The Meowmorphosis by Franz Kafka Read Free Book Online Page B

sight of the empty walls pierced her right to the heart. And why should Gregor not feel the same, since he had been accustomed to the room furnishings for a long time? In an empty room, would he not feel himself abandoned?
    “And is it not the case,” his mother concluded very quietly, almost whispering as if she wished to prevent Gregor, whose exact location she really didn’t know, from hearing even the sound of her voice—for she was convinced that he did notunderstand her words—“and isn’t it a fact that by removing the furniture we’re showing that we’re giving up all hope of improvement, that we’re leaving him to his own resources without any consideration? I think it would be best if we tried to keep the room exactly in the condition it was in before, so that, when Gregor returns to us, he finds everything unchanged and can forget the intervening time all the more easily.”
    As he heard his mother’s words, Gregor realized that the lack of all sensible, adult human contact save his sister’s cosseting, together with the monotonous life he’d been forced to spend listening to the family through the walls over the course of these two months, must have confused his understanding, because otherwise he couldn’t explain to himself how, in all seriousness, he could have been so keen to have his room emptied. Was he really eager to let the warm room, comfortably furnished with pieces he had inherited, be turned into a cavern in which he would, of course, then be able to sun about in all directions without disturbance, but neither leap to and from the bed, nor hang from the curtains, nor send the papers scattering from the writing desk, a practice that brought him much joy? At the same time, if he indulged his new appetites, would they result in a quick and complete forgetting of his human past as well? Was he then at this point already on the verge of forgetting, and was it only the voice of his mother, which hehad not heard for a long time, that had aroused him? No, nothing was to be removed—everything must remain. His mother was right: In his condition he could not function without the beneficial influences of his furniture, as a reminder and a call back to his old self. And if the furniture allowed him to carry out his mad romping about all over the place, then there was no harm in that, but rather a great benefit.
    But his sister unfortunately thought otherwise. She had grown accustomed, certainly not without justification, so far as the discussion of matters concerning Gregor was concerned, to act as a special authority with more expertise than their parents—and so now their mother’s advice was, for his sister, sufficient reason to
insist
on the removal, not only of the chest of drawers and the writing desk, which were the only items she had thought about at first as they were quite spoiled by his pouncing and racing across them, but also of
all
the furniture, with the exception of the indispensable couch. Of course, it was only childish defiance—and possessiveness of her recent very unexpected but hard-earned favorite pet—that led her to this demand.
    But perhaps the enthusiastic sensibility of young women of her age also played a role. This feeling sought release at every opportunity, and with it, Gregor thought, perhaps his sister now felt tempted to make Gregor’s situation even more terrifying tothe family, so that then she would be able to do even more for him than now. For surely none except Grete would ever trust themselves to enter a room in which Gregor ruled the empty walls all by himself. And so she did not let herself be dissuaded by her mother, who in this room seemed agitated and uncertain and finally yielded, helping Grete with all her energy to push the chest of drawers out of the room.
    Now, Gregor could do without the chest of drawers if need be, but the writing desk really had to stay. And scarcely had the women left the room with the chest of drawers, groaning as they