the old shrine · day 367 · evening

Evening meal prep

The rain has slowed to a drizzle as the sun sets. Kevin and Jenny meet in the kitchen to prepare the boiled limpets.

Kevin and Jenny ate boiled limpets with corned beef fat at the cottage table, the conversation circling around Jenny's swollen ankle and Kevin's insistence on a dawn medevac call. Jenny refused to concede, her mood darkening as she ate in silence while Kevin held his ground. The meal ended with the dispute unresolved, the radio forms still face-down on the shelf.

🌿 Jenny02:17

Pass the salt, Kevin. These are incredibly rubbery today.

Jenny lifts a hot limpet from the pot, wincing as she shifts her weight off her swollen ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

My own is throbbing in time with the tide; if this fever spikes again, I won't be able to walk to the north ridge tomorrow.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:18

Salt's by the stove. You want me to look at that ankle after?

hand her the salt cellar and pull out a chair with my foot

💭 peek at the thought

The limpets are tough because I overboiled them — lost track of time on the Yanmar. Her ankle's worse than she's letting on, shifting weight like that. Should've checked it proper this morning.

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

🌿 Jenny02:19

It's fine. Just the heat from the water.

Jenny takes the salt own and begins seasoning the limpets, avoiding his eyes.

💭 peek at the thought

If he touches it, he'll start talking about the medevac again. I'm not ready to leave the survey.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:19

Mm.

crack a limpet shell with the back of my knife and slide the meat out, setting it on her plate

💭 peek at the thought

She's lying. Heat from the water doesn't make you wince shifting weight. The streaks up her calf this morning — that wasn't salt irritation. She won't let me near it.

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

🌿 Jenny02:21

Thanks.

Jenny takes a small bite of the limpet, chewing slowly while she stares at the damp notebook on the table.

💭 peek at the thought

He's being quiet, which makes it almost worse than the arguing. I just want to eat without being a patient.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:21

Notebook's dry now. The salt gland illustrations came out clean.

crack another limpet for myself, eat it standing at the counter

💭 peek at the thought

She's reading the sea beet sketches again. Or avoiding me. Both. The ankle's hot to the touch — I felt it when she sat down. If the supply boat's delayed another week, she won't be walking at all.

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

🌿 Jenny02:23

They look good. The light was right for them.

Jenny wipes a drop of water from her lip with the back of her hand, tracing the swollen line of her ankle under the table.

💭 peek at the thought

At least the sketches are holding. If I can't plant yet, I can least finish the record.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:23

You want the last of the corned beef fat in the pan? Makes them less rubber.

wipe my knife on a rag and set it down, not pushing the chair back

💭 peek at the thought

Light was right. She's deflecting. The swelling's past her ankle now — tracking up the calf. Red streaks faint but there. She needs the antibiotics I don't have. The blister pack's empty. Supply boat's seven days out if it comes on schedule. I should've radioed the coastguard yesterday.

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

🌿 Jenny02:25

Yeah. Please.

Jenny nods quickly, watching the steam rise from the pan as she shifts her weight to her good leg.

💭 peek at the thought

I'm too tired to say no, and I'm hungry enough to eat anything from the tin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:25

I'll radio the coastguard at first light. Medivac request. Just a precaution.

scoop the last spoonful of rendered corned beef fat into the hot pan, let it shimmer, toss in the remaining limpets

💭 peek at the thought

Seven days. Maybe less if the barometer holds. Maybe more if it doesn't. I can suture, I can drain, I can't conjure antibiotics. The coastguard helicopter can lift in forty minutes from Lerwick if I call it. She'll refuse. She'll say it's not that bad. It is that bad.

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

🌿 Jenny02:27

We said we'd wait for the boat first.

Jenny goes quiet, her fork hovering over the plate as she watches the fat sizzle in the pan.

💭 peek at the thought

A precaution that sounds like an eviction notice. I'm not ready to leave the seeds in the tin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:27

The boat's a maybe. Your leg's a fact. I'm making the call at dawn.

slide the pan off the heat, fork limpets onto both plates, set hers down in front of her

💭 peek at the thought

We said. She means she said and I didn't argue. The boat's seven days out on a steady barometer that's already dropping. Her leg won't wait seven days. Neither will the infection. I'm not losing her to stubbornness.

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

🌿 Jenny02:29

I can wait seven more days, Kevin.

Jenny looks down at the plate, her hand tightening around the fork until her knuckles turn white.

💭 peek at the thought

If he calls, the island is over. I haven't even finished the north ridge transect.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:29

You can't. But you don't have to decide tonight. Eat the limpets.

sit down heavily in the chair opposite her and start eating, not looking at her ankle

💭 peek at the thought

White knuckles. She's scared. Good — she should be. Seven days of sepsis doesn't end with her walking off this island. I've seen men die of less in cleaner water. The radio's right there. Dawn isn't a negotiation.

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.