I’m just getting out of bed. Please be patient a moment! I’m not as well as I thought. But really I’m all right. These things can just wipe you out so suddenly. Only last night I felt fine, my parents can tell you, or actually last night I already had some sign of it. They must have noticed it. Oh, why did I not report it at the office! But one always thinks that one will overcome an illness without staying home. Sir, please spare my parents! There are no grounds to the accusations you’ve just made against me, no one has said so much as a word about them to me. Perhaps you haven’t seen the latest orders I sent in. In any event, I will be on the eight o’clock train. I’ve been invigorated by these few hours of rest. Don’t let me keep you further, sir, I’ll be in the office myself immediately. Please be good enough to tell them and convey my respects to the Chief!”

And while Gregor blurted all this out, hardly knowing what he said, he had easily, probably due to the exercise he had had in bed, reached the bureau and was now trying to pull himself upright against it. He actually wanted to open the door, to actually show himself and speak to the head clerk; he was eager to find out what the others, who so desired to see him now, would say at the sight of him. If they were shocked, then Gregor was no longer responsible and could be calm. But if they accepted everything calmly, then he too had no reason to get worked up and could, if he rushed, actually be at the train station by eight o’clock. At first he kept sliding off the smooth bureau but finally gave himself a last powerful push and stood upright; he no longer paid attention to the pains in his lower abdomen, however burning. He then let himself fall against the back of a nearby chair, his little legs clinging to the edges. In this way he also managed to gain control of himself and fell silent, as he could now listen to the head clerk.

“Did you understand even a word?” the head clerk asked the parents. “He isn’t making fools of us?” “For God’s sake,” cried the mother, already weeping, “maybe he is seriously ill and we’re tormenting him. Grete! Grete!” she then screamed. “Mother?” called the sister from the other side. They were communicating across Gregor’s room. “You must go for the doctor immediately. Gregor is sick. Run for the doctor. Did you just hear Gregor speak?” “That was the voice of an animal,” said the head clerk, in a noticeably low tone compared to the mother’s shrieking. “Anna! Anna!” yelled the father through the foyer to the kitchen, clapping his hands, “go get a locksmith at once!” And already the two girls were running through the foyer with a rustling of skirts—how had the sister dressed so quickly?—and throwing open the house door. The door could not be heard closing; they must have left it open as is usual in houses visited by great misfortune.3

Gregor had become much calmer however. Apparently his words were no longer understandable even though they were clear enough to him, clearer than before, perhaps because his ear had become accustomed to their sound.