Waterland

After 52-year-old Mary reveals the stunning news that she will have a baby, she and Tom sit on a park bench close to their London home in Greenwich Park. After many agonizing moments of silence, all she can say is, “Wait—you see” (148), after which Tom tells her she needs medical help and thinks to himself that she might have schizophrenia. He is determined to face reality, and “the last thing he wants to believe is that he’s in fairy-land” (148).

Resuming where he left off in Chapter 15, Tom imparts the story of his father the lock-keeper, “who was a phlegmatic yet sentimental man” (148). Henry Crick goes to war, falls in love with his nurse, and marries her, only to lose this wonderful woman when she suddenly dies, leaving Henry a nervous, superstitious man who paces incessantly.

Tom reverts back to the topic of Lewis Scott, the headmaster, and exposes Lewis’s secrets to the class—mainly that he drinks excessively. Tom then describes the scene where Lewis once again defends his reason for firing Tom. They get into a heated metaphysical discussion about history and dreams. The conversation ends when Tom says, “Lewis, tell me something.