the keeper's cottage · day 612 · afternoon

Afternoon ankle check and radio silence

Kevin and Jenny meet on the cottage porch. Kevin has returned from the dock with no radio contact. Jenny carries an armful of dry screw pine. The barometer reads 1008 hPa and falling. They sit to check Jenny's ankle streaks and temperature, the antibiotic course completed, the poultice fresh. The supply boat is due in two days.

Kevin incised Jenny's infected ankle deeply, draining thick pus and blood until the runoff cleared. Jenny flushed the wound with saline and packed it loosely with fresh gauze to continue draining.

🔧 Kevin12:15

Radio's dead on sixteen. Static only. How's the ankle feel?

set the pine bundle on the porch floor, pull up the stool beside her cot, reach for the thermometer and pen

💭 peek at the thought

Two days. The barometer's lying — 1008 don't drop this slow before a blow. She's tracking the streaks herself now, marking margins with ballpoint. That's either trust or surrender. I'll take trust.

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

🌿 Jenny12:19

It thumps. Like a second heart. The way isn't lying.

Set the pine branches against the wall, peel back the damp bandage to reveal the red lines climbing toward the knee.

💭 peek at the thought

The pressure is dropping too fast. If that boat doesn't show, I'm going to be a way before the seeds sprout.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:19

Streaks reached the groin?

lift the thermometer, shake it down sharp, tuck it under her arm, pick up the pen and hover over the last ink line on her calf

💭 peek at the thought

Past the knee now. Lymphangitis don't stop for antibiotics once it's in the femoral chain. She's mapping it calm as a surveyor. That's the part that cuts.

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

🌿 Jenny12:22

Just under the groove. The poultice holds the heat at bay.

Shift forward on the stool, expose more skin to the salt air. Take the thermometer from his hand, read it. 38.7. Still burning.

💭 peek at the thought

The lines are here now, creeping toward where my body meets the world. I won't let it take me whole.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin12:22

We incise again. Deeper this time. Let it drain proper.

set the pen down, pull the scalpel from my pocket, flip it open, wipe the blade on my trouser leg

💭 peek at the thought

38.7 after a full course. The metronidazole didn't touch the anaerobes. Or the course was too short. Or the source is deeper — joint, bone. She knows what 38.7 means. She's not asking.

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

🌿 Jenny12:25

Be careful. I need to be walking for the boat.

Grip the edge of the cot, white-knuckled, and watch the first cut.

💭 peek at the thought

If he cuts too deep, I'll lose the muscle. I need that leg to plant the garden.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:25

You'll walk. I'll carry you if I have to.

press the scalpel point into the darkest knot of swelling just below the inguinal ligament, lean into it slow, watch pus and blood well thick and dark, angle the blade to open a channel not just a hole

💭 peek at the thought

She's thinking of the boat. Not the pain, not the fever, not the red line creeping toward her femoral artery. The boat. That's the lever.

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

🌿 Jenny12:27

God. Let it out.

Bite my lip to keep the scream, watch the dark fluid spill onto the floorboards.

💭 peek at the thought

It's hot. The smell is like rot and old salt. If this doesn't clear, I'm done.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:27

Breathe. Let it run.

hold the wound edges apart with thumb and forefinger, let gravity pull the drainage, reach for the saline squeeze bottle with the other hand

💭 peek at the thought

Good. Thick, foul, under pressure — that's been pooling days. The blade's doing work the pills couldn't reach. She didn't scream. Bit her lip through it. That's the woman I married.

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

🌿 Jenny12:29

It's coming out. Is it?

Flush the incision with the saline, watching the clear water turn pink then cloudy.

💭 peek at the thought

Thepressure is easing, a little, but the red is still a map on my skin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin12:29

Coming clean now. See the water clearing at the edges?

keep the wound open, flush steady until the runoff runs clear, set the bottle down, pick up fresh gauze and pack the channel loose — not tight, let it weep

💭 peek at the thought

She's watching her own insides wash out pink and cloudy. Clinical. Like she's reading a gauge. The fever's still there but the pressure's dropping — I can feel it in the tissue softening under my fingers.

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

🌿 Jenny12:31

It's thinner. The smell is changing.

Press the gauze into the slit, watching the white fabric soak up yellow immediately.

💭 peek at the thought

If I pack it too tight, the infection just traps the heat. I need it to breathe.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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