The Figure

In bed, K. lay wide-eyed. Sleep would not accompany him. The sheets were becoming more and more entangled as thoughts twisted and turned within his mind. The bed slowly became harder than a rock. K. decided to focus on silence. The more he concentrated on silence, the louder the voices and laughter had become. He gripped his hair until he couldn’t deal with what he understood to be flirtatious laughter any longer. He. jumped out of bed. He would knock politely on Fraulein Burstner’s door and ask them to kindly be quiet so that he could sleep. By doing this, he could be certain from the reply exactly who was in the room with Fraulein Burstner, as well as put an end to whatever was causing the laughter. As K. turned the handle of his door to exit his room, he realized that the voices had silenced.

K. opened the door in time to vaguely see a male figure slipping out of the entry way. The gentleman saw K. and tipped his hat. K. could not see the man’s face. With that, K. began to walk toward the front door. K. was infuriated and wanted to follow whomever this gentleman caller was. He took one step out the door and realized that it was now raining. His bedclothes became wet, and his feet felt as though they would surely freeze.

K. watched the man disappear into the rain. The male figure walked down the street. He appeared to be mocking K. with his confident strut. Just then, the figure was accompanied by what looked to be the old tom-cat K. had walked with earlier. As this figure put his hands to his ankles to attract the cat’s attention, K. noticed that the cat caressed the figure’s hands, jumping into his arms. Frustrated, K. returned to his bed. He knew he recognized the proportions of the body. The figure was somehow familiar to him. K. returned to his room, dried his feet, changed his bedclothes a final time, and went to bed. He pondered the familiarity of the figure until eight o-clock the next morning when he awoke for breakfast.