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Page 12
One day, about a month after Gregor's transformation when
his sister no longer had any particular reason to be shocked
at his appearance, she came into the room a little earlier
than usual and found him still staring out the window,
motionless, and just where he would be most horrible. In
itself, his sister's not coming into the room would have
been no surprise for Gregor as it would have been difficult
for her to immediately open the window while he was still
there, but not only did she not come in, she went straight
back and closed the door behind her, a stranger would have
thought he had threatened her and tried to bite her. Gregor
went straight to hide himself under the couch, of course,
but he had to wait until midday before his sister came back
and she seemed much more uneasy than usual. It made him
realise that she still found his appearance unbearable and
would continue to do so, she probably even had to overcome
the urge to flee when she saw the little bit of him that
protruded from under the couch. One day, in order to spare
her even this sight, he spent four hours carrying the
bedsheet over to the couch on his back and arranged it so
that he was completely covered and his sister would not be
able to see him even if she bent down. If she did not think
this sheet was necessary then all she had to do was take it
off again, as it was clear enough that it was no pleasure
for Gregor to cut himself off so completely. She left the
sheet where it was. Gregor even thought he glimpsed a look
of gratitude one time when he carefully looked out from
under the sheet to see how his sister liked the new
arrangement.
For the first fourteen days, Gregor's parents could not
bring themselves to come into the room to see him. He would
often hear them say how they appreciated all the new work
his sister was doing even though, before, they had seen her
as a girl who was somewhat useless and frequently been
annoyed with her. But now the two of them, father and
mother, would often both wait outside the door of Gregor's
room while his sister tidied up in there, and as soon as she
went out again she would have to tell them exactly how
everything looked, what Gregor had eaten, how he had behaved
this time and whether, perhaps, any slight improvement could
be seen. His mother also wanted to go in and visit Gregor
relatively soon but his father and sister at first persuaded
her against it. Gregor listened very closely to all this,
and approved fully. Later, though, she had to be held back
by force, which made her call out: "Let me go and see
Gregor, he is my unfortunate son! Can't you understand I
have to see him?", and Gregor would think to himself that
maybe it would be better if his mother came in, not every
day of course, but one day a week, perhaps; she could
understand everything much better than his sister who, for
all her courage, was still just a child after all, and
really might not have had an adult's appreciation of the
burdensome job she had taken on.
Gregor's wish to see his mother was soon realised. Out of
consideration for his parents, Gregor wanted to avoid being
seen at the window during the day, the few square meters of
the floor did not give him much room to crawl about, it was
hard to just lie quietly through the night, his food soon
stopped giving him any pleasure at all, and so, to entertain
himself, he got into the habit of crawling up and down the
walls and ceiling. He was especially fond of hanging from
the ceiling; it was quite different from lying on the floor;
he could breathe more freely; his body had a light swing to
it; and up there, relaxed and almost happy, it might happen
that he would surprise even himself by letting go of the
ceiling and landing on the floor with a crash. But now, of
course, he had far better control of his body than before
and, even with a fall as great as that, caused himself no
damage. Very soon his sister noticed Gregor's new way of
entertaining himself - he had, after all, left traces of the
adhesive from his feet as he crawled about - and got it into
her head to make it as easy as possible for him by removing
the furniture that got in his way, especially the chest of
drawers and the desk.
Now, this was not something that she would be able to do by
herself; she did not dare to ask for help from her father;
the sixteen year old maid had carried on bravely since the
cook had left but she certainly would not have helped in
this, she had even asked to be allowed to keep the kitchen
locked at all times and never to have to open the door
unless it was especially important; so his sister had no
choice but to choose some time when Gregor's father was not
there and fetch his mother to help her. As she approached
the room, Gregor could hear his mother express her joy, but
once at the door she went silent. First, of course, his
sister came in and looked round to see that everything in
the room was alright; and only then did she let her mother
enter. Gregor had hurriedly pulled the sheet down lower
over the couch and put more folds into it so that everything
really looked as if it had just been thrown down by chance.
Gregor also refrained, this time, from spying out from under
the sheet; he gave up the chance to see his mother until
later and was simply glad that she had come. "You can come
in, he can't be seen", said his sister, obviously leading
her in by the hand. The old chest of drawers was too heavy
for a pair of feeble women to be heaving about, but Gregor
listened as they pushed it from its place, his sister always
taking on the heaviest part of the work for herself and
ignoring her mother's warnings that she would strain
herself. This lasted a very long time. After labouring at
it for fifteen minutes or more his mother said it would be
better to leave the chest where it was, for one thing it was
too heavy for them to get the job finished before Gregor's
father got home and leaving it in the middle of the room it
would be in his way even more, and for another thing it
wasn't even sure that taking the furniture away would really
be any help to him. She thought just the opposite; the
sight of the bare walls saddened her right to her heart; and
why wouldn't Gregor feel the same way about it, he'd been
used to this furniture in his room for a long time and it
would make him feel abandoned to be in an empty room like
that.
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