the keeper's cottage · day 734 · dawn

Morning at the porch with a fallen chick

Kevin and Jenny sit on the cottage porch in the grey stillness, Jenny's ankle propped on a timber offcut while she unwraps the poultice. A seabird chick, downy and flightless, huddles in a cardboard box lined with dry grass beside them — recovered from the grass below the north cliffs where it fell during the night, its parents circling overhead with sharp cries. Kevin has the radio on the table, warmed up and tuned to Tom's frequency, waiting for the 1400 slot while the barometer continues its slow fall.

No narrator was available, so nothing about this stretch was recorded.

🔧 Kevin11:42

Chick's parents aren't leaving. Means it's still being fed.

adjust the radio's squelch knob, listening to static hiss on Tom's frequency

💭 peek at the thought

The barometer's still dropping. 992 and falling. Supply boat's due tomorrow but the sky's got other ideas. Jenny's ankle looks angry — red lines creeping past the bandage edge. She won't say it hurts. The chick peeps, parents scream overhead. Radio's warm on Tom's frequency. Four hours to 1400. I should've checked the dock leak again at first light. Epoxy's nearly gone.

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

🌿 Jenny11:47

The air's too heavy. It'll break before noon.

Unroll the sea beet poultice from my ankle and wince as the cold air hits the inflamed skin.

💭 peek at the thought

The pressure is dropping again. More rain is coming before I can even check the drainage on the slope.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin11:47

Radio check at 1400's not happening if the front comes through. Supply boat won't cross in this.

reach for the tin mug of limpet broth on the table and hold it out to her without looking

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The pressure's dropping faster than the barometer shows. Storm's going to hit mid-morning at this rate. Her ankle's hot to the touch even from here — streaks past the pencil line I marked last night. Antibiotics are running thin. She won't let me carry her up the ridge today, but she shouldn't be walking on it at all.

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

🌿 Jenny11:49

It's always about the boat with you.

Take the mug with shaking hands and take a small sip of the warm broth.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks it's about the boat, but it's about the soil washing away.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin11:49

It's not the boat. It's the medevac forms in the ditch bag. The antibiotics running out. The ridge path you can't walk with that ankle.

turn back to the radio, thumb the volume down on the static, and log the barometer reading in the notebook: 992 hPa, 0647, falling fast

💭 peek at the thought

That stung. She's not wrong. Every conversation circles back to the boat, the radio, the contract, the tide tables. Eleven months and I still measure days by what arrives or doesn't. The chick peeps again — sharp, hungry. Parents banking low over the porch rail. Her fingers are white-knuckled on the mug.

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

🌿 Jenny11:55

I can walk the eastern slope today.

Look down at the seed tin on the shelf, tracing the rust around the lid with my thumb.

💭 peek at the thought

I don't need an evacuation, I need a patch of earth that doesn't move.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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