Stephen´s hypotheses

Stephen´s hypotheses change a lot along the novel. At the beginning, Stephen believed  Keith´s mother was a spy helping the Germans. Later, this first hypothesis evolves into the belief that Mrs Hayward was  having an affair with a shotdown German pilot whom she is also helping to survive. 

Everything starts when Keith tells Stephen the six words: “My mother is a German spy”. Stephen is surprised and excited about the idea of going out and investigating. The first hypothesis that comes up to his mind is “She has her eye on all of us”, and together with his friend Keith, he starts  observing her closely and following her around. They believe she is passing information about the neighbours in the Close to the Germans. They even consider the idea that she might have been responsible for the destruction of  Miss Durrant´s house.

As the novel unfolds, we can see that Stephen is growing up and becoming an adolescent.   In the process, he starts to understand relationships and he realises that they are not as simple as he had thought: people sometimes fall in love with the wrong person. 

This deeper understanding wouldn´t be possible without Barbara Berril’s influence. She is the one who opens Stephen´s eyes to the fact that  married people can have extra marital affairs: "Didn´t you know about people having boyfriends and girlfriends?" "Deirdre says a lot of ladies have boyfriends while everyone´s Daddies´are away." (Chapter 5) Barbara is also the one who makes Stephen discover sexual attraction and love. And as he experiences these feelings for the first time, his hypotheses evolve and start to include what he calls "softness and bosoms and kisses".

Stephen no longer believes Mrs Haywards is a spy. Now his hypothesis is that she  found a fallen German pilot and, as he reminded her of Uncle Peter, she started helping him and ended up falling for him: “Somehow Keith’s mother found him(…) she felt sorry for him because  she remembered the silver framed portrait she has at home of another airman  who may be also fall to earth one night in an alien night , and crawl into a hole in the ground for refugee, and needed help. She told nobody. Only Auntie Dee (…) she started collecting food, cigarettes, from Auntie Dee’s house. Clean clothes, hot coffee to fill the thermos she has taken from the picnic basket. Then two small boys find the box where the things are left. Now she has to bring everything to his hiding place instead. She has to meet him face to face. Every day she comes…. And gradually she takes him to her bosom…..” . Now that Stephen has experienced love for the first time, the assumption that Mrs Hayward is having an affair with the shot down pilot makes more sense to him than the thought that she was a German spy.

In conclusion, the evolution of Stephen´s hypotheses go hand in hand with his growing up process. The hypothesis that Mrs Hayward was a spy is childish, and is discarded as Stephen grows more mature and starts to understand the fickle nature of love.