the keeper's cottage · day 398 · afternoon

Evening meal and radio watch

Kevin and Jenny sit on the porch as light fails, sharing limpet broth and tinned mackerel. The shortwave sits on the table, aerial insulator shattered, silent. The barometer holds at 978. The supply boat is due in six days. They talk low about the storm prep list, the garden, and the letter left for Tom.

Kevin examined Jenny's infected ankle despite her protests, finding the redness tracking up her calf. He re-dressed it gently and insisted they address it properly tomorrow. The barometer continues rising as evening approaches.

🌿 Jenny07:36

The rain is turning cold. We need to check the way ring after the swell.

Take a sip of broth and sketch a quick morphology of the sea beet leaves in the margin of the notebook.

💭 peek at the thought

My ankle is throbbing with every heartbeat, but the incision helped. If the fever doesn't break, I'll never plant my grandmother's seeds.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:39

Ring's held two tides now. Bronze bolt, oak wedges, greenheart shim under the north piling. She'll hold.

sip broth, watch the last light on the water

💭 peek at the thought

The broth's good. Salty, rich with the corned beef fat. She's drawing again — sea beet morphology, the salt glands. Means her hand's steady. Means the ankle's holding.

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

🌿 Jenny07:41

As long as the dock stays. I can't lose the dinghy now.

Rub the back of my ankle and wince at the sharp heat radiating from the skin.

💭 peek at the thought

He's confident about the wood, but I'm worried about the blood in my leg.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:41

Let me look.

set bowl aside, shift on the porch boards to face her, reach for her ankle

💭 peek at the thought

She's favouring it. The heat's back. Poultice drew something out but the deep's still angry.

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

🌿 Jenny07:44

It's fine, just a bit swollen. Really, I've got it handled. (voice tight with pain) It's fine, just a bit swollen. Really, I've got it handled. (voice tight with pain)

Cross my legs to press the ankle against the cool stone of the porch step, trying to reduce the throbbing. </think>THOUGHT: Don't let him touch it - he doesn't understand what I'm dealing with, can't see the spreading redness even if he loo

💭 peek at the thought

Don't let him touch it - he doesn't understand what I'm dealing with, can't see the spreading redness even if he looked.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin07:44

It's not fine.

take her ankle in both hands anyway, thumb pressing gently along the calf to track the heat, peel back the dressing edge

💭 peek at the thought

She's pressing it to cold stone. The swelling's up past where the dressing ends. Red line tracking again.

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

🌿 Jenny07:45

It's just the salt, Kevin. The damp gets deep.

Wince through gritted teeth and pull my leg away slightly as he exposes the skin.

💭 peek at the thought

He's going to see the red streaks, and then I'll have to call the boat.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:46

Salt doesn't track up the calf.

hold her ankle firm but gentle, turn it to catch the last light, memorize the spread

💭 peek at the thought

She pulled. That tells me more than the wound. The red line's crept two finger-widths past yesterday's mark. Skin shiny, hot. She needs the rest of the doxy and metronidazole, and she needs to stay off it.

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

🌿 Jenny07:47

I am tired. way let me be.

Go quiet and look out at the darkening water, refusing to look at his hands.

💭 peek at the thought

If he sees how bad it is, he'll insisted on medevac and I'm not ready to leave this island.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:48

Tomorrow. We do it proper tomorrow.

re-wrap the dressing careful, not tight, set her foot back on the step, pick up my broth

💭 peek at the thought

She's done fighting me tonight. The light's going. I'll let her have the silence, but not the infection. Tomorrow I'll boil more saline, fresh poultice, and she won't leave that chair.

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.