The Meowmorphosis by Franz Kafka Read Free Book Online

ran straight to him, squealing with delight and chasing him about the room, caring little whether he wished to be held or cosseted. She would shut the window, out of which he spent the better part of his time gazing, and shut the door so that he was quite trapped. She then set to her ministrations, winding her fingers in his long, bushy tail, scratching his ears, speaking nonsense and lifting him high into the air before producing her silver hairbrush and compelling him to lie uncomfortably upon his back while she brushed his tangled fur until it became quite glossy—a process Gregor found extraordinarily painful and annoying. With this fuss and noise she frightened Gregor twice every day, and thus the entire time between her visits he trembled under the couch, though he knew very well that she would certainly have spared him gladly if only he had been a little less handsome, furry, or enticing to the spirit of a young girl.
    On one occasion—about a month had gone by since Gregor’s transformation, and there was now no particular reasonanymore for his sister to be startled at Gregor’s appearance—she arrived a little earlier than usual and came upon Gregor as he was still looking out the window, immobile and well positioned to frighten someone. It would not have come as a surprise to Gregor if she had not come in, since his position was preventing her from closing the window immediately, lest he fall out. But she not only stepped inside; she brought in a porcelain washtub, picked him up, and bathed him vigorously, ignoring his caterwauls of protest. A stranger really might have concluded from the expression on his face that Gregor wanted to bite her. Instead, the girl produced a rose-colored collar, with bells and bits of shiny material on it, as well as a large, bright buckle. Gregor’s heart quailed against the thing, but he could not resist his sister with any effectiveness as she seized his damp scruff and wrangled him into the thing with no ceremony whatsoever.
    Of course, when it was done, Gregor immediately concealed himself under the couch and began frantically licking himself to remove any memory of the bath, any thought of the hideous collar, and he had to wait until the noon meal before Grete returned, though she seemed calmer than usual. From this he realized that his appearance was still constantly tempting to her and must remain tempting in future, and that she really had to exert a lot of self-control not to run toward theslightest glimpse of even only that small part of his body which stuck out from under the couch. In order to spare himself, one day Gregor pulled the sheet onto his back and dragged it onto the couch—this task took him four hours—and arranged it in such a way that he was now completely concealed, so his sister, even if she bent down, could not see him. Of course she could remove it, but she left the sheet just as it was, catching his meaning, and Gregor believed he even caught a look of sorrow when, on one occasion, he carefully lifted up the sheet a little with his head to check, as his sister took stock of the new arrangement.

    SHE BATHED HIM VIGOROUSLY, IGNORING HIS CATERWAULS OF PROTEST.
    IN THE FIRST two weeks his parents could not bring themselves to visit him, and he often heard how thankfully they acknowledged his sister’s present work—whereas, before, they had often grown annoyed at her because she had seemed to them a somewhat useless young woman. However, now both his father and his mother often waited in front of Gregor’s door while his sister cleaned up inside and fussed over him, and as soon as she came out, she had to explain in detail how things looked in the room, what Gregor had eaten, how he had behaved this time, and whether perhaps a slight improvement in the direction of his old self was perceptible. In any event, before long his mother wanted to visit Gregor as well, but his father and his sister restrained her, at first with reasons that Gregorlistened