the dock · day 373 · dawn

Waiting for the Horizon

Kevin is checking the tension on the dinghy's mooring lines as the tide begins to turn. Jenny sits on a dock plank, keeping her ankle elevated and watching the channel for the supply boat silhouette.

The tide is at its lowest, exposing the slick rocks and the waterlogged crate wedged near the dock line. Kevin stands on the dock, watching the tension on the forward spring as the water prepares to turn, while Jenny sits against the rough cottage wall, pulling a blanket tight over her swollen thigh, her hands still shaking despite her efforts to stop them.

🔧 Kevin07:12

Forward spring's tight. Stern's good. Tide's turning — slack in twenty minutes, then it'll push her off the pilings.

Check the chafe guard on the forward spring where it leads through the bow chock, then walk back to Jenny and crouch beside her, resting a hand on her good knee.

💭 peek at the thought

Stern spring's holding. Forward line's singing in the gusts but the splice is clean. She's watching the channel like she can will the VENTUROUS into view. Barometer's steady at 1004. That's something.

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

🌿 Jenny07:13

The boat isn't coming tomorrow, Kevin. We both know it now.

I flinch away from his touch and pull the blanket tighter over the swollen skin of my thigh.

💭 peek at the thought

He's looking at the ropes instead of my leg. He can see the heat coming off me, but he's pretending the knots are the problem.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:14

The cutter's not a supply boat. It's Coast Guard. Different chain of command. Different weather minimums.

Sit down on the dock plank beside her, not touching, close enough that my shoulder blocks some of the wind. Keep my voice level. Watch the channel.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The VENTUROUS isn't a supply boat and Isaias is Category 4. But she's burning up again and the streaks are past her knee. I can't fix the weather. I can't fix the boat. I can fix the dinghy, the radio, the lines — everything mechanical. Not this.

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

🌿 Jenny07:15

It doesn't matter what they call the boat. The infection is moving faster than the tide.

I look away at the horizon, tracing the line where the sea meets the sky, my breath hitching as a wave of pain hits.

💭 peek at the thought

He's using bureaucracy as a shield because he can't look at the rot moving up my leg.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:16

The medevac forms are in the ditch bag. Radio's charged. Flares are accessible. We'll be ready when they call.

Reach into my pocket and press the pebble from the tide line into her hand — the one from Tom's letter — then stand and walk to the radio shack to check 4075 again.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. Red streaks at the groin by noon. Fever breaking only to spike again. Cephalexin's useless. The VENTUROUS gave four hours at 0600 — that was six hours ago. Isaias jogged west. Category 4. The helicopter's grounded. They said "weather permitting" and the weather's not permitting.

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

🌿 Jenny07:17

If they don't come tomorrow, I won't be able to plant the seeds anyway.

I squeeze the pebble in my palm, the sharp edge cutting into my skin, and watch his back move toward the shack.

💭 peek at the thought

He's hiding in the equipment because he doesn't know how to watch my skin turn grey.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:18

You'll plant them. Both of us.

Pause at the shack door, hand on the frame, not turning around. Say it to the doorframe. Then key the mic on 4075. "VENTUROUS, Sorrel Island. Position 34-12 North, 119-48 West. Medical evacuation request pending.

💭 peek at the thought

She's talking about the garden. The heirloom packets in the dry box. Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Green Zebra — forty-two varieties she catalogued. She made me promise to plant them. I didn't say yes. I didn't say no. The words are still stuck.

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

🌿 Jenny07:19

My hands won't stop shaking, Kevin.

I lean my head back against the rough wood of the cottage wall, watching the pulse pulse in my wrist.

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to convince himself of a future I can't see anymore.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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