the keeper's cottage · day 611 · morning

Dawn Incision and Radio Watch

Dawn breaks clear and cold at 26°C. The barometer reads 1004 hPa and rising. Jenny lies on the porch cot with her ankle exposed, the old incision site weeping faintly. Kevin has the scalpel sterilized and the sea beet-mint poultice ready. The shortwave handset sits on the rail, tuned to Channel 16. The supply boat is due in two days. No word has come.

Kevin tends to Jenny's ankle, draining the infection and applying a fresh sea beet poultice. Jenny struggles with a persistent fever and spreading red streaks as the sky begins to thicken overhead.

🔧 Kevin10:36

Morning. How's the leg?

check Jenny's ankle incision site, prepare sea beet-mint poultice and sterilized scalpel

💭 peek at the thought

Morning light's clean. Barometer holding. Her ankle looks no worse than yesterday — maybe the streaks haven't advanced overnight. Two days to the boat. I'll drain it again, fresh poultice, last full antibiotic dose. Then the lathe for that spacer. Radio at 0800.

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

🌿 Jenny10:37

The red streaking's moved past the knee. I need you to cut it open - drain the pus before it spreads deeper. Make it clean.

Take scalpel from Kevin, feeling the weight of it in my shaking hand. Position myself on the cot, angling my leg so Kevin can see the infected area clearly. "Right there - I can feel the fluctuance just below the patella."

💭 peek at the thought

The infection's spread has reached mid-thigh now, fever climbing to 39.1°C. I need to drain that abscess before it tracks further down. Two days until the supply boat, and I can't afford to lose this battle to sepsis.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin10:37

Give it here. I'll do it.

take scalpel from Jenny, position at her knee for incision, make clean cut over fluctuance, drain abscess thoroughly, pack with sterile gauze, apply fresh sea beet-mint poultice, administer last full antibiotic dose

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. Streaking past the knee means the lymphatics are overwhelmed. Deep abscess forming above the joint. She's offering me the scalpel but her hand shakes — she knows she can't do this on herself, not there. I'll take it. Clean incision, full drainage, pack with gauze, fresh poultice over. Last full antibiotic dose after.

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

🌿 Jenny10:41

Be careful. Don't go too deep into the muscle. Just get it all out.

Release the scalpel and let my arm fall against the cot. I close my eyes, focusing on the throb in my thigh as he works.

💭 peek at the thought

He's taking over. My hands are shaking too much own. If this doesn't work, I won't be able to walk to the northeast slope for the seeds.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin10:41

Done. Drained clean. Packed it. Took the last full antibiotic dose.

wipe hands on clean cloth, check Jenny's pulse and temperature, re-wrap ankle and thigh with clean gauze and poultice, set used gauze aside for burning

💭 peek at the thought

Incision made. Good pus flow — thick, yellow-green, foul. Cavity deeper than I liked, tracking upward along the fascia. Drained it until blood ran clear. Packed tight with gauze. Poultice over. Antibiotics down. She's pale, sweating. Fever's climbing.

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

🌿 Jenny10:43

Thank you. Check the radio again before noon. I need to sleep.

Lean back against the pillow, shivering as the fever wave breaks. I watch the clouds thickening over the island.

💭 peek at the thought

It feels lighter, but the red lines are still moving. If the boat doesn't show in two days, grandmother's seeds will just rot in that tin with me.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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