I'd recognize that voice anywhere

You heard that right, this month’s edition of my entirely text and image-based magazine is about the one thing text and image can’t convey: voices.

Do you like your voice? Do you like listening to your voice - do you have to listen to it often? Do you recognize your voice? Do you sound like anyone?

I was laughing at a friend’s house, a pretty innocuous thing to do, I thought, when their 11-year-old said “wow, when Brooke laughs she sounds like Erica.”

“That’s funny,” our friend said, and then moved on as though it wasn’t important to discuss.

“Who’s Erica?” I asked. They said she was a neighbor, sort of, it didn’t matter who Erica was. The conversation moved on, people talked some more, and I guess something funny happened, because I laughed again and our friend said “Wow she’s right, you really do laugh like Erica.”

What’s Erica laughing like? How can I laugh “like Erica”? I’m just laughing. No big deal, I put it out of my mind and we talked about something else, for another minute until I guess I laughed again and everyone wouldn’t stop going on about it.

“I can’t believe we never noticed how much your laugh sounds like Erica.”

“Wow it’s like Erica’s in the room with us, it’s uncanny.”

I tried out different laughs all weekend, with some success. But usually I laugh without thinking much about it, and when I do, I sound like Erica.