the keeper's cottage · day 147 · night

The Storm Breaks

You sit together at the table as the first heavy drops lash against the roof and the wind howls through the eaves.

Kevin and Jenny spent the night preparing for the storm. Kevin attempted to use the heat gun to cure the transom epoxy, but the humidity was too high for a clean set. Jenny tended to the seedlings and the seabird chick, managing to keep them stable despite the damp air.

🔧 Kevin07:24

Barometer's 990 and still dropping. Wind's southwest, backing hard. We'll get forty, fifty knots before morning.

pour tea into two mugs from the pot on the stove, set one in front of Jenny without looking at her, sit back down at the table with my own mug, hands wrapped around the heat

💭 peek at the thought

Storm's here proper now. She's quiet. Been quiet since the cliffs. The chick's warm by the stove. I should say something — about the dinghy, about us leaving — but the words don't sit right in this weather.

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

🌿 Jenny07:24

Thanks.

Wrap fingers around the warm mug and glance toward the seedling trays on the table.

💭 peek at the thought

990. It's going to be a long night. I can hear the seedlings shivering in their trays.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin07:26

They'll ride it out. Stove's holding heat. Trays are off the floor.

take a slow sip of tea, eyes on the window where rain streaks the glass sideways, thumb tracing the chip in the mug handle

💭 peek at the thought

She's watching the seedlings, not me. The trays matter more than this conversation. I've seen that look — when the growing things take up all the space in her head.

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

🌿 Jenny07:26

I hope so. The humidity is still too high. If they damp off, we lose the whole batch of basil.

Take a small, cautious sip of tea and shift the trays a few inches further from the window draft.

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to be reassuring, but he's looking at the window, not me. He's calculating the wind, not the plants.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

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