She said, "This morning I had a notice from the Mairie that he is killed."
The Goldfish and the Watch
On a table in the window there was an opal-blue bowl full of water, with purple iris floating in it, and little bright goldfish, four of them, glinting through it.
Some one had given it that day to the children.
René, the eldest boy, stood by the table watching the goldfish, not thinking of his father at all.
There were minutes in the days when he did not think of his father.
But afterwards it was always the same thing.
He never told any one, because he was seven years old and very shy. No one would have understood. And it was dreadful to him when people did not understand.
It was about his father's watch.