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- 1684
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-28T17:34:53.096Z
- extracted_by
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- 1624
- text
- pay nothing at all, on the contrary I will consider whether to proceed
with some kind of action for damages from you, and believe me it would
be very easy to set out the grounds for such an action.” He was silent
and looked straight ahead as if waiting for something. And indeed, his
two friends joined in with the words: “And we also give immediate
notice.” With that, he took hold of the door handle and slammed the
door.
Gregor’s father staggered back to his seat, feeling his way with his
hands, and fell into it; it looked as if he was stretching himself out
for his usual evening nap but from the uncontrolled way his head kept
nodding it could be seen that he was not sleeping at all. Throughout
all this, Gregor had lain still where the three gentlemen had first
seen him. His disappointment at the failure of his plan, and perhaps
also because he was weak from hunger, made it impossible for him to
move. He was sure that everyone would turn on him any moment, and he
waited. He was not even startled out of this state when the violin on
his mother’s lap fell from her trembling fingers and landed loudly on
the floor.
“Father, Mother”, said his sister, hitting the table with her hand as
introduction, “we can’t carry on like this. Maybe you can’t see it, but
I can. I don’t want to call this monster my brother, all I can say is:
we have to try and get rid of it. We’ve done all that’s humanly
possible to look after it and be patient, I don’t think anyone could
accuse us of doing anything wrong.”
“She’s absolutely right”, said Gregor’s father to himself. His mother,
who still had not had time to catch her breath, began to cough dully,
her hand held out in front of her and a deranged expression in her
eyes.
Gregor’s sister rushed to his mother and put her hand on her forehead.
Her words seemed to give Gregor’s father some more definite ideas. He
sat upright, played with his uniform cap between the plates left by the
three gentlemen after their meal, and occasionally looked down at
Gregor as he lay there immobile.
“We have to try and get rid of it”, said Gregor’s sister, now speaking
only to her father, as her mother was too occupied with coughing to
listen, “it’ll be the death of both of you, I can see it coming. We
can’t all work as hard as we have to and then come home to be tortured
like this, we can’t endure it. I can’t endure it any more.” And she
broke out so heavily in tears that they flowed down the face of her
mother, and she wiped them away with mechanical hand movements.
“My child”, said her father with sympathy and obvious understanding,
“what are we to do?”
His sister just shrugged her shoulders as a sign of the helplessness
and tears that had taken hold of her, displacing her earlier certainty.
“If he could just understand us”, said his father almost as a question;
his sister shook her hand vigorously through her tears as a sign that
of that there was no question.
“If he could just understand us”, repeated Gregor’s father, closing his
eyes in acceptance of his sister’s certainty that that was quite
impossible, “then perhaps we could come to some kind of arrangement
with him. But as it is ...”
- title
- Chunk 10