He later remembered vignettes from a novel that he had read many years ago, thinking about the question she had asked him: why did he hold her hand and didn't let it go?

In that novel, these roles were reversed; it was Tereza who always held Tomas's hand. The narrator explained the hand holding habit of Tereza this way:

"When the scream died down, she fell asleep at his side, clutching his hand. She held his hand all night.

Even at the age of eight she would fall asleep by pressing one hand into the other and making believe she was holding the hand of the man whom she loved, the man of her life"