Dangerous metaphors. The first night he had spent in a big armchair…
“Although the couch was large enough, Tomáš told his mistresses that he could not sleep in the same bed with another person, and after midnight he would drive them all home.
After all, he had never slept with Tereza when she first came to him with the flu.
The first night he had spent in a big armchair ; the other nights he had gone to his office at the hospital, where he had a sofa that he used during night shifts.
This time, however, he fell asleep next to her.
When he woke up in the morning, he noticed that Tereza, still asleep, was holding his hand.
Had they been holding hands the whole night ?
It was hard to believe.
She was breathing deeply in her sleep, holding his hand (a firm grip, he could not shake it), and next to the sofa was his exaggeratedly heavy suitcase.
Not daring to let go of her hand for fear of waking her, he carefully turned on his side to get a better look at her.
Again it occurred to him that Tereza was a child, whom someone had placed in a basket covered with pitch and entrusted to the current.
Surely it was impossible to let a basket with a child in it float on the rough waters of a river !
If Pharaoh’s daughter had not pulled the basket with baby Moses out of the water, there would have been no Old Testament and no civilization !
How many ancient myths begin with someone rescuing an abandoned child!
If Polybus had not taken young Oedipus into his home, Sophocles would not have written his most beautiful tragedy!
Tomáš did not realize then that metaphors are dangerous.
It is better not to joke with metaphors.
