Frank De Felitta: Audrey Rose

Brice Mack sighed deeply and shook his head. Who knew? Who knew anything? Reincarnation. Rebirth. Another life. A thousand lives. An eternity of lives. Back and forth. Here and there. Was it true? Could it be? Were Max and Sadie watching him from some astral plan even now, shaking their heads and smiling reassurances down at him? Or were they already reborn, kicking up a fuss in a couple of Long Island baby carriages? Who knew? Who knew what was true? What was true was what was here before him—now. A Sunday in May. A warm breeze. A present that was real. A future that was potent, wholesome, and intact.

“Excuse, please—”

The man had approached from behind so that Brice Mack did not see him until he felt the soft touch of his hand on his own and heard the gentle voice.

“You want I should say a Yiskor for Max and Sadie?”

He was one of the men, Brice Mack remembered, who spent their days at cemeteries, plying God’s word at gravesides for a consideration. Hatted and flocked in unseasonable woolens, the pale eyes shone out of a face that was pure, unlined, and lightly bearded with silken hair.

“You want?” he prodded, smiling.

“Yeah, sure,” Brice Mack mumbled, seeking his billfold while the man produced a paper yarmulke and give it to him to cover his head. Brice took out a ten-dollar bill, then as an afterthought, made it twenty, and quickly wrote three names down on the back of a card. Handing the money and card over to the man, he said, “Include them in, too.”

The man scrutinized the names for a long moment in a puzzled way, silently saying the surnames to himself before asking. “They’re Jewish?”

“No.” Brice Mack replied. “Does it matter?”

The man thought a moment, then shrugged and smiled. “It can’t hurt,” he assured and, lowering his head, began to read from a slip of paper the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

“Yiskor elohim nishmos ovi ve’imi, skeynay, Max, u’skeynosay, Sadie, es nishmas, James Beardsley Hancock, Ivy Templeton, Audrey Rose Hoover, baavur sheanee nodeir zdokoh baadom, bischar zeh tihyeno nafshosom zruros bizror hachayim im nishmos Avrohom, Yizchok ve’ Yaakov, Soroh, Rivkoh, Rocheil ve’Leyo, v’im sh’or zadikim vezidkonios sheb’gan Edne, venomar omain.”

Daniel A. Lipsig provided thought and counsel. Dr. Donald Schwartz graciously gave of time, information, and guidance. Dr. Jay L. Dickerson, Professor Irwin R. Blacker, Father Joseph Casper, Ivy Jones, Jeanne Farrens, and Willard M. Reisz contributed instruction and encouragement. Dorothy De Felitta helped throughout with rare understanding and sympathy for the book she helped to form. William Targ, my editor, make it all possible.

I thank them all.

Frank De Felitta is the author of seven novels, including AUDREY ROSE, THE ENTITY, OKTOBERFEST, SEA TRIAL, GOLGOTHA FALLS, FUNERAL MARCH and the sequel FOR LOVE OF AUDREY ROSE. Both AUDREY ROSE and THE ENTITY were also made into movies, the former starring Anthony Hopkins and the latter starring Barbara Hershey.

The first book in the Audrey Rose series

Copyright © 1975 by Frank de Felitta