Page 24 - the-metamorphosis

noticed to his joy, and strove to carry him forward in the
direction he wanted. Right away he believed that the final
amelioration of all his suffering was immediately at hand.
But at the very moment when he lay on the floor rocking in
a restrained manner quite close and directly across from his
mother (apparently totally sunk into herself) she suddenly
sprang right up with her arms spread far apart and her fin-
gers extended and cried out, ‘Help, for God’s sake, help!’ She
held her head bowed down, as if she wanted to view Gregor
better, but ran senselessly back, contradicting that gesture,
forgetting that behind her stood the table with all the dishes
on it. When she reached the table, she sat down heavily on
it, as if absent-mindedly, and did not appear to notice at all
that next to her coffee was pouring out onto the carpet in a
full stream from the large overturned container.
‘Mother, mother,’ said Gregor quietly, and looked over
towards her. The manager momentarily had disappeared
completely from his mind; by contrast, at the sight of the
flowing coffee he couldn’t stop himself snapping his jaws
in the air a few times . At that his mother screamed all over
again, hurried from the table, and collapsed into the arms of
his father, who was rushing towards her. But Gregor had no
time right now for his parents: the manager was already on
the staircase. His chin level with the banister, the manager
looked back for the last time. Gregor took an initial move-
ment to catch up to him if possible. But the manager must
have suspected something, because he made a leap down
over a few stairs and disappeared, still shouting ‘Huh!’ The
sound echoed throughout the entire stairwell.