Summary

“The Watch” begins chronologically just after “School,” after Eddie saw Pat’s name amongst the soldiers killed while on the train back from Oxford. He got off the train and switched for one that would take him close to High House. He travelled in a kind of fugue, at one point in a newspaper van, until he reached “what he felt to be his home” (171). The landscape surrounding High House was filled with army vehicles and army huts, but the house was deserted. He returned to his aunts’ house. His aunts had news: they were each getting married. They had apparently put off their plans until they had gotten Eddie “off [their]” hands (173), and Eddie’s father had been paying them well for taking care of Eddie all these years. Eddie’s aunts knew about Pat’s death as...