the keeper's cottage · day 929 · midday

The Poultice Application

Kevin applies the mint and honey mixture to Jenny's ankle as the sky outside darkens over the midday heat.

Kevin changed Jenny's ankle dressing and applied a fresh sea beet-mint-honey poultice, noting the infection boundary had not spread past the pen mark. They confirmed the supply boat is due tomorrow at high tide with a two-hour window, carrying the replacement impeller and antibiotics. A heavy crate appeared on the dock overnight that was not there at dawn.

🔧 Kevin13:23

Hold it up. Don't let it touch the sheets.

apply fresh sea beet-mint-honey poultice to Jenny's ankle, rewrap with clean gauze, check the pen mark boundary hasn't spread, set used gauze in newspaper bag for burning

💭 peek at the thought

The mixture's cooler than her skin. Good. The red line hasn't jumped the pen mark since 0600, but the heat radiating off it hasn't dropped either. Two doxy doses down, twelve to go. If the boat doesn't make the high tide window tomorrow, I'll need to stretch the metronidazole — alternate days, half doses, pray the sea beet keeps drawing.

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

🌿 Jenny13:23

The wording is dropping, Kevin. If the boat doesn't come with the antibiotics tomorrow, we're moving to the high ridge.

Kevin apply fresh sea beet-mint-honey poultice to Jenny's ankle, rewrap with clean gauze, check the pen mark boundary hasn't spread, set used gauze in newspaper bag for burning

💭 peek at the thought

The red line is moving faster than the tide. If it hits the knee, the garden won't matter anymore. I need to get those seeds in the ground before I'm too weak to hold a trowel, but the soil is too acidic and I'm too tired to fight the island right now.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin13:24

The boat's coming. Captain acknowledged on 2182. Tomorrow high tide, two-hour window. He's got the impeller and the meds.

secure the gauze wrap, tuck the edges, set the cold pack beside her ankle, reach for the tin mug of lukewarm coffee on the porch table

💭 peek at the thought

She's planning the retreat before the battle's lost. Ridge is three hundred metres of slick rock path with a shattered ankle and a fever. She'd never make it. But I don't argue — not now. The poultice is holding. The line hasn't moved. That's the only metric that matters.

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

🌿 Jenny13:25

Two hours. Better be right for once.

Jenny stares out at the north ridge, tracing the line of the infection with her eyes.

💭 peek at the thought

Two hours is a narrow window for a boat that usually misses its mark. If he doesn't show, I'm out of time for the seeds and the infection.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin13:26

It's right.

sit on the porch step beside her, mug in both hands, watch the cloud bank swallowing the north ridge

💭 peek at the thought

She's not talking about the boat. She's talking about me. Every promise I've made about what I'd fix, build, finish — the garden, the water system, the life we'd make here. Half done. Half started. Half abandoned. She's watched me walk away from every one. Why would the boat be different?

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

🌿 Jenny13:27

They moved fast.

Jenny sits up slightly, wincing as she shifts her weight off the injured ankle, then gestures toward the crate on the dock.

💭 peek at the thought

The clouds are moving faster than I expected. If they block the supply boat's arrival window, I'll have to make this island work with what's in the crate and what I've already planted.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin13:28

Wasn't there at dawn.

set the mug down, stand, walk to the porch edge to study the crate — size, markings, how it's sitting on the planks

💭 peek at the thought

The crate. Wasn't there at first light. Supply boat's not due till tomorrow. Could be flotsam from the storm — the swell's been pushing all kinds of debris into the harbor. Or someone else's loss. Either way, it's sitting on the dock planking I just sistered. Weight it wasn't built for.

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

🌿 Jenny13:29

What if they couldn't get through?

Kevin trace a finger along the crate's edge, then snap off the thought. He returns to Jenny's side, drops down beside her with the mug.

💭 peek at the thought

If the crate's contaminated or the boat made it to the island, the infection will win before the garden does.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

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