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Page 13
Then, quietly, almost whispering as if wanting Gregor (whose
whereabouts she did not know) to hear not even the tone of
her voice, as she was convinced that he did not understand
her words, she added "and by taking the furniture away,
won't it seem like we're showing that we've given up all
hope of improvement and we're abandoning him to cope for
himself? I think it'd be best to leave the room exactly the
way it was before so that when Gregor comes back to us again
he'll find everything unchanged and he'll be able to forget
the time in between all the easier".
Hearing these words from his mother made Gregor realise that
the lack of any direct human communication, along with the
monotonous life led by the family during these two months,
must have made him confused - he could think of no other way
of explaining to himself why he had seriously wanted his
room emptied out. Had he really wanted to transform his
room into a cave, a warm room fitted out with the nice
furniture he had inherited? That would have let him crawl
around unimpeded in any direction, but it would also have
let him quickly forget his past when he had still been
human. He had come very close to forgetting, and it had
only been the voice of his mother, unheard for so long, that
had shaken him out of it. Nothing should be removed;
everything had to stay; he could not do without the good
influence the furniture had on his condition; and if the
furniture made it difficult for him to crawl about
mindlessly that was not a loss but a great advantage.
His sister, unfortunately, did not agree; she had become
used to the idea, not without reason, that she was Gregor's
spokesman to his parents about the things that concerned
him. This meant that his mother's advice now was sufficient
reason for her to insist on removing not only the chest of
drawers and the desk, as she had thought at first, but all
the furniture apart from the all-important couch. It was
more than childish perversity, of course, or the unexpected
confidence she had recently acquired, that made her insist;
she had indeed noticed that Gregor needed a lot of room to
crawl about in, whereas the furniture, as far as anyone
could see, was of no use to him at all.
Girls of that age, though, do become enthusiastic about
things and feel they must get their way whenever they can.
Perhaps this was what tempted Grete to make Gregor's
situation seem even more shocking than it was so that she
could do even more for him. Grete would probably be the
only one who would dare enter a room dominated by Gregor
crawling about the bare walls by himself. So she refused to
let her mother dissuade her. Gregor's mother already looked
uneasy in his room, she soon stopped speaking and helped
Gregor's sister to get the chest of drawers out with what
strength she had. The chest of drawers was something that
Gregor could do without if he had to, but the writing desk
had to stay. Hardly had the two women pushed the chest of
drawers, groaning, out of the room than Gregor poked his
head out from under the couch to see what he could do about
it. He meant to be as careful and considerate as he could,
but, unfortunately, it was his mother who came back first
while Grete in the next room had her arms round the chest,
pushing and pulling at it from side to side by herself
without, of course, moving it an inch. His mother was not
used to the sight of Gregor, he might have made her ill, so
Gregor hurried backwards to the far end of the couch. In
his startlement, though, he was not able to prevent the
sheet at its front from moving a little. It was enough to
attract his mother's attention. She stood very still,
remained there a moment, and then went back out to Grete.
Gregor kept trying to assure himself that nothing unusual
was happening, it was just a few pieces of furniture being
moved after all, but he soon had to admit that the women
going to and fro, their little calls to each other, the
scraping of the furniture on the floor, all these things
made him feel as if he were being assailed from all sides.
With his head and legs pulled in against him and his body
pressed to the floor, he was forced to admit to himself that
he could not stand all of this much longer. They were
emptying his room out; taking away everything that was dear
to him; they had already taken out the chest containing his
fretsaw and other tools; now they threatened to remove the
writing desk with its place clearly worn into the floor, the
desk where he had done his homework as a business trainee,
at high school, even while he had been at infant school - he
really could not wait any longer to see whether the two
women's intentions were good. He had nearly forgotten they
were there anyway, as they were now too tired to say
anything while they worked and he could only hear their feet
as they stepped heavily on the floor.
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