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Dann aber war er wieder gar nicht in der Laune, sich um seine Familie zu sorgen, bloß Wut
über die schlechte Wartung erfüllte ihn, und trotzdem er sich nichts vorstellen konnte,
worauf er Appetit gehabt hätte, machte er doch Pläne, wie er in die Speisekammer gelangen
könnte, um dort zu nehmen, was ihm, auch wenn er keinen Hunger hatte, immerhin gebührte.
Ohne jetzt mehr nachzudenken, womit man Gregor einen besonderen Gefallen machen könnte,
schob die Schwester eiligst, ehe sie morgens und mittags ins Geschäft lief, mit dem Fuß
irgendeine beliebige Speise in Gregors Zimmer hinein, um sie am Abend, gleichgültig dagegen,
ob die Speise vielleicht nur verkostet oder - der häufigste Fall - gänzlich unberührt war,
mit einem Schwenken des Besens hinauszukehren. Das Aufräumen des Zimmers, das sie nun immer
abends besorgte, konnte gar nicht mehr schneller getan sein. Schmutzstreifen zogen sich die
Wände entlang, hie und da lagen Knäuel von Staub und Unrat. In der ersten Zeit stellte sich
Gregor bei der Ankunft der Schwester in derartige besonders bezeichnende Winkel, um ihr
durch diese Stellung gewissermaßen einen Vorwurf zu machen. Aber er hätte wohl wochenlang
dort bleiben können, ohne daß sich die Schwester gebessert hätte; sie sah ja den Schmutz
genau so wie er, aber sie hatte sich eben entschlossen, ihn zu lassen. |
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Other times he was not at all in the mood to look after his family, he was filled with simple rage about the lack of attention he was shown, and although he could think of nothing he would have wanted, he made plans of how he could get into the pantry where he could take all the things he was entitled to, even if he was not hungry. Gregor's sister no longer thought about how she could please him but would hurriedly push some food or other into his room with her foot before she rushed out to work in the morning and at midday, and in the evening she would sweep it away again with the broom, indifferent as to whether it had been eaten or - more often than not - had been left totally untouched. She still cleared up the room in the evening, but now she could not have been any quicker about it. Smears of dirt were left on the walls, here and there were little balls of dust and filth. At first, Gregor went into one of the worst of these places when his sister arrived as a reproach to her, but he could have stayed there for weeks without his sister doing anything about it; she could see the dirt as well as he could but she had simply decided to leave him to it. At the same time she became touchy in a way that was quite new for her and which everyone in the family understood - cleaning up Gregor's room was for her and her alone. |
