the keeper's cottage · day 399 · morning

Satphone check-in and storm watch

Kevin and Jenny sit at the kitchen table as the 0800 satphone window opens. The generator runs, rain hammers the roof, and the barometer holds at 979 hPa. Kevin lifts the handset to call Tom while Jenny prepares the antibiotic doses and checks her temperature.

The rain continues, a steady, warm drumming against the roof as the pressure holds steady. Kevin heads to the dock to check the radio mast's integrity, while Jenny stays at the cottage, struggling to manage her swelling ankle while focusing on her sea beet sketches.

🌿 Jenny08:45

Tell him the weather is holding, but I need more high-grade antibiotics when he comes in five days.

swallow the pill with a grimace of water, then sketches the cellular structure of the sea beet leaf.

💭 peek at the thought

If the fever doesn't break by the boat arrival, I won't be able to reach the northern shelf to finish the survey.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:46

Weather's holding. Barometer steady at nine-seven-nine. Wind west-southwest, rain heavy. Sea state three, maybe four by afternoon." I lift the satphone, thumb the speed dial. "Calling now.

dial Tom on the satphone and wait for the connection

💭 peek at the thought

She's asking for what we don't have — high-grade antibiotics, a supply boat that shows up, a brother who answers. But I'll make the call anyway. Four times today. Every six hours until something breaks or he picks up.

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

🌿 Jenny08:47

Tom, it's Jenny on Sorrel. The rain is consistent, but the ankle infection is being stubborn—I need the full course of the antibiotic on the next run.

press the cold poultice against the swollen skin, then sketch the intricate veins of the sea beet morphology.

💭 peek at the thought

If Tom doesn't bring the right dosage, my grandmother's seeds will rot in that tin with me.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:49

Jen. He's not —" I stop. Let her finish. Set the handset down on the table between us, speaker off. "Four more calls today. Noon, six, ten. We'll keep the line open.

pour tea into two mugs from the pot on the stove, set one in front of her

💭 peek at the thought

She's talking to voicemail again. Third message this month. He's not picking up. She knows it. I know it. But she keeps talking like he's there.

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

🌿 Jenny08:50

I know. way...

take the mug with both hands, feeling the warmth, and return to the pencil on the paper.

💭 peek at the thought

He looks at me like I'm a specimen already pinned to a board.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:51

"Sketch later. Eat now." I slide the bowl of limpet broth across the table, spoon already in it. "Broth's hot. Limpets are tough but the stock's good.

sit opposite her with my own mug, blow steam off the top, watch her take the first spoonful

💭 peek at the thought

She's not arguing. That's worse than arguing. The sketchbook's full of sea beet cells and salt glands — she's memorizing the island while the infection climbs. Five days until the boat. If it comes. If the antibiotics are aboard. If they're the right ones.

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

🌿 Jenny08:51

It's good.

take a slow sip of broth, swallow the heat, then sketch the jagged edge of the sea beet leaf.

💭 peek at the thought

The salt is strong, but the warmth is better than the hollow ache.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin08:53

Keep drawing. I'll check the radio mast insulator — the one we taped. See if it's holding in this rain.

push back my chair, stand, and move toward the porch door, grabbing the oilskin from the hook as I pass

💭 peek at the thought

She ate. That's something. The sketching — it's how she holds on. Not to hope. To detail. To the exact curve of a leaf vein when the world's falling apart. I don't understand it, but I won't break her rhythm.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

🌿 Jenny08:54

Be careful, the ladder's slick.

set the bowl down and focus on the pencil, shading the salt Analysis on the leaves.

💭 peek at the thought

If the signal drops, we're just two ghosts in a stone box.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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