the dock · day 19 · morning

Evening meal prep

You meet back at the dock as the sun begins to dip. The tide is starting to turn, and the air is growing heavy.

Jenny pried open the waterlogged crate with the crowbar, revealing sealed tinned provisions and salt-crusted rope. Kevin began epoxy work on the dinghy's mast step and checked the bilge pump.

🔧 Kevin13:26

Find anything useful up on the ridge?

lean against the sound piling of the dock, arms crossed, watching the water start to push back in

💭 peek at the thought

Tide's turning. Jenny's back from the ridge. Need to know what she found up there before dark settles proper.

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

🌿 Jenny13:26

No. Ground's like concrete up there. Not a single viable tuber.

Lean against a piling next to him and sigh.

💭 peek at the thought

Too dry. Nothing but dust and disappointment. My legs are killing me.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin13:28

Figured as much. Soil's thin over shale up there. Garden's our bet — if the wall holds.

pull a cigarette from the pack in my pocket, light it with the windproof lighter, exhale slow

💭 peek at the thought

Ridge is a write-off for foraging. Means we're living on tinned goods and whatever the garden coughs up. She's tired. We're both tired.

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

🌿 Jenny13:28

The wall will hold if we actually maintain it. Which we aren't.

Look out at the rising tide and rub a sore calf muscle.

💭 peek at the thought

He's right about the shale, but the garden is a mess of weeds. We can't keep relying on "bets."

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin13:30

Mixed the mortar this morning. Bucket's covered. Blocks are staged. First light tomorrow we raise it two courses.

flick ash off the cigarette, gaze tracking a gull riding the breeze off the cliffs

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Wall's two courses short and the lime mortar's mixed but sitting in the bucket. Every tide that pushes against the base without that height is eating the foundation. Tomorrow. Has to be tomorrow.

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

🌿 Jenny13:30

Good. Then the tomatoes won't be the only thing we're protecting.

Glance at the unopened crate still sitting on the dock.

💭 peek at the thought

He's talking in project milestones again. It's a way of avoiding the fact that we're barely eating.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin13:32

Crowbar's in the shed. Want a go at it?

nod toward the crate, take a last drag and grind the butt under my boot heel

💭 peek at the thought

That crate. Been sitting there since the storm. Water-logged, heavy. Could be provisions, could be junk. Haven't touched it because once it's open, it's a commitment — deal with whatever's inside. But she's looking at it. Means she wants it opened.

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

🌿 Jenny13:32

Yes. Give it here.

Reach for the crowbar.

💭 peek at the thought

I'm starving and this crate is the only thing that feels like a win right now.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

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