Introspection
Fiction
Mary Miller was a writer whose talent and success had long crossed the borders of the United States.
Her family was gone. She lived with the characters in her books. She lived with these characters in the fiction she created. This was the only world she had left. She felt her best there. Sometimes, she’d take small walks along the streets around her house and do the shopping for daily needs.
On this day, she had done some shopping at nearby stores and was returning home. She met Mrs. Smith, a neighbor whom she usually greeted, and then continue on her way. She only lived three or four blocks from Mrs. Smith’s house. However, this time she stopped. Her neighbor was crying.
Mrs. Smith told her that her fifteen-year-old daughter Joana had been abducted. After learning more, Mary asked to enter Joana’s room. That’s how she found out that Joana’s greatest passion was painting — paint on canvas. She used to go to the nearby park to paint. Sometimes she made charcoal portraits of children playing in the park.
“Or strangers,” Mrs. Smith added.
Searching through the drawers in the closet, Mary found several empty tubes of paint. She noticed that they were different colors, but they were all the same brand: Rainbow. Once asked, Mrs. Smith confirmed that Joana only painted with that brand…
