The following version of this story was used to create this study guide: Urroa, Luis Alberto. “Father Returns from the Mountain.” Six Kinds of Sky. Cinco Puntos Press, 2002, p. 105 – 110.

Note: The story is not in chronological order. It jumps back and forth between past and present frequently, often within the same paragraph. Urroa indicates a time jump with ‘/’.

The story begins with a description of a red car wearing away in the sun. The description reveals that the car was in a terrible accident, and it belonged to the narrator’s father, who died from his injuries. In the junkyard, boys touch the father’s dried blood and joke about the father haunting them.

The narrator learns about the accident from a family friend while he is spending time with a girl he loves. In the hospital, the father is frustrated because he cannot control his body. He dies in the hospital.

After the father is sent to the funeral home, the son waits with the corpse for an entire day with no food. The son keeps looking at his father’s body, hoping to see some sign of movement to show that he is still alive. As the night continues, the son falls asleep and has dreams that he is in a car accident himself. When the son wakes up and starts talking to himself, he hears his father respond from within the coffin. They talk for some time before the coffin is taken to the graveyard.

Later, at his home, the son hears a car pull in to the driveway and sees his father in the car. The father does not seem to know that he is dead, so the son tries to convince him that he has passed away.

At a later date, the ghost of the father reappears, this time beckoning the son to enter the car with him. They drive through many “dreamlands” (109), and they talk about death and their lives.