The Paintbrush

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I was 7 when my father decided that me and my mother were too 'boring' for him. I was 8 when me and mother moved to the UK for a brand new start in life with only us 2. I was 13 when my mother was promoted with the best job in the world that only we understood. I was 14 when we were attacked by thieves that took all our hard earned money and we were left with nothing except ourselves in our little home.
My life had some ups and downs just like everyone's else's, including yours. But what really matters is how you deal with it.
I've been mentioning a nightmare that occurred to me that made me lose my mother, and I can understand the suffering you have been through trying to figure it out. I have too.
My college was only a 10 minute ride on bus and my mother used to drop me off on the way to work everyday. When my college was finished, I would rather go to my mother at work or take the bus back home. And on 5th September 2017, I took the bus to my mother's work.
"Here to help," mother said, her skin gleaming through the autumn weather and looking healthier than ever.
"Yeah, I didn't have any assignments today so I didn't have anything to do," I replied, placing my heavy rock-filled bag on the counter next to her main desk. Her room was small but it looked bigger because it was so clean and organised. That was just mother, a woman with OCD.
"I'm guessing you want to see what I'm focused on then," she spoke, lifting her head away from her magnifying glass that was plotted inside her palm. In front of her, she had 6 different rocks and moss and her tiny pot of fluid lay right in the middle of it all.
"Ooooh, guess what I found in Mrs. Colby's office last week," mother said, her eyes filling with joy as she yanked out her draw beside her and pulled up a tiny bucket with a glistening silver rock trapped inside. Yes, my mother has a mysterious obsession over rocks but that's what a geologist does.
"Guess what it is," she sang the words, unable to hold back the excitement, desperate to be released. I looked down at the rock with its irregular patterns and metallic structure.
"Wait.....is that an Arsenpyrite?" I questioned eagerly, wrapping my fingers around the thin plastic.
"Of course it is! She found it on her trip that she went on to the miners. She's on holiday so I took it for the meantime." She explained, pausing in the most random places in those sentences. She looked down and looked back up to see my reaction to her finding the one of the most deadliest rocks in the world. It is usually mistaken for gold but it's better to know the difference. This rock contains a high amount of arsenic, causing a reaction once coming in contact with a human being. Hence why it's in a protected bucket.
Mother took the bucket out of my hands and placed it into her bag and zipped up the bag with exaggeration.
"I don't want you to die so I'm keeping it here," she said, looking down at her bag and returning back to me.
"I'm not stupid, I won't touch that thing," I reassured, picking up my bag and throwing it over my shoulder with a whip. My mother followed me with her bag balancing in her elbow and she followed me out of the building.

"Why did you bring the rock with you?" I asked my mother, walking aside her with the same pace.
"It just.... It's really special and you know how much research I had done on this rock."
Her voice trailed off as I looked far into the distance to our destination to the end of this road. The journey looking as long as miles yet as short as a couple of hundred yards. The breeze attacked my face as my hands dug deeper into my pockets, reserving as much heat as possible.
"Stop right there!" We heard a man shout with such authority. This being a residential area and everyone knowing each other, it was highly unlikely someone would call out like that. Once we turned around to see who was the mysterious man, our eyesight was immediately focused on what was in his hand..... a gun. I froze on the spot with nothing but confusion and fear able to function in my body. These shivers adding to the blasts of wind already weakening us to the bones.
The man, dressed in the police uniform, approached us with the gun pointing straight at us. His arm tense with firmness yet shaking.
"Sorry officer, but what seems to be the problem?" Mother asked, slowly beginning to step forward towards the officer with her voice calm and relaxed.
Once my mother lifted her foot off the ground, we saw the man's arms tense up with agony, almost as if someone was controlling him.
"Sir, sir, sir we just want to clear the air," my mother's gentle voice said. It was almost as if it was a bit too gentle. I felt the tension slowly begin to rise as I slowly began doubting my own mother, causing only the biggest downfall in my life.
"Listen miss, I'm gonna need you to stand back and kneel down on the floor." The police officer declared, beginning to gain position whilst his gun followed my mother's positions.
"And you too darling," he added, turning the gun towards me for a quick second and back.
I glanced over at my mother, looking at me with a worry in her eyes. Her hands were still flat out and free of anything, reassuring that she was harmless.
"Officer, she isn't involved in this," my mother protected me. I quickly turned to face her and so did the officer once those words escaped her lips. The officers eyes, slowly shifted to me to my mother, began narrowing down at her expressions. I looked over to see that blank face present on her face.
"This can just as well be one of your tricks madam. I can not fulfil your request. Your daughter is staying right here until I know it is safe to let her go," he explained, stepping forward to my mother and switching gazes between us. The breeze, already freezing my blood, began to shatter my ice-cold spine. 'Another one of your tricks?' I am sure that my mother is the definition of innocence. We have shared my entire lifetime together and I know her more than I know myself. She gives me more love than I could ever produce. It's almost impossible to do such when you only have a warm-heart and a loving soul. Yet I'm left here with doubt.
"Sir, she has done nothing wrong. My daughter is innocent," protested mother, raising her voice and becoming more firm from the time.
"And so is my mother," I spoke up. There was no way I was just going to get out of this and leave my mother in the middle of danger.
The officer turned to face me and back to my mother, clearly beginning to change his mind. His gun relaxed as he slowly began releasing the tension on the trigger.
"Madam, I will let your daughter go, but we still need you down at the police station."
"Why is that?"
His eyebrows furrowed and relaxed within the second as he replied, "interrogation."

And that was the last time I had saw my mother, the last time I had seen her happy and smiling. Doctors said she didn't die because of the multiple gunshot wounds, but because of poisoning. Rock poisoning. Never did I ever think, she would die from her own passion.