strong draught of air flew in from the street towards the
stairway, the curtains flew up, the newspapers on the
table fluttered and some of them were blown onto the
floor. Nothing would stop Gregor's father as he drove
him back, making hissing noises at him like a wild man.
Gregor had never had any practice in moving backwards
and was only able to go very slowly. If Gregor had only
been allowed to turn round he would have been back in
his room straight away, but he was afraid that if he took
the time to do that his father would become impatient,
and there was the threat of a lethal blow to his back or
head from the stick in his father's hand any moment.
Eventually, though, Gregor realised that he had no choice
as he saw, to his disgust, that he was quite incapable of
going backwards in a straight line; so he began, as
quickly as possible and with frequent anxious glances at
his father, to turn himself round. It went very slowly, but
perhaps his father was able to see his good intentions as
he did nothing to hinder him, in fact now and then he
used the tip of his stick to give directions from a distance
as to which way to turn. If only his father would stop
that unbearable hissing! It was making Gregor quite
confused. When he had nearly finished turning round,
still listening to that hissing, he made a mistake and
turned himself back a little the way he had just come. He
was pleased when he finally had his head in front of the
doorway, but then saw that it was too narrow, and his
body was too broad to get through it without further
difficulty. In his present mood, it obviously did not occur
to his father to open the other of the double doors so that
Gregor would have enough space to get through. He was
merely fixed on the idea that Gregor should be got back
into his room as quickly as possible. Nor would he ever
have allowed Gregor the time to get himself upright as preparation for getting through the doorway. What he
did, making more noise than ever, was to drive Gregor
forwards all the harder as if there had been nothing in
the way; it sounded to Gregor as if there was now more
than one father behind him; it was not a pleasant
experience, and Gregor pushed himself into the doorway
without regard for what might happen. One side of his
body lifted itself, he lay at an angle in the doorway, one
flank scraped on the white door and was painfully
injured, leaving vile brown flecks on it, soon he was
stuck fast and would not have been able to move at all by
himself, the little legs along one side hung quivering in
the air while those on the other side were pressed
painfully against the ground. Then his father gave him a
hefty shove from behind which released him from where
he was held and sent him flying, and heavily bleeding,
deep into his room. The door was slammed shut with the
stick, then, finally, all was quiet.
