September 6th, 2018

     It has been over a year since Soline's brother passed away. Soline is 16 years old now and starting her 11th grade year. She has turned over a new leaf now, yet she sighs wistfully as she re-discovers an old image of herself from a few years ago when her hair was dyed lighter and cut short. Although she doesn't like looking at it, she can't rip her eyes away. This photo captured such a lovely innocence... -an innocence which she has not yet revitalized within herself.

     At her brother's funeral service back in May of 2017, she remembered having the profound realization that the people who were actually there for her at a time like that were her real friends. Many other kids had commented a short sentiment on her Instagram account, but not all of them actually showed up to the memorial service. 

     She wishes now that she only could have said goodbye to him, for his death had been so unexpected.

     The first few days of school this year had felt chilled out yet rather numb. There was a lack of feeling in the air... an incurable apathy hanging over everything like a pending rain cloud.
     Time is strange and death is even stranger. The idea that someone is actually never coming back is difficult to grasp, let alone accept, especially when one is still young. Times like the start of an academic year are the hardest for Soline to face. They make her think of how her brother could have been done with high school now, doing whatever he wanted, growing older with her, everything that could  have been. It hurts the most to think about what could have been.
     Although she would later realize that the death of her brother would serve as a constant motivator for Soline to survive through everything herself, at this time she can only think of how she wished she had cared about him more as a person.
     Sometimes she would wake up and not be able to fall asleep again, or she would never fall asleep in the first place. On these nights she would rise from her bed and crawl into the comfort of her mother's bed. Her mother would whisper mantras of comfort to her, knowing that they were of even more comfort to herself. Eventually Soline would drift off to sleep.
     Soline has also to taken to venturing into what is (somewhat officially) named "The Hobos' Nest." It is a rooftop in the middle of town, just above the art gallery. There is a courtyard beneath it, and a sign reading "The Hobos' Nest" on the wall at the base of the stairs leading up to it. 

      This is one place in which she really feels at peace, especially when she goes there at night. She can't shake off the premonition though, that this place has a purpose, and wonders how 'The Nest' came into existence.