they observe the townspeople and the visitors pressing their hands together , with the invisible barrier between ; they watch them try to kiss ; they examine men and women weeping as they look into each other 's eyes ; they note the ones who faint , both inside the dome and out , and those who fall to their knees and pray facing each other with their folded hands raised ; they record the man on the outside who begins hammering his fists against the thing keeping him from his pregnant wife , hammering until his skin splits and his blood beads on thin air ; they peer at the old woman trying to trace her fingers , the tips pressed white and smooth against the unseen surface between them , over her sobbing granddaughter 's forehead .