the dock · day 427 · afternoon

Midday Engine Check

Kevin finishes bleeding the fuel lines and Jenny prepares to treat her wound as the tide begins to turn.

The tide is rising steadily against the dock pilings, and the flat sky is darkening with heavy, moisture-laden clouds. Jenny limps toward the cottage, clutching the first aid kit and antiseptic, while Kevin finishes securing the Yanmar engine components on the dinghy.

🌿 Jenny10:51

The tide is coming back in. I need to get inside before the swell gets worse.

Limps toward the cottage, grabbing the first aid kit and the antiseptic from the table.

💭 peek at the thought

If I don't get this clean now, I won't even be able to walk to the ridge for the sketches.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:52

Take the radio handset. Channel 16 monitor while you're inside. If the supply boat calls, you'll hear it before I do.

Secure the bleed screw on the Yanmar, wipe diesel off my hands with a rag, and walk up to the cottage behind her.

💭 peek at the thought

She's moving slower than she'll admit. The red line up her shin hasn't receded — metronidazole needs more time, but the heat in it says we're losing ground. I should've made her stay off it entirely yesterday instead of letting her hobble the garden rows.

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

🌿 Jenny10:53

I have it. Just make sure the boat doesn't drift again.

Sits on the kitchen chair, wincing as she peels back the bandage from her ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks the radio is the only thing I need to listen to. The island is loud enough.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:55

Let me get a cloth and some warm water from the tap. We'll loosen it before you pull.

Fill the chipped enamel basin with water from the tank tap, set it on the stove to warm, and grab a clean cotton rag from the first aid kit.

💭 peek at the thought

The dressing's stuck — dried serum and salt crust. Pulling it off raw will set her back. Need to loosen it first with warm water, not just rip it like I did last time.

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

🌿 Jenny10:55

Be careful. It's pulsing today.

Props her leg up on a stool, watching the red streaks climb up toward her shin.

💭 peek at the thought

He's always trying to be helpful when my skin is tight and the heat is making me crazy.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:56

Hold still. Warm water first. Then we'll see what's under it.

Soak the rag in the warmed water, wring it out, and lay it gently over the bandage to soften the dried edges. Wait.

💭 peek at the thought

Pulsing means the infection's still active, fighting the metronidazole. The streaks shouldn't be advancing on day two of antibiotics. Either the dose is too low, the bug's resistant, or there's something deeper — abscess, foreign body, bone. She needs IV drugs and a scalpel, not my kitchen poultices.

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

🌿 Jenny10:57

It's hot. Like a fever.

Grits her teeth as she grips the edge of the table, waiting for the warmth to soak into the skin.

💭 peek at the thought

If this gets to the bone, I'm never reaching the north ridge. The seeds will just rot.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:58

The doxycycline needs twelve hours to reach tissue levels. Metronidazole covers anaerobes but not the usual skin bugs. We're fighting blind.

Peel the bandage back slowly once the edges release, keeping the skin taut with my other hand. Examine the wound margins, drainage colour, any fluctuance.

💭 peek at the thought

The heat radiating through the bandage confirms it — cellulitis tracking up the lymphatics. Metronidazole alone won't cover staph or strep if that's what's driving this. We started doxycycline yesterday but one dose isn't therapeutic yet. She needs both drugs at full course, rest, elevation, and a surgeon's knife if an abscess has formed. I have none of those things.

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

🌿 Jenny10:59

Don't touch the edges. It's weeping.

Pulls the bandage away with a sharp intake of breath, exposing the swollen, angry skin.

💭 peek at the thought

It's angry. The red is moving, I can feel it pulsing with my heart.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin11:01

Clean gauze. Antibiotic cream thin layer. Wrap firm but not tight — lymphatics need to drain. Elevate above heart level. Next metronidazole dose at noon, doxycycline with food. You stay off it completely. I'll bring meals here.

Swab the wound gently with saline from the first aid kit, apply a smear of the remaining antibiotic cream, lay fresh gauze, and wrap with a light crepe bandage from toes to mid-calf.

💭 peek at the thought

The wound bed looks angry — beefy red, shiny with serous exudate, margins indistinct and blending into the spreading erythema. No obvious pus pocket to lance, no foreign body visible. The red streaks track three finger-widths up the medial shin toward the knee. Lymphangitis. She's septic if she spikes a fever. We're two days from the supply boat at best, and the radio's been silent on Tom's frequency for nine calls.

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

🌿 Jenny11:01

It's too tight. The pressure hurts.

Leans back against the cottage wall, watching the throb beneath the white gauze.

💭 peek at the thought

If I can't walk to the ridge, I'm just waiting for the rot. The tin of seeds is useless.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin11:03

My mistake. Let me loosen it.

Unwrap the crepe bandage, replace with sterile gauze pads taped loosely at the edges with micropore, leaving the weeping areas open to air. Prop her leg higher on a second stool with a folded blanket under the calf.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right — lymphangitis needs drainage, not compression. The wrap's acting like a tourniquet on already compromised lymphatics. Need to redo it: loose tubular gauze or just sterile pads held with tape, no circumferential pressure. Elevation and time are the only real treatment I can give.

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.