Paul Horgan "The Peach Stone"

 It is easy to recognize the fact that Paul Horgan took great care in richly developing his characters, "The Peach Stone" centers around a mournful car ride to a family's burial plot to bury a two year old little girl.  The driver of the car is a guilt ridden father who blames himself for not clearing the tumbleweeds that caught fire and burned the girl to death.  This father was quiet but had much emotion that was boiling inside.  The dead girl's mother was trapped in a robotic like gaze, unable to respond to the needs of her other two children both confused and lost in the days following their sisters demise.  A fifth figure Miss Latcher, a teacher, may be the roundest character in the story.  She has religious based daydreams about martyred Christians, and she imagines herself filling the Christians destinies, she is overly concerned with herself.  I found this reading difficult.  If I had to analyse the message from Horgan I would say that the travellers in this car find themselves surrounded by three things, first they are surrounded by loved ones, second, sadly a dead girl, and also the lonely feeling that their family and friends can only accompany them to a certain point in this life, after that point, on the day of their demise, they will travel that great distance alone.