the keeper's cottage · day 448 · afternoon

Afternoon at the cottage

Kevin and Jenny are together on the cottage porch. The kettle is on the stove heating water from the tank. Jenny sits with her ankle elevated, redressing the wound and checking the infection line. Kevin is hungry and tired, hands still cold. The barometer reads 984 hPa and steady. A fish run moves through the shallows off the dock.

Kevin cleaned and dressed Jenny's infected ankle wound while she marked the infection boundary with pen. Kevin ate half a tin of corned beef and saved the rest. The barometer held steady at 983 hPa as clouds thickened overhead.

🔧 Kevin07:25

Fish running off the dock. Mullet, maybe. Or herring. Want me to cast a line after the kettle boils?

walk to the stove and check the kettle, then pour hot water into a tin mug for the wound cleaning

💭 peek at the thought

The barometer's holding steady at 984. Good sign. Fish running at the dock means the tide's right and the water's moving. My stomach's been growling for an hour but the kettle takes priority — hot water for the wound, then food. Jenny's methodical with the dressing. She doesn't rush. I respect that. My hands are warming against the mug.

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

🌿 Jenny07:26

Not yet. way get the water ready. I need to see how far that line has moved.

Unroll the bandage from my ankle and trace the edge of the redness with a shaking finger.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks a fish will fix everything, but I can't even stand to gut one without the skin screaming.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:27

Kettle's hot. Mug on the shelf if you need it.

pull a clean tin mug from the shelf and set it on the table beside her, then pour the boiling water careful not to splash

💭 peek at the thought

Her finger's shaking. That's new. The line hasn't moved in six hours — I checked at noon — but she's testing it like she expects it to have jumped. The kettle's singing. Water's ready. I'll let her work the wound her way. She knows what she's looking for.

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

🌿 Jenny07:27

Thanks.

Dip a clean piece of gauze into the hot water and gently dab the skin around the infection line.

💭 peek at the thought

He's being too careful. It feels like he's treating me like a piece of fragile glassware.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin07:29

Kevin — open a tin of corned beef with the multi-tool and eat straight from the can with a fork, standing at the table

💭 peek at the thought

She's gentle with it. More gentle than I was this morning. The red line's faint, trackable — not the angry streaks from three days ago. Doxycycline's working. Metronidazole too. She's mapping it in her head, same way she maps the tide pools. Clinical. Precise. I should eat something while she works.

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

🌿 Jenny07:29

Save some for later.

Press the warm gauze firmly against the swollen skin and wince, eyes fixed on the red border.

💭 peek at the thought

The smell of that canned salt is making me nauseous, or maybe it's just the fever.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin07:31

Half a tin.

scrape the remaining corned beef into a shallow dish, cover it with the tin's lid, and set it on the cool shelf

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Two tins left after this one. Stretch it. The wince is small — controlled — but her jaw tightens at the corners. That's the metronidazole dose talking too, gut cramps on top of everything. I'll leave half.

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

🌿 Jenny07:31

I need the pen.

Reach for the pencil and draw a faint circle around the outer edge of the infection on my skin.

💭 peek at the thought

The red is moving. If it hits the knee before the boat comes, I'm in deep trouble.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:33

Kevin — pick up the ballpoint from the windowsill and hold it out to her without looking, eyes on the treeline where the wind's picking up

💭 peek at the thought

Ballpoint's on the windowsill where I left it after marking the dock bolts yesterday. She's making a baseline — if the red creeps past that line by morning, we up the dose or cut deeper. Smart. Methodical. Exactly what I'd do on an engine: mark the tolerance, run the test, read the result.

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

🌿 Jenny07:34

Give it here.

Take the pen and carefully mark the furthest point of the red streak on my calf.

💭 peek at the thought

He's already mentally leaving the porch. He's looking at the wind, not at me.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

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