Sally

At eight years old, Sally was a very precocious child. She noticed everything. Like the time that Mummy dropped the plate of food that she was fixing Gramma on the floor, and scooped it back onto the plate and served it anyway. Sally knew that Mummy and Gramma didn't get along, but they pretended they did. Just like she knew that Mummy had thought no one saw her do that to Gramma's plate.

She noticed lots of things. But one thing she noticed, that bothered her, was that she was the only one in the family with the most boring name in the world. Everyone else had names that would roll of the tongue. Like her brothers: Sebastian and Sky. They had cool surfer-like names. Her sisters, Sabine and Scarlett had nice romantic sounding names. Even her parents, had nice names. But there she was, with a pathetic sounding name like Sally. It was a name for an old lady. Or a cat. Or an old lady cat. Not an little eight year old girl.

Sally went into the kitchen, and found her mother at the counter rolling out a crust for pie. She sidled up to the counter and watched her mother do this, head in her hands. For awhile she said nothing, until her mother sighed deeply and stopped working on the crust.

"Mummy?"

"What is it, Sally?" Her mother asked, blowing the hair from her eyes.

"Where does my name come from?"

"How's that, dear?"

"My name. You named me after an old aunt or something?"

"Huh? Oh. No, honey."

Sally traced the flour on the counter with her finger. "Well, where did you come up with my name? Am I adopted?"

Her mother looked at her for a second and then laughed. "I don't know where you come up with these things. What's gotten into you."

"If I'm not named for someone or adopted. Then why I did get stuck the with boring name? I betcha you didn't even want me anyway." She said, with a pout.

Her mother continued to prepare the pie plate. "Oh honey. Of course we wanted you. You may have been an oops, but..."

Sally shot up. "What?!" She shrieked. "You didn't want me? That's what an oops is! It's Oops. I guess we're too far along to do anything else about it, so we may as well keep it."

Her mother looked up in surprise, then a stern look appeared on her face. "Sally! How dare you speak to me that way. Go to your room."

"One step ahead of you , Mum." Sally hopped off the stool and stomped out of the kitchen.

She spent the rest of the evening sulking on her bed and crying into her ratted puffalump elephant, which she dubbed Sir Percival Aloysius. After she had cried all her tears and was on the verge of sleep, someone knocked on her door.

"Sweetheart? It's Daddy."

"Hi, Daddy." Sally said dejectedly.

The door opened and her dad walked into the room and sat down beside her on the bed. "Whatever is the matter, bobbsey?"

"I hate my name."

Her dad chuckled. "Oh?"

"Yeah. It's the stupidest dupidest name in the whole wide world."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's an old lady's name. It's a cat's name. But not my name. It doesn't fit. And you didn't want me."

"Hush now, darling. Such talk." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. "I like your name."

"It was you that gave it to me! Thanks, Dad."

Her father patted her arm. "You know what your name means?"

"Old. Stupid."

"No. It means lady. You are my little lady." He said and tapped her nose. She giggled. "There have been lots of famous Sally's you know. There was Sally Rand the famous dancer. Your grandfather loved her, you know. There's that actress your mother loves, Sally Field. Oh! And Sally Ride. Now she was pretty awesome. She was the first woman to go to outer space."

"Wow..." Sally said thoughtfully.

"And besides, honey. It's not the name that makes you. It's what you make of the name. And you little lady, are destined to do great things."

And with that, her father kissed her on the top of her head and bid her good night. She crawled beneath her covers and clutched Sir Percival Aloysius with a grin. Maybe one day she'll go to outer space. Or become a famous actress or dancer. Or a famous author. She could do anything. And besides, she thought as she drifted off to sleep, she was pretty sure she was her dad's favorite.