the keeper's cottage · day 363 · evening

The Calm Before the Arrival

Kevin and Jenny sit inside the dry cottage as the rain tapers to a drizzle. The supply boat is due tomorrow, and the anticipation of new supplies is a weight in the air.

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

🌿 Jenny22:37

Do you think they'll actually make it tomorrow? Or is the weather too far gone?

Lean back against the whitewashed wall and slowly rub the skin just above the ankle brace.

💭 peek at the thought

I can feel the throb in my ankle syncing up with my heartbeat. I need to eat something, but the thought of food makes me feel slightly nauseous.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin22:37

They'll come. Question is what shape they're in when they get here.

Check the barometer on the shelf, then walk to the porch door and scan the horizon southwest.

💭 peek at the thought

Barometer's still falling. 982 and dropping. Southwest swell building. They'll try — they always try — but the crossing from the mainland in this is forty hours of hell. If they turn back, we're on our own another ten days minimum.

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

🌿 Jenny22:38

It's 982. And falling.

Limp over to the kitchen table and reach for the tin of mackerel.

💭 peek at the thought

He's avoiding the real question. The barometer is falling again; the pressure is dropping like a stone.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin22:39

Three tins left. Save one for tomorrow morning regardless.

Pull the spare spark plug from the shelf and turn it over in my hand, checking the electrode gap by eye.

💭 peek at the thought

She read it same as me. Knows what 982 falling means — southwest gale building, forty-foot seas on the crossing. Supply boat's a converted trawler, not a lifeboat. Skipper's got a family ashore. He'll push until the wheelhouse windows stove in.

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

🌿 Jenny22:41

I'm not that hungry anyway. I'll just have a little.

Open one of the mackerel tins with a cautious, slow turn of the key.

💭 peek at the thought

He's obsessing over the engine again. It's his way of not looking at the red lines on my leg.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin22:41

Eat the tin. All of it. You need the salt and the fat.

Set the spark plug down on the workbench, pick up the fork, and hold it out to her.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not eating. Ankle's tracking to the groin, she's burning calories fighting sepsis, and she's picking at a tin of mackerel like it's a garnish. The doxycycline's twelve doses left. If the boat doesn't make it, we're down to honey and prayer.

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

🌿 Jenny22:43

I know, Kevin. I can eat.

Take the fork and take a piece of the fish, swallowing it hard against the nausea.

💭 peek at the thought

He's hovering like I'm a way he needs to preserve. I just want to stop feeling like a patient.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin22:43

Water too. Full canteen.

Pick up the canteen from beside the porch door, unscrew the cap, and set it on the table in front of her.

💭 peek at the thought

She's swallowing around nausea. That's not the ankle — that's systemic. Temperature's up even if she won't say it. Twelve doses doxycycline. If the boat turns back, we run out in six days. Helicopter coordinates on the back of the trust letter. Seventy-two hours to decide, the letter said. That was yesterday.

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

🌿 Jenny22:45

Thank you.

Take a slow sip of water, then set the canteen down and look at the medevac forms on the table.

💭 peek at the thought

He's treating me like a specimen in a jar. I appreciate it, but it makes me feel so fragile.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin22:45

The forms don't decide anything. You do.

Sit opposite her at the table, forearms on the scrubbed pine, and wait.

💭 peek at the thought

She's looking at the forms. The helicopter coordinates. The seventy-two hour clock. She read the letter — all of it, including the evacuation offer. She said she's not leaving. Said the trust can rot. But she's looking at the forms now, and the nausea's not just the infection.

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.