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The Mad Days of Dinah Solfege
What do you do when you feel stuck in the mud of life?
Dinah knew better than to argue with her brother Nathaniel and his predeliction with pills. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for her to find him passed out on the bathroom floor, and the best thing she could do was lift his head onto a pillow and put a blanket over his gangly form.
Mom had given up a long time ago, deciding to go off with her boyfriend of the moment to find some peace overseas. And Dad — well, they had stopped hearing from him as soon as Dinah turned eighteen. He fancied himself a musician even though he hadn’t had a steady stream of gigs since he had burnt out after his last album released five years ago.
The house may have been theirs to use as they wanted, but it felt far from being a home.
When Dinah was by herself and alone with her thoughts, she would try to paint away the sadness. Watercolors, acrylics, even charcoal — anything and everything drew her to the canvas. Just throwing colors against a blank sheet of space helped her cope.
She wished Nate would find an outlet, but so far all he seemed to have were a string of girlfriends who came for the face, stayed for the bad-boy luster, and dropped him when all his bad habits came to light. Everything went on its own cycle of…
