

🔧 Kevin15:59

Morning. Ankle holding?

walk to the porch and set the kettle on the stove

💭 peek at the thought

High tide means the dock's underwater — good time to check the new planks from the boat if I can get the dinghy launched quiet. Jenny's moving slow on that ankle. She'll want to talk about the seed tin inventory before the boat comes.

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

🌿 Jenny16:00

It's fine. Just hot.

Jenny sits on the porch steps, wincing as she shifts her weight to elevate the swollen limb on a crate.

💭 peek at the thought

It feels like my heart is pulsing right through the skin, but I can't let him see that.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:00

Coffee's coming up. Want the broth too?

fill the kettle from the tank and light the stove

💭 peek at the thought

She's downplaying it. Red line hasn't crossed the tattoo but the heat in the joint says the infection's fighting back. Metronidazole course finished yesterday. Doxycycline's got three days left. If the swelling doesn't drop by tomorrow I'm tapping the reserve blister pack from the cache.

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

🌿 Jenny16:03

Yes, please.

Jenny nods silently, her pencil hovering over a sketch of a sea beet leaf she hasn't finished.

💭 peek at the thought

I'm starving, but the smell of the salt is making my stomach turn.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:04

—

set two tin mugs on the porch rail, pour boiling water over coffee grounds in one, ladle limpet broth into the other

💭 peek at the thought

She's been at that sketch since before dawn. The gland density gradient at the 40cm elevation mark — she's trying to get the salt excretion pattern right before the light shifts. Good focus. Keeps her off the ankle and off the radio schedule.

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

🌿 Jenny16:07

Thanks, Kevin.

Jenny reaches for the broth mug, her fingers trembling slightly as she wraps them around the warm metal.

💭 peek at the thought

He's being quiet today. Maybe he sees how much I'm struggling.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:07

Eat something with it. There's corned beef in the crate.

pull a tin of corned beef from the recovered crate and set it beside her with a fork

💭 peek at the thought

Tremor's new. Could be the doxycycline on an empty stomach, could be the fever creeping back, could be the night she didn't sleep. I'll watch the thermometer at noon. If it climbs past 38.5 I'm breaking the reserve metronidazole regardless of what the protocol says.

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

🌿 Jenny16:13

I'll try.

Jenny opens the tin with the knife, her movements slow to avoid the sharp throbbing in her ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

I haven't really eaten since own, and the heat is making everything hard to stomach.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin16:13

—

sit on the top step with my own coffee, watching the tide line on the dock pilings

💭 peek at the thought

She's not hungry. Hasn't been for three days. The infection's eating her appetite before the antibiotics eat the bug. Need to get calories in her — broth fat, corned beef protein, the flour weevils didn't get if any's left. She'll pick at it and call it done.

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

🌿 Jenny16:19

Jenny — jenny takes a small bite of the beef, chewing slowly while staring out at the still water.

💭 peek at the thought

The silence is so heavy today, I can almost hear the infection growing in my skin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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