Karin Leak

My parents and my brother called me Karin Leak ever since I can remember. Several reasons float around in my mind as to why--it's a variation on my middle name, Lee; something about leaky diapers as a baby. Who knows really. But my favorite story comes from my brother.

He's seven years older than me and to him I was sort of like a little doll or toy brought home to entertain him. He called me Karin Leak like my parents did, but he also sometimes called me Drip. The two monikers were related, you see, leak...drip. But it was likely an indication of his summation of my intelligence.

So one day when I was 4 and he was 11, I asked him why he called me Drip and Karin Leak, he told me this story with great flowery gestures.

One day we were taking a walk and there appeared in the sky a huge water faucet.
We were so amazed. Then a drop of water began to form, growing larger and larger, and it fell to the earth. And it was you. A big drip.