Gregor was covered with lots of little white spots which he didn't know what to make of; and when he tried to feel the place with one of his legs he drew it quickly back because as soon as he touched it he was overcome by a cold shudder. He slid back into his former position. "Getting up early all the time," he thought. "It makes you stupid. You've got to get some sleep. Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury."

For instance, whenever I go back to the guest house during the morning to copy out the contract, these gentlemen are always still sitting there eating their breakfasts. I ought to just try that with my boss; I'd get kicked out on the spot. But who knows, maybe that would be the best thing for me. If I didn't have my parents to think about I'd have given in my notice a long time ago, I'd have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would. He'd fall right off his desk! And it's a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing. Well, there's still some hope; once I've got the money together to pay off my parents' debts to him - another five or six years I suppose - that's definitely what I'll do. That's when I'll make the big change.

First of all though, I've got to get up, my train leaves at five. And he looked over at the alarm clock, ticking on the chest of drawers. "God in Heaven!" he thought. It was half past six and the hands were quietly moving forwards, it was even later than half past, more like quarter to seven. Had the alarm clock not rung? He could see from the bed that it had been set for four o'clock as it should have been; it certainly must have rung. Yes, but was it possible to quietly sleep through that furniture-rattling noise? True, he had not slept peacefully, but probably all the more deeply because of that. What should he do now?

The next train went at seven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and the collection of samples would not be told, and he felt not a bit well particularly. He felt much better lying in bed. Even if he did catch the train he would not avoid his boss's anger as the office assistant would have been there to see the five o'clock train go, he would have put in his report about Gregor's not being there a long time ago. The office assistant was the boss's man, spineless, with no understanding. What about if he reported sick? But that would be extremely strained and suspicious as in fifteen years of service Gregor had never once yet been ill. The boss himself would be sure to come with the doctor from the medical insurance company, accuse his parents of having a lazy son, and accept the doctor's recommendation not to make any claims as the doctor believed that no-one was ill but was just work-shy.

And what's more, would he have been entirely wrong in this case? Gregor did in fact, apart from excessive sleepiness after sleeping for so long, feel completely well and even felt much better for that effect. He was still hurriedly thinking all this through, unable to decide to get out of bed, when the clock struck quarter to seven. There was a cautious knock at the door near his head. "Gregor," somebody called - it was his mother - "it's quarter to seven. Didn't you want to go somewhere?" That gentle voice! Gregor was shocked when he heard his own voice answering him.

It could hardly be recognised as the voice he had had before. As if from deep inside him, there was a painful and uncontrollable squeaking which in each of its words made it impossible to tell whether what was heard was a word or just the noise that he left, leaving the hearer unsure whether he had heard properly or not. Gregor had wanted to give a full answer and explain everything, but in the circumstances contented himself with saying: "Yes, mother, yes, thank-you, I'm getting up now." The change in Gregor's voice probably could not be noticed outside, through the door, perhaps his mother who was the closest of all the other members of the family aware that Gregor, against their expectations was still at home, and soon his father came knocking at one of the back doors, gently, but with his fist.

"Gregor, Gregor," he called, "what's wrong?" And after a short while he called again with a warning deepness in his voice: "Gregor! Gregor!" At the other side door his sister came plaintively: "Gregor? Aren't you well? Do you need anything?" Gregor answered to both sides: "I'm getting ready now." He made an effort to speak as clearly as possible and enunciating very carefully and putting long pauses between each, individual word. His father went back to his breakfast, but his sister whispered: "Gregor, open the door, I beg of you." Gregor, however, had no thought of opening the door, and instead congratulated himself for his cautious habit, acquired from his travels, of locking all doors during the night even when he was at home.

The first thing he wanted to do was to get up in peace without being disturbed, to get dressed, and most of all to have his breakfast. Only then would he consider what to do next, as he was well aware that he would not come to any sensible conclusions by lying in bed. He remembered that he had often felt a slight pain in bed, perhaps caused by lying awkwardly, but that had always turned out to be pure imagination when he got up, so he was especially eager to see how today's fantasies would gradually resolve themselves. That this change in his voice was nothing more than the precursor of a severe cold, which was an occupational hazard for travelling salesmen, is something of which he had not the slightest doubt, and it was very easy for him to get rid of; they fell off by themselves. But it became difficult after that, especially as he was so exceptionally broad. He moved have used his arms and legs to turn himself up; but instead of the arms and legs there were only numerous small, twitching legs, which he was moreover unable to control. If he wanted to bend one of them it bent the first one that moved around itself in circles and when he finally managed to do what he wanted with that leg, all the others seemed to be set free and would move about painfully. "This is something that can't be done in bed," Gregor said to himself.

So he tried to get the top part of his body out of bed first, but this part of his body of the bed, but he had never seen this lower part, and could not imagine what it looked like; it turned out to be too hard to move. It went so slowly; and finally, almost in a fury, he gathered his strength together and shoved himself forward without any direction, and it hard against the lower bedpost, and learned from the pain that the the lower part of his body might well, at present, be the most sensitive. So he tried to get the top part of his body out of the bed first, slowly turning his head to the side. This he managed quite easily, and despite its breadth and its weight, the bulk of his body eventually followed slowly in the direction of the head. But when he had at last got his head out from the end of the bed into the free air, but it that if he let himself fall it would be a miracle if his head were not injured, so he became afraid to carry on pushing himself forward the same way. And he could not knock himself unconscious as that would be the best thing for him. He would have to make an extraordinary effort to get back to where he had been earlier, but when he lay there sighing, and was once watching, he saw to his extraordinary amazement there was nothing whatever and was astir? In that way it was possible, he could think of no way of bringing peace and quiet to this chaos.

He told himself once more that it was not possible for him to stay in bed and that the most sensible thing to do would be to get free of it in whatever way he could do whatever cost. At the same time, though, he did not forget to remind himself that calm, careful consideration was much better than desperate resolutions. At times like this he would direct his eyes to the window and look out as clearly as he could, but unfortunately, even the other side of the narrow street was overshadowed from view by the monotonous grey building opposite; he could see rain drops, too, splashing from the eaves, but when he looked at himself when the clock struck again, "seven o'clock, and there's still a fog like this." And he lay there quietly a while longer, breathing lightly as if he perhaps expected the total stillness to bring things back to their real and natural state. But then he said to himself, "Before it strikes quarter past seven I'll definitely have to have left properly out of bed. Anyway, by then someone will have come round from work to ask what's happened to me as well, as they have to go at work before seven o'clock." And so he set himself to rock his whole body out of the bed all at the same time. If he succeeded in falling out of bed in this way and kept his head raised as he did so he could probably avoid injuring it. His back seemed to be quite hard, and probably nothing would happen to it falling onto the carpet. His main concern was for the loud noise his head would surely make when it fell. They would not be startled by it, there would be fear, but it was something that had to be risked. When Gregor was already sticking half way out of the bed, the new method was more of a game than an effort, at he had to do was rock back and forward in small movements, he was astonished at what a deep voice he had. It hardly be frightened.

Next thing, people, he had his father and the maid in mind, would have been more than enough, they would only have to push their arms under the curve of his back, peel him away from the bed, bend down with the load and then be patient and careful as he swung over onto the floor, where, hopefully, the little legs would find a use. Should he really call for help, though, quite apart from the fact that all this would be highly embarrassing? It would mean that eleven people would come running and they could not suppress a smile at this thought. After a while he had already moved so far across that it would have been hard for him to keep his balance if he rocked too hard. The time was now ten past seven and he had not made nearly as much progress as he rocked too hard.