Chapter 2: Echo Revealed

The basilica was empty on most days after the morning mass ceremony, so we had the entire structure to ourselves. The design was very similar to any number of churches, but Saint Agnes of Agony was at least twice the size of any surrounding place of worship. The arches that formed the inner structure rose steadily upward to dizzying heights. Given the extreme height and its overall emptiness, Saint Agnes proved to be an almost perfect echo chamber. Toby and I would call out to one another and our voices would repeat and repeat themselves until they eventually died a soft death. Early on, this feature provided an amusing pastime. However, Toby and I soon became bored with our new game and concentrated on completing our given assignments.

One fateful day, I was in the process of studying some required Spanish translations. I spoke the words out loud to ensure that my pronunciation was correct, while I listened to these words echoing back to me. I realized this was the perfect method to learn new languages. Further, I began to experiment with my wondrous new toy. I wanted to mimic other people’s voices like my dear uncle’s, Vicar Walter’s and many others’. All I had to do was hear a voice once and I could recall with perfect clarity the exact tone, pitch and cadence of that particular voice. Much to my surprise, I found myself able to duplicate each of these voices in very short order. More than once, I was able to stop Toby in the middle of a difficult cleaning task by imitating the one voice he knew best. I would speak out a command in our uncle’s high and halting voice and order Toby to recite some inane bit of information that had been given to him earlier that morning. Sorry to say, my less attentive brother would become convinced that our uncle was somewhere near, hiding in the many shadows that inhabited the old church, demanding answers from him. Toby would dutifully stop whatever he was doing at the time, and respond to the best of his ability. I decided to keep my special ability secret and hastened to guard it at all costs. This meant that my mimicking practice had to be accomplished in a very secretive manner, so that the echoes that resulted were kept to a bare minimum.

I soon came to realize that I could do more with my talent than simply duplicating voices. I found I could actually duplicate a multitude of other sounds. I practiced whenever I got the chance at sounding like a dog, cat, sparrow, raven, cow, goat or even a rooster. Eventually, I could imitate virtually any sound that I ever heard. One minute I’d attempt the Vicar Walter’s voice as he prayed in Latin, while the next I would duplicate the sound of the large church bells at the very top of the basilica. Each and every successful attempt made me more adept at my special skill, filling me with an insatiable hunger to add more and more sounds to my arsenal. From that moment on, I decided that my name would become Echo and no longer William. I would answer only to Echo no matter how many times either Toby or theOld Ghost used my old name. For me it was Echo or nothing! Does it sound like I had a big opinion of myself? Well you might be correct in thinking so, but remember I was just a lad at the time. Using the name Echo always put a smile on my face. You see, I really did not want anyone to discover the truth about my secret ability. But using the name Echo was like hiding my fabulous secret in plain sight!

There was yet another time when I tested this strange but wondrous ability with someone other than my brother. As it happened, Saint Agnes was undergoing some internal repair work aimed at shoring up the west wall of the structure. It was determined by experts that wind and rain had taken their toll on one of the major support arches on that particular side of the edifice. A team of masons and carpenters had been dispatched by the Vicar to reinforce the offending arch headed by Master Builder, John Block. His crew numbered twenty-three, and included men with unique building skills as well as junior apprentices, who fetched all the needed repair materials for use in this re