There's a moment in this episode where a stranger on a road in West Timor gives Shelley a smile — and she realises she received something far greater than she gave. That's where this post begins. And it doesn't quite end where you expect.

Seen is about what happens when you get very good at not seeing people — which London will teach you, if you let it — and then find yourself in a place where not seeing is no longer possible. On a motorbike in NTT, at fifty kilometres an hour, with no shared language and no middle distance to stare into, every person is just a person. And a smile is the whole conversation.

From a primary school boy who announced Shelley's arrival at full volume to an entire street, to a colleague in a London office in 2007 who needed someone to look up from their screen at exactly the right moment — this one is about the cost of a locked gaze. Spoiler: it's nothing. The return, though? That's something else entirely.

Read the full post at shelleymcphee.substack.com

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