- end_line
- 468
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T20:59:06.317Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 419
- text
- coughed a little, but taking care to do this not too loudly as even
this might well sound different from the way that a human coughs and he
was no longer sure he could judge this for himself. Meanwhile, it had
become very quiet in the next room. Perhaps his parents were sat at the
table whispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed
against the door and listening.
Gregor slowly pushed his way over to the door with the chair. Once
there he let go of it and threw himself onto the door, holding himself
upright against it using the adhesive on the tips of his legs. He
rested there a little while to recover from the effort involved and
then set himself to the task of turning the key in the lock with his
mouth. He seemed, unfortunately, to have no proper teeth—how was he,
then, to grasp the key?—but the lack of teeth was, of course, made up
for with a very strong jaw; using the jaw, he really was able to start
the key turning, ignoring the fact that he must have been causing some
kind of damage as a brown fluid came from his mouth, flowed over the
key and dripped onto the floor. “Listen”, said the chief clerk in the
next room, “he’s turning the key.” Gregor was greatly encouraged by
this; but they all should have been calling to him, his father and his
mother too: “Well done, Gregor”, they should have cried, “keep at it,
keep hold of the lock!” And with the idea that they were all excitedly
following his efforts, he bit on the key with all his strength, paying
no attention to the pain he was causing himself. As the key turned
round he turned around the lock with it, only holding himself upright
with his mouth, and hung onto the key or pushed it down again with the
whole weight of his body as needed. The clear sound of the lock as it
snapped back was Gregor’s sign that he could break his concentration,
and as he regained his breath he said to himself: “So, I didn’t need
the locksmith after all”. Then he lay his head on the handle of the
door to open it completely.
Because he had to open the door in this way, it was already wide open
before he could be seen. He had first to slowly turn himself around one
of the double doors, and he had to do it very carefully if he did not
want to fall flat on his back before entering the room. He was still
occupied with this difficult movement, unable to pay attention to
anything else, when he heard the chief clerk exclaim a loud “Oh!”,
which sounded like the soughing of the wind. Now he also saw him—he was
the nearest to the door—his hand pressed against his open mouth and
slowly retreating as if driven by a steady and invisible force.
Gregor’s mother, her hair still dishevelled from bed despite the chief
clerk’s being there, looked at his father. Then she unfolded her arms,
took two steps forward towards Gregor and sank down onto the floor into
her skirts that spread themselves out around her as her head
disappeared down onto her breast. His father looked hostile, and
clenched his fists as if wanting to knock Gregor back into his room.
Then he looked uncertainly round the living room, covered his eyes with
his hands and wept so that his powerful chest shook.
- title
- Chunk 6