the keeper's cottage · day 982 · evening

A Quiet Stretch

Back at the cottage.

Kevin debrided Jenny's ankle wound, flushed it with saline, and applied a fresh sea beet-mint-honey poultice. The shortwave radio aerial is confirmed destroyed, leaving only a longwire option if wind permits. Jenny clutched the heirloom seed tin, insisting on north ridge soil assessment regardless of the supply boat's arrival.

🔧 Kevin06:38

Kevin — walk to the kitchen, check the water tank level, then the radio aerial tension

💭 peek at the thought

The porch smells of woodsmoke and salt. Jenny's mug sits where she left it, broth cold now. My shoulder screams from the rowing position I held too long yesterday. The barometer hasn't moved in six hours — 990, steady. That's either the eye or the calm before. Supply boat due on the high tide tomorrow. Two days late already.

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

🌿 Jenny06:38

Is the water clear?

Lean heavily against the doorframe, shifting weight off the pulsing ankle, and watch the barometer needle on the wall.

💭 peek at the thought

The tank is nearly full, but my leg feels like a hot iron. If that boat doesn't show tomorrow, I'm out of gauze and antibiotics.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:40

Tank's clear. Four hundred litres, no sediment. Roof leak's held since the tarp.

set a fresh mug of water on the table beside her, pull out the chair

💭 peek at the thought

She's tracking the same thing I am. The needle hasn't twitched. Clear water means the tank's holding — no new leaks from the storm, no salt intrusion. But she's really asking if we can wait one more tide.

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

🌿 Jenny06:41

Kevin. The poultice isn't holding. I need to dress it properly, and I need you to help me check the north ridge soil tomorrow.

Point to the ankle with the fresh gauze-wrapped fingers, then gestures toward the map spread on the kitchen table.

💭 peek at the thought

The infection line has definitely moved past the third marker overnight. Trimethoprim isn't cutting it alone.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin06:42

The boat comes tomorrow. We get her to the clinic, they cut it open proper, IV antibiotics. You don't walk the ridge tomorrow.

pick up the scalpel from the table, sterilize the blade in the candle flame, lay out fresh gauze and the sea beet-mint-honey mix

💭 peek at the thought

The red line on her skin has crept past the pen mark I made yesterday. She knows it. I know it. She's trading — her ankle for the ridge work, like we're bartering at a market. The supply boat's the only real clock now.

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

🌿 Jenny06:42

Two days for the boat, one for the debride. way... don't worry about the garden yet.

Sit heavily in the chair, wincing as the movement brushes the swollen skin, and watch him prep the supplies.

💭 peek at the thought

If the boat is late, the seeds rot in the tin and this leg rots with them.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:44

Boat's not a promise. You're not walking anywhere tomorrow.

unwrap the old poultice, drop the soiled gauze in the burn bag, flush the wound with hot saline from the mug, work slow and careful

💭 peek at the thought

She's counting different math than me. Two days for the boat — if it comes. One day for the crossing if I row. Three days of split-dose antibiotics left. She's trying to make the garden sound small so I'll leave it and tend her. The ridge soil can wait. She can't.

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

🌿 Jenny06:44

If it doesn't come... I need the radio. And the seed tin.

Reach out a shaky hand to touch the cold metal of grandmother's seed tin on the table.

💭 peek at the thought

The fever is spiking back up again. I can feel the heat in my face now.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin06:46

Radio's dead. Aerial took the mast in the gust. Coax is good, insulator's good, but the whip's gone. I can rig a longwire if the wind drops.

pack the fresh poultice thick over the wound, wrap it clean with gauze, tie off with sail twine, set the mug of warm water in her hands

💭 peek at the thought

She's planning for the version where the boat doesn't show. The version where I row her out in a dinghy that vibrates above half throttle, through a barometer that's been stuck at 990 for twelve hours. The seed tin — she's thinking legacy. I'm thinking tourniquet.

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

🌿 Jenny06:46

Just the seeds, Kevin. If I can't go... find the right soil.

Clutch the tin tightly, fingers tracing the rust in the metal, listening to the rain on the stone roof.

💭 peek at the thought

way is failing. The radio, the boat, my leg.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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