Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 18hThey call each other “husband” and “wife”. By repeating it, they are hoping that it will sound believable when immigration arrives to check. #vss365 #vss #sound 052
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 12/10/2026A Baptist minister in the Mississippi Delta taught three guitar chords to a boy. Later, in Memphis, that boy became B.B., King of the Blues. #vss365 #vss #delta 093
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 11/10/2026As the queue moves towards customs, I try to calm my nerves by feigning boredom. Surely no one will suspect a teenage girl of being a mule. #vss365 #vss #calm 1123
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 10/10/2026The pianist keeps the audience spellbound. Afterwards, he bows, hands behind his back, so that no one can see them quake due to Parkinson's. #vss365 #vss #quake 0263
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 07/10/2026The new arrivals dock. Birds alight on the island. Seagulls, not guards, stand sentry at the cell house door as the Birdman enters Alcatraz. #vss365 #vss #island 0101
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 06/10/2026The bully dubs me Cyclops due to my post-op eye patch. "I'm a pirate!" I say. It takes the wind from his sails to be stood up to by a girl. #vss365 #vss #sail 2144
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 05/10/2026At the harbour, the men lewdly ask for my hourly rate. Upon returning to the dock, they watch silently as I unload the day's biggest catch. #vss365 #vss #harbour 061
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The last cloud vanished. The animals left. When a naked mole rat went by, Noah realised that he'd mistakenly picked a pair of first cousins. #vss365 #vss #cloud 052
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 30/09/2026She wedded an old, rich man with no kin. After his death, she learned that he'd made no bequest to her. Instead, his sole heir was his cat. #vss365 #vss #bequest 083
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 28/09/2026"What do we do with heads of state who are so evil, not even the oceans will purify them?" we ask. "Stop voting for them," the sage replies. #vss365 #vss #purify 0145
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Every payday, our hunger is the worst. We barricade our doors and wait. Like gathering storm clouds, Dad's drunken return home looms large. #vss365 #vss #hunger 053
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Spurred on by a primordial desire, I embark onto ships, planes and trains to travel beyond the horizon, hoping to both find and lose myself. #vss365 #vss #embark 284
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Before I took the helm, Mom taught me about Crux and Polaris. After surviving stormy seas, like mariners of yore, I let them guide me home. #vss365 #vss #stormy 1154
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Thank you so much, Lisa! (It's going to be my big bones being dug up, by the way! 😄) 010
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Thank you so much, Peter, for always being so kind to me! 😊 110
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 20/09/2026From afar, some call it a "conflict". But for us dodging mortars, bombs and soldiers shooting civilians for fun, it feels like being erased. #vss365 #vss #conflict 1104
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 19/09/2026"You are big boned, not fat," her mom said. Years on, archaeologists dig up her remains and marvel. Not even in death has she become dainty. #vss365 #vss #marvel 2154
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 15/09/2026Her russet hair, golden skin and brown eyes are autumnal. Yet she radiates summery warmth. And even in mid-winter, she's a breath of spring. #vss365 #vss #autumnal 194
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 14/09/2026West, North and South boast about their sunsets and auroras. "Why are you so sanguine?" they ask East. "For I get to bestow every new day." #vss365 #vss #sanguine 083
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Ashamed that he finds his six-year-old's schoolwork too esoteric to grasp, he hides his illiteracy by pretending to be too busy to help her. #vss365 #vss #esoteric 3114
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 12/09/2026In person she struggles to communicate: stuttering, stammering, her voice too high pitched. But on paper, her eloquence renders others mute. #vss365 #vss #eloquence 1136
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 09/09/2026It must be intuition. Before I can even say the words: "I'm afraid I have bad news," they're already crumpling onto the waiting room floor. #vss365 #vss #intuition 0112
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 08/09/2026On moonlit nights, she walks along the beach and watches the moonglade, wishing it were a real path that would allow her to cross the ocean. #vss365 #vss #moonglade 1114
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 07/09/2026"The Ten Commandments are gone." "What do you mean? Did you break the tablets again, Moses?" "No, I accidentally rewrote it on palimpsests." #vss365 #vss #palimpsest 1132
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 06/09/2026"He had green eyes. A scar," the victim says. Under her adroit hands, the composite sketch artist is shocked to see her own husband appear. #vss365 #vss #adroit 2174
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 04/09/2026Way past bedtime, a silhouette appears in the doorway. Tonight he's in for two surprises. I'm not whom he has come for. And I have a knife. #vss365 #vss #silhouette 1152
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 03/09/2026To try and retain our dewy complexions, we drink elixir from the fountain of youth. Unaware that Father Time has spiked it as a little joke. #vss365 #vss #elixir 1154
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Some say she's eccentric. Others call her mad. But they're unaware of how wading into the lake in the depths of winter can heal and console. #vss365 #vss #console 1112
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 31/08/2026"According to family lore, our great-grandpa eloped with a circus gal." "Then why aren't we flexible?" my sister asks while I wax our chins. #vss365 #vss #wax 182
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Upon our first encounter, we knew we'd walk down the aisle. And now, years later, I also fit her daughter like a glove when she tries me on. #vss365 #vss #glove 092
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 28/08/2026"How can you be so sure that she killed her husband?" I ask my fellow detective. "Because after she wept into the tissue, it was still dry." #vss365 #vss #tissue 072
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 27/08/2026As he puts a pillow under her head, their lips touch by accident. Her eyes flutter open. "My prince!" "No! I'm the butler, Sleeping Beauty." #vss365 #vss #pillow 1174
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Momma was so law abiding, she never even broke the speed limit. After her death, we find a poster of Mom in her youth, wanted in all states. #vss365 #vss #poster 0196
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 25/08/2026With a sponge and brush I create a fantasy version of myself. When I add lipstick, my son enters. "Why are you looking like a mommy, Daddy?" #vss365 #vss #sponge 2195
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 21/08/2026I am bored, so I use a razor to shave my head. Afterwards, I feel light and free. Until he yells from below: "Rapunzel, let down your hair!" #vss365 #vss #razor 2136
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 18/08/2026I see on TV as they comb the city for me, and as my parents beg for my safe return. But I've already been saved by him and his other brides. #vss365 #vss #comb 092
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 16/08/2026I long for the days when we could control most of the sounds in here. Like our curated playlists. Why does a newborn not come with a remote? #vss365 #vss #remote 0112
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 13/08/2026I undo even the rational. Some push me aside to get on with it. But I cling like a shadow. I take many shapes, but have only one name: fear. #vss365 #vss #cling 092
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 12/08/2026News about the hunted serial killer terrifies her. From the garden, he looks through her window and sees her fear at the sight of him on TV. #vss365 #vss #garden 0171
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 11/08/2026While I'm looking at the amulets and charms, the shopkeeper hands me a necklace. "To ward off evil," she says and glares at my new husband. #vss365 #vss #evil 4217
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 10/08/2026I furtively pop a grape into my parched mouth. The farmer yells at us to toil faster. My unborn child kicks upon hearing his father's voice. #vss365 #vss #toil 1142
Rachel Nel @redsaid1.bsky.social · 09/08/2026He fights the urge to go where life's sharp edges blur. His phone beeps. "We need diapers and milk." He enters the bar and orders his usual. #vss365 #vss #urge 0101