Part III
No-one gave a test to remove the apple put in Gregor's soft body part, so it remained there as a seen memory of his physical damage. He had suffered it there for more than a month, and his condition seemed serious enough to put in mind of even his father that Gregor, despite his current sad and disgusting form, was a family part who could not be treated as a person hated. On the opposite, as a family there was a need to put down the throat any disgust for him and to be putting up with things, just to be putting up with things.
Because of his injuries, Gregor had lost much of his readiness to move - probably forever. He had been reduced to the condition of an old ill person and it took him long, long minutes to go very slowly across his room - going very slowly over the top was out of the question - but this worsening in his condition was fully (in his opinion) made up for by the door to the living room being left open every nightfall. He got into the regular ways of acting of closely watching it for one or two hours before it was opened and then, lying in the dark of his room where he could not be seen from the living room, he could watch the family in the light of the chief meal-of-day table and give attention to their talk - with everyone's authority, in a way, and thus quite differently from before.
They no longer held the moving conversations of earlier times, naturally, the ones that Gregor always thought about with longing when he was tired and getting into the wet bed in some small hotel room. All of them were usually very quiet in our time. Soon after chief meal of day, his father would go to sleep in his seat; his mother and sister would give impulse to each other to be quiet; his mother, bent deeply under the light, would do needle-work, stitching much ornamented underclothing for a dress store; his sister, who had taken a sales regular work, learned shorthand and French in the night falls so that she might be able to get a better position later on. Sometimes his father would come out of sleep and say to Gregor's mother "you're doing so much needle-work, stitching again today!", as if he did not have knowledge that he had been sleeping in short bursts - and then he would go back to sleep again while mother and sister would exchange a tired wide smile.
With a kind of fixed mind, Gregor's father refused to take his military dress off even at home; while his nightdress hung unused on its pin Gregor's father would sleep where he was, fully dressed, as if always ready to work and ready to hear the voice of his chief even here. The military dress had not been new to start with, but as an outcome of this it slowly became even more in bits despite the efforts of Gregor's mother and sister to look after it. Gregor would often use the complete nightfall looking at all the color-damaged spots on this coat, with its gold buttons always kept polished and bright, while the old man in it would sleep, highly uncomfortable but peaceful.
As soon as it struck ten, Gregor's mother would say things kindly, quietly, not roughly to his father to come out of sleep and attempt to get to him to go to bed, as he couldn't sleep rightly where he was and he really had to get his sleep if he was to be up at six to get to work. But since he had been in work he had become more fixed mind-view and would always say request strongly on being longer at the table, even though he regularly fell sleeping and it was then harder than ever to get to him to exchange the seat for his bed. Then, however much mother and sister would trouble him with little angry words and saying that it is unwise to do something he would keep slowly shaking his head for a quarter of an hour with his eyes closed and not taking to get up. Gregor's mother would hard pull at his arm, say in a low voice pleasing words into his ear, Gregor's sister would let go her work to help her mother, but nothing would have any effect on him. He would just go down deeper into his seat. Only when the two women took him under the arms he would suddenly open his eyes, look at them one after the other and say: "What a living! This is what peace I get in my old number of years old!" And supported by the two women he would lift himself up carefully as if he were carrying the greatest amount himself, let the women take him to the door, send them off and keep on by himself while Gregor's mother would send through the air with force down her needle and his sister her pen so that they could run after his father and go on being of help to him.
Who, in this tired and overworked family, would have had time to give more attention to Gregor than was completely necessary? The family payments outline became even smaller; so now the girl in service was sent away; a great, thick-boned working woman with white hair that blew about around her head came every morning and nightfall to do the greatest weight work; everything else was looked after by Gregor's mother on top of the wide, of great size amount of needle-work, stitching work she did. Gregor even learned, listening to the nightfall talk about what price they had hoped for, that several items of jewellery belonging to the family had been sold, even though both mother and sister had been very dear to having them on their body at group events and special events. But the loudest protest was that although the flat was much too great-sized for their present circumstances, they could not move out of it, there was no idea-forming way of moving Gregor to the new house. He could see quite well, though, that there were more reasons than thought for him that made it not simple for them to move, it would have been quite simple, not hard to transport him in any right box for transporting goods with a few air holes in it; the main thing putting off the family back from their decision to move was much more to do with their total hopelessness , and the thought that they had been struck with a unhappy chance, an event unlike anything experienced by anyone else they knew or were related to. They did completely everything that the earth expects from poor people, Gregor's father brought bank employees their morning meal, his mother offered herself by washing clothes for strangers, his sister ran back and forth behind her writing-table at the request of the customers, but they just did not have the power to do any it more. And the physical damage in Gregor's back began to do damage as much as when it was new. After they had come back from taking his father to bed Gregor's mother and sister would now let go their work where it was and take a seat close together, side of face to side of face; his mother would point to Gregor's room and say "close that door, Grete", and then, when he was in the dark again, they would take a seat in the next room and their with drops from eyes would become mixed, or they would simply take a seat there giving a fixed look dry-eyed at the table.
Gregor hardly slept at all, either night or day. Sometimes he would have in mind to take over the family's affairs, just like before, the next time the door was opened; he had long forgotten about his chief and the chief office worker, but they would come into view again in his thoughts , the persons whose work is exchange of goods for money and the learners of a trade, that slow minded teaboy, two or three friends from other businesses, one of the househelps from a narrow and not up to much hotel, a kind, loving memory that appeared and gone from view again, a money-processing worker from a hat store for whom his attention had been serious but too slow, - all of them appeared to him , mixed together with strangers and others he had forgotten, but instead of helping him and his family they were all of them not possible to get at, and he was pleased, happy when they gone from view. Other times he was not at all in the mind condition to look after his family, he was filled with simple violently angry state about the feeble amount of attention he was shown, and although he could have in mind of nothing he would have wanted, he made plans of how he could get into the food-room where he could take all the things he was given the right to get, even if he was not in need of food. Gregor's sister no longer thought about how she could please him but would quickly push some food or other into his room with her foot before she ran quickly out to work in the morning and at the middle of the day, and in the nightfall she would clean it away again with the cleaning instrument, interestless in connection with whether it had been taken as food or - more often than not - had been left totally untouched. She still cleared up the room in the nightfall, but now she could not have been any quicker about it. Marks of dirt were left on the walls, here and there were little balls of dust and dirt. At first, Gregor went into one of the worst of these places when his sister arrived as a sign of angry words to her, but he could have stayed there for weeks without his sister doing anything about it; she could see the dirt as well as he could but she had simply decided to let go him to it. At the same time she became touchy in a way that was quite new for her and which everyone in the family got clearly - cleaning up Gregor's room was for her and her alone. Gregor's mother did once completely clean his room, and needed to use several bucketfuls of water to do it - although that much wetness also made Gregor ill and he was flat on the low bed, bitter and without motion. But his mother was to be given pain still more for what she had done, as hardly had his sister arrived home in the nightfall than she took note of the change in Gregor's room and, highly wounded in feelings, ran back into the living room where, despite her mothers raised and questioning hands, she broke into violent water-drops from eyes. Her father, naturally, was surprised out of his seat and the two parents looked on surprised and unable to help oneself; then they, too, became shaken; Gregor's father, standing to the right of his mother, accused her of not leaving the cleaning of Gregor's room to his sister; from her left, Gregor's sister cried at her that she was never to clean Gregor's room again; while his mother tried to give a pull to his father, who was at the side of himself with being angry, into the bedroom; his sister, shaking with water-drops from her eyes, gave hard blows on the table with her small shut hands; and Gregor hissed in violent feelings that no-one had even thought of closing the door to keep him from the view of this and all its noise.
Gregor's sister was made tired from going out to work, and looking after Gregor as she had done before was even more work for her, but even so his mother rightly would certainly not to have taken her place. Gregor, on the other hand, rightly would need to be taken care of. Now, though, the working woman was here. This old woman not married again, with a strong bone structure that made her able to put up with the hardest of things in her long living, wasn't really pushed away by Gregor. Just by chance one day, rather than any true, in fact great desire for knowledge, she opened the door to Gregor's room and found herself face to face with him. He was taken totally by surprise, no-one was going after him but he began to move quickly to and from while she just stood there in surprise with her hands crossed in front of her. From then on she never failed to open the door slightly every nightfall and morning and look briefly in on him. At first she would cry to him as she did so with words that she probably considered friendly, such as "come on then, you old animal waste-insect with hard wing covers!", or "look at the old animal waste-insect with hard wing covers there!" Gregor never gave an answer to being spoken to in that way, but just remained where he was without moving as if the door had never even been opened. If only they had told this working woman to clean up his room every day instead of letting her make trouble to him for no reason whenever she felt like it! one day , early in the morning while a weighty rain struck the window glass parts, perhaps giving sign that spring was coming, she began to say things to him in that way once again. Gregor was so full of bitter feelings about it that he started to move toward her, he was slow and feeble, ill, but it was like a kind of attack. In place of being in fear, the working woman just lifted up one of the chairs from near the door and stood there with her mouth open, clearly putting forward not to close her mouth until the seat in her hand had been slammed down into Gregor's back. "Aren't you coming any closer, then?", she asked when Gregor turned round again, and she quietly put the seat back in the space near where walls join.
Gregor had almost entirely stopped taking food. Only if he happened to see himself next to the food that had been prepared for him he might take some of it into his mouth to play with it, let go of it there a few hours and then, more often than not, put it out it again. At first he thought it was trouble at the state of his room that stopped him taking food, but he had soon got used to the changes made there. They had got into the regular way of acting of putting things into this room that they had no room for anywhere else, and there were now many such things as one of the rooms in the flat had been given through payment out to three men of good birth, position, and education. These serious men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior - all three of them had full hair on chins, as Gregor learned taking a look through the crack in the door one day - were painfully headstrong on things' being well ordered.
This meant not only in their own room but, since they had taken a room in this business house, in the complete flat and especially in the cooking place. Unnecessary unordered mass was something they could not put up with, especially if it was dirty. They had In addition brought most of their own house things and necessary things with them. For this reason, many things had become unnecessary which, although they could not be sold, the family did not desire to put out as of no use. All these things found their way into Gregor's room. The vessels for waste from the cooking place found their way in there too. The working woman was always in a desire to do quickly, and anything she couldn't use for the time being she would just put away from in there. He, happily, would usually see no more than the material thing and the hand that held it. The woman most likely meant to get, go and get the things back out again when she had time and the chance or to send 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 waste and moved it somewhere else. At first he moved it because, with no other room free where he could go on hands and knees about, he was forced to, but later on he came to get pleasure out of it although moving about in the way left him sad and tired to death and he would keep where one is without motion for hours after.
The men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior who used through payment the room would sometimes take their nightfall 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 nightfall. But Gregor found it simple, not hard 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 noted it, had stretched out in his room in its most dark space near where walls join. One time, though, the working woman left the door to the living room slightly open, and it remained open when the men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior who used through payment the room came in in the nightfall 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 got rolled out the table-cloths and picked up their knives and forks. Gregor's mother immediately appeared in the doorway with a plate of meat and soon behind her came his sister with a plate with put one on another high with potatoes. The food was steaming, and filled the room with its smell. The men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior bent over the plate set in front of them as if they wanted to test the food before taking food, and the man of good birth, position, education in the middle, who seemed to have value as an authority for the other two, did in fact cut off a part of meat while it was still in its plate, clearly desiring to make certain whether it was enough cooked or whether it should be sent back to the cooking place. It was to his feeling of pleasure, and Gregor's mother and sister, who had been looking on worked up, began to breathe again and smiled.
The family themselves took food in the cooking place. All the same, Gregor's father came into the living room before he went into the cooking place, arched once with his hat in his hand and did his round of the table. The men of good birth, position, education stood as one, and did not say clearly something into their hair on their chins. Then, once they were alone, they took food in near without error quiet, no sound. It seemed to be noted to Gregor that above all the different noises of taking food their biting teeth could still be heard, as if they had wanted to make clear to Gregor that you need teeth in order to take food and it was not possible to do anything with teeth bones that are toothless however pleasing, good, delicate they might be. "I'd like to take as food something", said Gregor worked up, "but not anything like they're taking as food. They do get food themselves. And here I am, coming near to the end!"
From end to end all this time, Gregor could not have in mind having heard the violin being played, but this nightfall it began to be heard from the cooking place. The three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior had already finished their meal, the one in the middle had produced a newspaper, given a page to each of the others, and now they supported against the back in their chairs reading them and smoking. When the violin began playing they became full with attention, stood up and went on softly over to the door of the walkway between doors where they stood crushed together against each other. Someone must have heard them in the cooking place, as Gregor's father called out: "is the playing perhaps not in harmony for the men of good birth, position, education? We can stop it straight away." "On the opposite", said the middle man with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior , "would the young woman not like to come in and play for us here in the room, where it is , after all, much more warm and comfortable?" "surprise yes, we'd love to", called back Gregor's father as if he had been the violin player himself. The men of good birth, position, education stepped back into the room and waited. Gregor's father soon appeared with the music seats, his mother with the music and his sister with the violin. She quietly prepared everything for her to begin playing; his parents, who had never put out through payment a room before and therefore showed an exaggerated kindness in the direction of the three men of good birth, position, education, did not even test to be seated on their own chairs; his father supported against the door with his right hand pushed in between two buttons on his military dress coat; his mother, though, was offered a seat by one of the men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior and sat - leaving the seat where the man of good birth, position, education happened to have placed it - out of the way in a space near where walls join.
His sister began to play; father and mother paid close attention, one on each side, to the regular changes of her hands. Brought close by the playing, Gregor had given a test to come forward a little and already had his head in the living room. Before, he had taken great self-respect in how careful for others he was but now it hardly occurred to him that he had become so without thought about the others. What's more, there was now all the more reason to keep himself secret as he was covered in the dust that was everywhere in his room and flew up at any very small united attempt to get something done; he carried threads, hairs, and remains of food about on his back and sides; he was much too interestless as to everything now to be on his back and to give a rub to himself on the soft floor covering like he had used to do several times a day. And despite this condition, he was not too self-conscious to move forward a little onto the well dressed floor of the living room. No-one took note of him, though. The family was totally preoccupied with the violin playing; at first, the three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior had put their hands in their pockets and come up far too close behind the music seats to look at all the notes being played, and they must have troubled Gregor's sister, but soon, in comparison with the family, they took away back to the window with their heads went down and talking to each other at half amount, and they stayed by the window while Gregor's father observed them all troubled. It really now seemed very clearly and readily seen that they had expected to hear some beautiful or entertaining violin playing but had been not come up to hopes, that they had had enough of the operation and it was only now out of good behavior that they allowed their peace to be troubled. It was especially unnerving, the way they all blew the smoke from their cigarettes higher from their mouth and noses. Yet Gregor's sister was playing so beautifully. Her face was supported against to one side, following the lines of music with a careful and sad look. Gregor went very slowly a little further forward, keeping his head close to the earth so that he could meet her eyes if the chance came. Was he an animal if music could take attention from him so? It seemed to him that he was being shown the way to the unknown food he had been desiring, longing for. He was determined to make his way forward to his sister and pull hard at her skirt to make clear to her she might come into his room with her violin , as no-one appreciated her playing here as much as he would. He never wanted to let her out of his room, not while he lived, anyway; his shocking look should, for once, be of some use to him; he wanted to be at every door of his room at once to hiss and put out mouth water at the attackers; his sister should not be forced to put a stop to with him, though, but not go of her own free will; she would take a seat at the side of him on the low bed with her ear bent down to him while he told her how he had always intended to send her to the music school, how he would have told everyone about it last Christmas - had Christmas really come and gone already? - if this unhappy chance, event hadn't got in the way, and say no to let anyone put him off from it. On hearing all this, his sister would break out in water drops from eyes of feeling, and Gregor would go up to her take up and kiss her neck, which, since she had been going out to work, she had kept free without any ornament on neck or collar.
"Mr. Samsa!", shouted the middle man with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior to Gregor's father, pointing, without wasting any more words, with his first finger at Gregor as he slowly moved forward. The violin went quiet, without sound, the middle of the three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior first smiled at his two friends, shaking his head, and then looked back at Gregor. His father seemed to have in mind it more important to keep quiet the three men of good birth, position, education before driving Gregor out, even though they were not at all put out of order and seemed to have in mind Gregor was more entertaining that the violin playing had been. He moved quickly up to them with his arms spread out and attempted to make them go back into their room at the same time as trying to get in the way of their view of Gregor with his body. Now they did become a little in a bad state of mind, and it was not clear whether it was his father's behavior that gave trouble to them or the first thoughts making clear that they had had a person living near like Gregor in the next room without knowing it. They asked Gregor's father for how such a thing takes place, raised their arms like he had, pulled in a worked-up way at their hair on chins and moved back in the direction of their room only very slowly. Meanwhile Gregor's sister had overcome the hopelessness she had fallen into when her playing was suddenly put a stop to. She had let her hands drop and let violin and playing stick hang feebly for a while but continued to look at the music as if still playing, but then she suddenly pulled herself together, put the instrument on her mother's knees when sitting who still sat painfully doing hard work for breathing where she was, and ran into the next room which, under weight, force from her father, the three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior were more quickly moving toward. Under his sister's experienced hand, the cushions and covers on the beds flew up and were put into order and she had already finished making the beds and slipped out again before the three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior had reached the room. Gregor's father seemed so taken up in mind (attention) completely with what he was doing that he not kept in memory all the respect he owed to his persons who make payment to use property. He urged them and crushed together them until , when he was already at the door of the room, the middle of the three men of good birth, position, education shouted like thunder and stamped his foot and thereby brought Gregor's father to a stop. "I make a public, clear statement here and now", he said, raising his hand and giving a quick look at Gregor's mother and sister to get their attention too, "that with thought, attention to the disgusting conditions that control over in this flat and with this family" - here he looked briefly but with certainty at the floor - "I give straight away word that one is going on my room. For the days that I have been living here I will, naturally, make no payment nothing at all, on the opposite I will give thought to whether to go on (forward) with some kind of act for damages from you, and be of the opinion me it would be very simple, not hard to put out the grounds for such an act." He was quiet, without sound and looked straight ahead as if waiting for something. And in fact, his two friends joined in with the words: "And we also give straight away word that one is going." With that, he took keep the door grip 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 general nightfall short sleep but from the uncontrolled way his head kept waving it could be seen that he was not sleeping at all. From end to end of all this, Gregor had stretched out still where the three men of good birth, position, education had first seen him. His damaged hope at the shortcomings of his idea, and perhaps also because he was not strong from need of food, made it not possible for him to move. He was certain that everyone would turn on him any short time, and he waited. He was not even surprised out of this state when the violin on his mother's knees when seated fell from her shaking fingers and landed loudly on the floor.
"Father, mother", said his sister, hitting the table with her hand as a first act , "we can't go on with like this. Maybe you can't see it, but I can. I don't need to give a name of this strange (unnatural) animal my brother, all I can say is: we have to attempt and get out of the way of it. We've done all that's of men possible to look after it and be putting up with things, I don't have in mind that anyone could make a statement against us of doing anything wrong."
"She's completely right", said Gregor's father to himself. His mother, who still had not had time to get her breath back, began to cough not strongly, her hand held out in front of her and a put-out look in her eyes.
Gregor's sister moved quickly to his mother and put her hand on her part of faces between hair and eyes. Her words seemed to give Gregor's father some more certain and clear ideas. He sat upright , played with his military dress hat between the plates left by the three men of good birth, position, education after their meal, and occasionally looked down at Gregor as he was there without motion.
"We have to attempt and get out of the way of it", said Gregor's sister, now speaking only to her father, as her mother was too took up with coughing to give attention, "it will 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 given great pains like this, we can't put up with it. I can't put up with it any more." And she broke out so heavily with water drops from eyes that they moved as liquid down the face of her mother, and she wiped them away with machine-like hand moving.
"My young person", said her father with kind feelings for one in trouble and clearly and readily seen knowledge, "what are we to do?"
His sister just made assign of not caring with her top of her arms as a sign of the helplessness and with water drops from eyes that had taken to keep her, moving out of her earlier certainty.
"If he could just get us clearly", said his father almost as a question; his sister shook her hand with force of body or mind through her with water drops from eyes as a sign that of that there was no question.
"If he could just get us clearly", said over again Gregor's father, closing his eyes in taking of his sister's certainty that that was quite not possible," then perhaps we could come to some kind of trade with him. But as it is . . ."
"It's got to go", shouted his sister, "that's the only way, father. You have got to get out of the way of the idea that that's Gregor. We've only damaged ourselves by believing it for so long. How can that be Gregor? If it were Gregor he would have seen long ago that it's not possible for mankind beings to live with an animal like that and he would have gone of his own free will. We wouldn't have a brother any more, then, but we could go on with our lives and have him in mind with respect. As it is this animal is going on troubling us, it's driven out our persons who make payment to use property, it obviously wants to take over the complete flat and force us to sleep on the streets. Father, look, just look", she suddenly cried (in pain, fear), "he's starting again!" In her fear, which was totally beyond Gregor's mind's power to see clearly, his sister even abandoned his mother as she pushed herself with force of body or mind out of her seat as if more ready to give up her own mother than go anywhere near Gregor. She moved quickly over to behind her father, who had become worked up merely because she was and stood up half raising his hands in front of Gregor's sister as if to take care of her.
But Gregor had had no purpose of causing fear in anyone, least of all his sister. All he had done was begin to turn round so that he could go back into his room, although that was in itself quite surprising as his pain-damaged condition meant that turning round required a great amount of hard work and he was using his head to help himself do it, frequently, again and again putting up (upright) it and striking it against the floor. He stopped and looked round. They seemed to have got clear of his good purpose and had only been caused fear briefly. Now they all looked at him in unhappy quiet, no sound. His mother was in her seat with her legs stretched out and crushed together against each other, her eyes nearly closed with tiredness; his sister sat next to his father with her arms around his neck.
"Maybe now they will let me turn round", thought Gregor and went back to work. He could not help breathing hard loudly with the hard work and had sometimes to stop and take a rest. No-one was making him act quickly any more, everything was left up to him. As soon as he had finally finished turning round he began to move straight ahead. He was made very surprised at the great distance that separated him from his room, and could not get clearly how he had covered that distance in his not strong state a little while before and almost without taking note of it. He put all one's power of attention on going very slowly as quickly moving as he could and hardly took note of that there was not a word, not any cry, from his family to take attention away from him. He did not turn his head until he had reached the doorway. He did not turn it all the way round as he felt his neck becoming stiff, but it was all the same enough to see that nothing behind him had changed, only his sister had stood up. With his last quick look he saw that his mother had now fallen completely sleeping.
He was hardly inside his room before the door was quickly shut, pinned and locked. The sudden noise behind Gregor so surprised him that his little legs suddenly gave way under him. It was his sister who had been in so much of a quick act. She had been standing there waiting and sprung forward lightly, Gregor had not heard her coming at all, and as she turned the key in the lock she said loudly to her parents "At last!"
"What now, then?", Gregor asked himself as he looked round in the dark. He soon made the discovery that he could no longer move at all. This was no surprise to him, it seemed rather that being able to actually move around on those feeble little legs until then was unnatural. He also felt relatively comfortable. It is true that his complete body was painful, but the pain seemed to be slowly getting more feeble and more feeble and would finally go from view completely. He could already hardly sense the wasted away apple in his back or the rubbed red part around it, which was entirely covered in white dust.
He thought back of his family with feeling and love. If it was possible, he felt that he must go away even more strongly than his sister. He remained in this state of being without sense, value and peaceful rumination 2 until he heard the clock tall structure give a blow to three in the morning. He watched as it slowly began to get light everywhere outside the window too. Then, without his being ready to do it, his head sank down completely, and his last breath moved as liquid not strongly from his nose holes.
When the cleaner came in early in the morning - they'd often asked her not to keep shutting hard the doors but with her power and in her desire to do quickly she still did, so that everyone in the flat knew when she'd arrived and from then on it was not possible to sleep in peace - she made her common short look in on Gregor and at first found nothing special. She thought he was laying there so still on purpose, playing the person attacked for a cause; she given all possible clear-thinking to him. She happened to be having the long brush on a stick in her hand, so she tried to touch, rub Gregor with it from the doorway. When she had no good outcome with that she tried to make trouble of herself and put a blow through at him a little, and only when she found she could push him across the floor with no power of stopping at all did she start to make give attention. She soon got clear about what had really happened, opened her eyes wide, whistled to herself, but did not waste time to give a sharp pull open to the bedroom doors and with a loud voice loudly into the dark of the bedrooms: "come and have a look at this, it's dead, just lying there, stone dead!"
Mr. and Mrs. Samsa sat upright there in their married bed and had to make hard work to get over the shock caused by the cleaner before they could make an attempt to get what she was saying. But then, each from his own side, they quickly got out of bed. Mr . Samsa threw the bed cover over his top of his arms, Mrs. Samsa just came out in her nightdress; and that is how they went into Gregor's room. On the way they opened the door to the living room where Grete had been sleeping since the three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior had moved in; she was fully dressed as if she had never been sleeping, and the feeble coloring of her face seemed to make clear this. "dead?", asked Mrs. Samsa, looking at the working woman full of questions, even though she could have checked for herself and could have known it even without checking. "That's what I said", replied the cleaner, and to put it to the test she gave Gregor's body another push with the brush on a long stick, sending it front turned to the side across the floor. Mrs. Samsa made a move as if she wanted to put off back the brush on a long stick, but did not complete it. "Now then", said Mr. Samsa, "let's give thanks to God for that". He crossed himself, and the three women followed his example. Grete, who had not taken her eyes from the dead body, said: "Just look how thin he was. He didn't take as food anything for so long. The food came out again just the same as when it went in". Gregor's body was in fact completely dried up and flat, they had not seen it until then, but now he was not lifted up on his little legs, nor did he do anything to make them look away.
"Grete , come with us in here for a little while " , said Mrs . Samsa with a pained smile, and Grete followed her parents into the bedroom but not without looking back at the body. The cleaner shut the door and opened the window wide. Although it was still early in the morning the somewhat cold air had something of heat mixed in with it. It was already the end of March, at the end.
The three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior stepped out of their room and looked round in surprise for their morning meals; they had been forgotten about. "Where is our morning mea ?", the middle man with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior asked the cleaner a little put out. She just put her finger on her lips and made a quick and quiet, without sound sign to the men that they might like to come into Gregor's room. They did so, and stood around Gregor's dead body with their hands in the pockets of their well-worn coats. It was now quite light in the room.
Then the door of the bedroom opened and Mr. Samsa appeared in his military dress with his married woman on one arm and his daughter on the other. All of them had been crying a little; Grete now and then crushed together her face against her father's arm.
"Let go my house. Now!", said Mr. Samsa, giving a sign of the door and without letting the women from him. "What do you have the sense of?", asked the middle of the three men of good birth, position, education somewhat put at a loss, and he smiled sweetly. The other two held their hands behind their backs and all the time rubbed them together in a full of pleasure feeling for coming events of a loud end to good relations which could only end their way. "I have the sense of just what I said", answered Mr. Samsa, and, with his company, went in a straight line in the direction of the man. At first, he stood there still, looking at the floor as if what is in his head were put in a different order by themselves into new positions. "All right, we'll go then", he said, and looked up at Mr . Samsa as if he had been suddenly overcome with looking on oneself as unimportant and wanted authority again from Mr. Samsa for his decision. Mr. Samsa merely opened his eyes wide and briefly made a head motion in agreement to him several times. At that, and without putting it off till later, the man actually did take long long steps into the front walkway between doors; his two friends had stopped rubbing their hands some time before and had been listening to what was being said. Now they jumped off after their friend as if taken with a sudden fear that Mr. Samsa might go into the walkway between doors in front of them and break the connection with their chief. Once there, all three took their hats from the small table, took their sticks from the keeper, arched without a word and left the building. Mr. Samsa and the two women followed them out onto the landing; but they had had no reason to have little belief in the men' intentions and as they looked over the landing they saw how the three men with delicate feelings, good taste, pleasing behavior made slow but unchanging forward movement down the many steps. As they turned the space near where walls join on each floor they went from view and would come into view again a short time later; the further down they went, the more that the Samsa family lost interest in them; when a trader in meat’s boy, happy of his position with his tray on his head, passed them on his way up and came nearer than they were, Mr. Samsa and the women came away from the landing and went, as if comforted, back into the flat.
They decided the best way to make use of that day was for loosening up and to going for a walk; not only had they earned a break from work but they were in serious need of it. So they sat at the table and wrote three letters of letting-off, Mr . Samsa to his employers , Mrs. Samsa to her building worker and Grete to her principal. The cleaner came in while they were writing to say them she was going, she'd finished her work for that morning. The three of them at first just made a head motion in agreement without looking up from what they were writing, and it was only when the cleaner still did not seem to need to go that they looked up in troubling, overheated pain. "Well?", asked Mr. Samsa. The working woman stood in the doorway with a smile on her face as if she had some very great good news to state, but would only do it if she was clearly asked to. The almost upright little quick-running bird feather on her hat, which had been starting point of the troubling, overheated pain to Mr. Samsa all the time she had been working for them, moved from side to side kindly, quietly, not roughly in all directions. "What is it you need then?", asked Mrs. Samsa, whom the cleaner had the most respect for. "Yes", she answered, and broke into a friendly laugh that made her unable to say anything straight away, "well then, that thing in there , you need not trouble about how you're going to get out of the way of it. That's all been sorted out. "Mrs. Samsa and Grete bent down over their letters as if having their attention fixed on continuing with what they were writing; Mr. Samsa saw that the cleaner wanted to start giving a detailed account of everything in detail but, with outstretched hand, he made it quite clear that she was not to. So, as she was put a stop to from telling them all about it, she suddenly remembered what a desire to move quickly she was in and, clearly put out, called out "Pleasing parting words then , everyone", turned round sharply and left, shutting hard the door very badly as she went.
"Tonight she gets sent away", said Mr. Samsa, but he received no answer from either his married woman or his daughter as the working woman seemed to have made waste to the peace they had only just gained. They got up and went over to the window where they remained with their arms around each other. Mr. Samsa twisted round in his seat to look at them and sat there watching for a while. Then he called out: "come here, then. Let's overlook about all that old material, shall we. Come and give me a bit of attention". The two women immediately did as he said, going quickly over to him where they kissed him and put ones arms round him and then they quickly finished their letters.
After that, the three of them left the flat together, which was something they had not done for months, and took the small electric train out to the open country outside the town. They had the small electric train, filled with warm sunlight, all to themselves. Supported back with comfort on their seats, they discussed their prospects and found that on closer test they were not at all bad - until then they had never asked each other about their work but all three had jobs which were very good and held particularly good hope for the future. The greatest thing made better for the time being, naturally, would be achieved quite easily by moving house; what they needed now was a flat that was smaller and cheaper than the current one which had been chosen by Gregor, one that was in a better place and, most of all, more useful. All the time, Grete was becoming forceful. With all the trouble they had been having of late her sides of her face had become feebly colored, but, while they were talking, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa were struck, almost at the same time, with the thought of how their daughter was flowering into a well built and beautiful young woman of good birth. They became quieter. Just from each other's quick look and almost without knowing it they agreed that it would soon be time to look for a good man for her. And, as if in statement of their new hopes and good intentions, as soon as they reached their place where one is going Grete was the first to get up and stretch out her young body.
1 asthma Disease marked by noise and attacks of trouble in breathing, and by cough, caused by sudden narrowing motion of the BRONCHI.
2 rumination Rumination of food by persons, sp. babies, in certain diseases.