Permission response

I am having trouble understanding these kind of short stories. I feel like they are all  over the place which keeps me interested but left confused. The man in the story seems attached and overprotective of his children. He speaks of seeing his dead son in the water with his wife talking about mundane things. This was odd and I do not quite get the point of that being in the story. I am also not sure what the headmistress has to do with this man's life and why she is involved in it. The story just makes the character seem weird, needy, and maybe even missing a few screws.