Mimic

"How did you do that?" Bramble asked.

The starling tilted her head, and when she spoke, her voice was small and high, like a little child's: "Do what?" Then, deep and grand again: "This?" Then, in a low friendly grumble: "Or this?" Three voices, all from one small bird.

"My name is Mimic," she said, in her own ordinary voice. "When I tell a story, I give each character their own sound. The king is deep and slow. The child is quick and high. The dog is a low happy grumble." She fluffed her feathers. "Then the listener always knows who is talking — even if I never say a single name."

To prove it, she told the tangled story again. But this time the king boomed low, the child piped high, and the dog grumbled warm and happy. And suddenly the whole circle could follow every line. They laughed at the dog. They felt the king's grandness. The story had come alive, just from the voices.

"Mimic," Bramble said, "I run a listening-circle, and the kids' stories get all tangled up when there's more than one character. Everyone sounds the same. Would you join us? Teach them to give each character a voice?"

Mimic hopped with delight. "Oh, yes," she said — and then, in a tiny squeaky voice, "yes yes yes" — and then in a grand deep one, "I would be honored." Bramble laughed. She was a whole cast of characters in one little bird.

So Mimic joined the listening-circle, and the tales there are full of voices now.

When Bramble teaches about character voices, Mimic leads the way. "You don't have to be a perfect actor," she tells the kids. "You just need ONE small difference for each character. The wolf talks slow. The bird talks fast. The grandma is warm and low. Pick one little thing and keep it the same every time that character speaks."

A young mole tried. He told a story with a giant and a fairy. He made the giant's voice slow and rumbly, and the fairy's voice quick and bright. He kept mixing them up at first — but when he slowed down and held each voice steady, the circle followed along easily, grinning.

"See?" Mimic said. "You didn't say 'the giant said' or 'the fairy said' even once. The voices did it for you." She fixed the circle with her bright eye. "The trick isn't being a great actor. It's being consistent. Same voice, same character, every time. That's all the listener needs."

A young creature asked, shyly, "What if my voices aren't very good?"

"They don't have to be good," Mimic said warmly. "They just have to be different. A tiny bit slower, a tiny bit higher, a tiny bit growlier. The listener's mind does the rest. Trust them."