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Page 18
Gregor had almost entirely stopped eating. Only if he
happened to find himself next to the food that had been
prepared for him he might take some of it into his mouth to
play with it, leave it there a few hours and then, more
often than not, spit it out again. At first he thought it
was distress at the state of his room that stopped him
eating, but he had soon got used to the changes made there.
They had got into the habit of putting things into this room
that they had room for anywhere else, and there were now
many such things as one of the rooms in the flat had been
rented out to three gentlemen. These earnest gentlemen -
all three of them had full beards, as Gregor learned peering
through the crack in the door one day - were painfully
insistent on things' being tidy. This meant not only in
their own room but, since they had taken a room in this
establishment, in the entire flat and especially in the
kitchen. Unnecessary clutter was something they could not
tolerate, especially if it was dirty. They had moreover
brought most of their own furnishings and equipment with
them. For this reason, many things had become superfluous
which, although they could not be sold, the family did not
wish to discard. All these things found their way into
Gregor's room. The dustbins from the kitchen found their
way in there too. The charwoman was always in a hurry, and
anything she couldn't use for the time being she would just
chuck in there. He, fortunately, would usually see no more
than the object and the hand that held it. The woman most
likely meant to fetch the things back out again when she had
time and the opportunity, or to throw everything out in one
go, but what actually happened was that they were left where
they landed when they had first been thrown unless Gregor
made his way through the junk and moved it somewhere else.
At first he moved it because, with no other room free where
he could crawl about, he was forced to, but later on he came
to enjoy it although moving about in the way left him sad
and tired to death and he would remain immobile for hours
afterwards.
The gentlemen who rented the room would sometimes take their
evening meal at home in the living room that was used by
everyone, and so the door to this room was often kept closed
in the evening. But Gregor found it easy to give up having
the door open, he had, after all, often failed to make use
of it when it was open and, without the family having
noticed it, lain in his room in its darkest corner. One
time, though, the charwoman left the door to the living room
slightly open, and it remained open when the gentlemen who
rented the room came in in the evening and the light was put
on. They sat up at the table where, formerly, Gregor had
taken his meals with his father and mother, they unfolded
the serviettes and picked up their knives and forks.
Gregor's mother immediately appeared in the doorway with a
dish of meat and soon behind her came his sister with a dish
piled high with potatoes. The food was steaming, and filled
the room with its smell. The gentlemen bent over the dishes
set in front of them as if they wanted to test the food
before eating it, and the gentleman in the middle, who
seemed to count as an authority for the other two, did
indeed cut off a piece of meat while it was still in its
dish, clearly wishing to establish whether it was
sufficiently cooked or whether it should be sent back to the
kitchen. It was to his satisfaction, and Gregor's mother
and sister, who had been looking on anxiously, began to
breathe again and smiled.
The family themselves ate in the kitchen. Nonetheless,
Gregor's father came into the living room before he went
into the kitchen, bowed once with his cap in his hand and
did his round of the table. The gentlemen stood as one, and
mumbled something into their beards. Then, once they were
alone, they ate in near perfect silence. It seemed
remarkable to Gregor that above all the various noises of
eating their chewing teeth could still be heard, as if they
had wanted to Show Gregor that you need teeth in order to
eat and it was not possible to perform anything with jaws
that are toothless however nice they might be. "I'd like to
eat something", said Gregor anxiously, "but not anything
like they're eating. They do feed themselves. And here I
am, dying!"
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