Page 45 - the-trial

windowed rooms where they also did the cooking. Many
women held babies in one arm and worked at the stove with
the other. Half grown girls, who seemed to be dressed in
just their pinafores worked hardest running to and fro. In
every room, the beds were still in use by people who were
ill, or still asleep, or people stretched out on them in their
clothes. K. knocked at the flats where the doors were closed
and asked whether Lanz the joiner lived there. It was usu-
ally a woman who opened the door, heard the enquiry and
turned to somebody in the room who would raise himself
from the bed. “The gentleman’s asking if a joiner called
Lanz, lives here.” “A joiner, called Lanz?” he would ask from
the bed.” “That’s right,” K. would say, although it was clear
that the investigating committee was not to be found there,
and so his task was at an end. There were many who thought
it must be very important for K. to find Lanz the joiner and
thought long about it, naming a joiner who was not called
Lanz or giving a name that had some vague similarity with
Lanz, or they asked neighbours or accompanied K. to a door
a long way away where they thought someone of that sort
might live in the back part of the building or where some-
one would be who could advise K. better than they could
themselves. K. eventually had to give up asking if he did
not want to be led all round from floor to floor in this way.
He regretted his initial plan, which had at first seemed so
practical to him. As he reached the fifth floor, he decided to
give up the search, took his leave of a friendly, young work-
er who wanted to lead him on still further and went down
the stairs. But then the thought of how much time he was

The Trial