Microstory 151: Dores Roach

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

Dores Roach was secretly a Generation Two anomaly. And by Generation Two, I mean that she was the latest in a long line of anomalies. The ability she presented went back for centuries. For everyone else, only a certain number of people with anomaly blood presented an ability, and only after the Keystone activated them. But for some reason, one child per generation--maybe two--in Dores’ family line was born as a healer. It forever remained unknown why the ancient rogue scientists were only truly successful with this one experiment, but it came in handy through the years. Dores first learned of the family legacy when she suffered a deep gash in her arm while she was trying to roll down the driveway on a skateboard by sitting on it. Her mother heard her crying, and came out to help. She smiled kindly and blew on the wound to make it feel better, which was a common psychological trick for children, but was actually true in this case. This first act of healing was the primer that allowed Dores to, from then on, heal herself and others of any physical injury. Their family had up until that point, remained in the shadows, healing others only when they felt that their secret would not go beyond those they had helped. But Dores was strong, and bold. When she was around 12 years old, she recruited her older best friend who had a knack for driving over the speed limit. They purchased a police scanner, and sped to accidents and crime scenes, quickly healing the injured, and sneaking away before being discovered. They wore masks so that they could not be identified, but that did not stop the rumors from spreading, just like they had with Emmanuelle and Andrew. It was growing difficult as they experienced too many close calls where the official first responders arrived on the scene too quickly. And so they changed tactics. They read in a man who worked at emergency dispatch. He would secretly redirect the appropriate emergency calls straight to Dores and her partner, and never report these cases through the proper channels. They did this together for years, until Bellevue found them, and finally found an explanation for why it was possible for Dores’ breath to contain healing properties.