the keeper's cottage · day 800 · morning

Midday Gathering

The mist begins to lift slightly as the sun rises higher. Kevin and Jenny meet at the porch to assess the morning's progress.

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

🔧 Kevin02:33

South piling's solid. Sister brace took the load clean. How's the ridge?

pour two mugs of cold coffee from the pot on the stove, set one on the porch table for Jenny

💭 peek at the thought

The south piling held through high tide. Good. That's one less thing eating at me. Jenny's moving slower than yesterday — ankle's still bad, she's just not saying it. Coffee's cold but drinkable.

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

🌿 Jenny02:33

Wet. I need to check the pH again on the northern edge.

Take the mug of coffee, take a slow sip, and wipe mud from my palms onto my trousers.

💭 peek at the thought

The soil is too acidic; I can feel it in the way the earth resists the spade.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:34

Ankle first. pH can wait.

pull the stool over, sit, hold out hand for her foot

💭 peek at the thought

She's avoiding the ankle question. Again. The mud on her trousers tells me she was on her knees in that clay — not good for the joint. Coffee's a distraction tactic.

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

🌿 Jenny02:35

It's fine, Kevin. It's just tired.

sigh as I set the coffee down and begin to unwind the damp gauze of the brace.

💭 peek at the thought

way thinks he can fix me like the dock with a hammer and some nails.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:36

Not fine. Talk to me.

peel the gauze back slow, turn her ankle to the light, check the wound edges for spreading red, heat, pus

💭 peek at the thought

"Just tired" means it's throbbing. She unwinds slow — protecting it. The gauze comes away damp. Not good. Smell hits me before I see it: sweet rot under the salt. Infection's tracking.

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

🌿 Jenny02:37

It's just the salt, and the damp. I told you.

pull my foot away slightly, looking out at the grey water of the tide line.

💭 peek at the thought

he's getting too close, treating me like a specimen on a board.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:38

Jen. Look at me.

keep hold of her ankle, gentle but firm, wait for her eyes

💭 peek at the thought

She pulled away. That's fear, not stubbornness. She knows what I'll see. The tide line holds her eyes because it doesn't lie — neither does this wound. Salt and damp don't make wound edges angry red and hot. That's bacteria. She's scared of what comes next: the choice between the radio and the island.

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

🌿 Jenny02:39

I have work to do on the sea beet.

finally turn my head, jaw set tight, meeting his gaze.

💭 peek at the thought

if I look, I'll have to admit how much it actually hurts today.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:40

The sea beet will be there tomorrow. Your leg might not be.

reach for the first aid kit on the shelf, pull out the last clean gauze, the antibiotic cream, the scissors

💭 peek at the thought

Jaw tight. Eyes wet but she won't blink. She's choosing the work because the work doesn't ask her to be vulnerable. The sea beet doesn't care if she's dying. I'm not letting her walk back to that ridge on a leg that's going septic. Not today. Not ever.

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

🌿 Jenny02:41

It's not going to fall off, Kevin.

lean back against the stone wall, watching his hands work the kit.

💭 peek at the thought

he's always so dramatic when I'm just a little sore.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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