the keeper's cottage · day 899 · morning

Reading the trust letter and checking diesel

Kevin and Jenny sit at the kitchen table in the keeper's cottage. The trust letter lies unfolded between them. Rain drums the roof. The shortwave sits silent. Kevin has the Yanmar log open. Jenny has the diesel cans staged by the door — one sealed, one cracked with epoxy cure in progress. They are about to read the letter together and then test the fuel for water.

Kevin and Jenny open the official trust letter inside the cottage while the rain beats against the roof. The document outlines a thirty-day service period and specific terms for their continued stay on the island. Jenny's ankle throbs as she processes the weight of the agreement.

🌿 Jenny00:09

Read it first, Kevin. My hands are shaking.

Reach out and touch the edge of the paper, watching his face.

💭 peek at the thought

If this letter says they're coming early, I don't think I can handle the news yet.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:09

Yeah.

pick up the trust letter and unfold it slowly, reading aloud in a steady voice

💭 peek at the thought

She's asking me to witness it. Not fix it. Just read it out loud so she doesn't have to carry the words alone.

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

🌿 Jenny00:11

Jenny — lean forward, eyes fixed on the words as he speaks them, ignoring the throb in my ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

His voice is too calm. He's trying to be the anchor again.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:11

The Sorrel Island Conservation Trust acknowledges your service... offers mutual separation effective thirty days from receipt... pension contributions cease on final date... all trust property to be returned including radio, generator, vessel, and survey equipment... signed, M. Halford, Director.

set the letter down flat on the table between us, fingers resting on the edge

💭 peek at the thought

The words are boilerplate — mutual separation, thirty days' notice, pension implications, equipment return. Nothing about the garden. Nothing about the birds. Nothing about what we built.

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

🌿 Jenny00:13

Thirty days? We haven't even finished the garden.

Look at the letter, then up at the rain-streaked window.

💭 peek at the thought

Thirty days. That's barely enough time to finish the north ridge survey.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin00:13

The garden's not in the contract.

tap the paper once, flat palm

💭 peek at the thought

She's not talking about the garden. She's talking about the life we said we'd make here. The sensory garden. The seasons. The staying.

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.