Lee

When the teacher asked the girl if there was a nickname she’d like to be called, some voice in her spoke right up and said, “Lee,” which was strange because no one had ever called her Lee. In her whole life, she had never known a Lee except for Sara Lee, the famous baker whose cheesecake her mother sometimes served to company. So when the teacher said, “Alright then, Lee,” she had to train herself to respond and look as if she really were this Lee character. Lee, she was sure, was a guy who rode horses — a cowboy-loner type. There was something sullen, almost tragic about him as if he knew he was not long for this world. The name never stuck, and by next year she was telling everyone to call her Amber.