Sage and Rose
By J. L. Young

On a frigid October night, the driver of a semi-truck, forced to take a late load without rest, fell asleep at the wheel. The truck hit a patch of black ice, startling the driver awake, and he reacted. He was going too fast to correct it. The trailer overtook the cab, causing it to slide sideways. It penetrated a railing and fell from the road. A woman in a compact car was pinned in a ditch beneath the trailer. That woman died moments after jaws-of-life was used to excise her from the crushed car. Quick thinking from the paramedics and the child she carried was born.

The family of the child could not be found. Staff at the Angel’s Feather Orphanage settled on a name for the infant, Morella Doe. When she was five, Morella was adopted by a young Conservative Christian couple and renamed her Morella Morris. After five years, the couple relinquished custody of her to the state, citing the child would not accept their strict religious and political values.

After her high school graduation, Morella would age out of the state home. She became instantly homeless. Panhandling became her profession. After working the big intersections and dodging the police, she spent most of her time studying at the local library. She used the local gym to attend to her hygiene and the laundromat to take care of what little clothing she possessed.

The young woman was adept in advanced math, Science, and is a polyglot. Morella used her homeless status to get into college, tuition-free. During her studies, she began creating connections. She began selling marijuana, knowing it was harmless and on the verge of being unscheduled. She saved enough money to purchase a condominium close to school.

Morella now had enough money to buy clothes that better suited her personality rather than for functionality. She had her hair dyed the color of the night. It offset her naturally pale skin. She chose what will become her signature scent, sage and rose.
She was now twenty, the age her mother was when she died, and now stands at the door of the truck driver’s home. She held forgiveness in her heart.