The Second Chance

The Second Chance

On a day like most others, Gregor Samsa awakes in a cold sweat. The weight of his job looms over him, growing harder and harder to stand each day. Gregor cannot quit this job though you see, he has to work off parent’s debt which is no small task and could take half a decade. As Gregor steps out of bed he dreads the upcoming day and the fact that he will be late for work once again. A slight shiver rolls over his body and it seems to last forever. Gregor’s mother suddenly yells to hurry and get to work or else his boss was going to show up to their house again. It wasn’t an everyday occurrence for his boss to pay him a visit and Gregor knew that his job was becoming more and more in danger. The mother yells once more to Gregor but as he answers back, his answer doesn’t seem to suffice and almost immediately his mother is at the door trying to unlock it. Gregor’s Sister Grete pleads for Gregor to open the door and he finally gets up, but as his reaches to grab the door knob the door bursts open almost knocking Gregor over. He angrily asks his mother, “What were you thinking!” With a blank stare on her face, his mother slowly falls backwards and faints. Grete Immediately slams the door and runs to the kitchen. Gregor steps over his mother and chases Grete into the kitchen where she was crying with her and Gregor’s father. Gregor is filled with a deep sadness and retreats back to his room. Sitting in his rocking chair Gregor wonders what he had done to make his family and especially his sister so upset; he begins to fade and eventually falls asleep wondering if it is because of his job. When Gregor wakes he almost knows for a fact that he has no job by now and his sickly parents would be put through too much stress. Gregor works up the courage to talk to his mother and father and walks to the kitchen. The whole family is gathered around the table and as Gregor begins to speak, there is a knock on the door and his father walks right toward Gregor and to the door. The interesting detail about this is that Gregor was standing directly in front of the door and his father actually went through him. Gregor gets that cold shiver once again and tries to grasp what has happened. He looks at his father and yells, “what is happening?” but his father ignores the question and opens the front door. Gregor’s boss was at the door and he shook Gregor’s father’s hand as he came in the door. He had a grim look on his face and Gregor knew this was about his job, but his boss had something else on his mind. He turned to address the whole family and spoke, “I know Gregor and I were not best of friends and I had always been on case, but it’s because I thought he has such great potential. Now I guess we will never know …” Gregor tried to cut off his boss and yelled out “please give me another chance, I will work harder than ever!” but no one seemed to hear poor Gregor and his boss continued, “My prayers are with your family, and I am sorry to hear about Gregor, may he rest in peace.” The family all thanked Gregor’s boss for what he said. Gregor was sitting in a chair now, thinking to himself, “how could I be dead, what did I do to deserve this, I cannot be dead.” But the sad truth began to sink in for Gregor, his family couldn’t see him, hear him, or feel him. He was a ghost in his own home, with not a clue of where to go from here. Gregor had trouble accepting his fate for the first week of his ghostly life, but he learned how to cope with this reality after a while. Gregor passed his time by watching his family grow. His parents were forced to find jobs and their sickly nature faded away slowly and they transformed over the course of months and months into the handsome hardworking people from early in Gregor’s life. The debts slowly started to dwindle down and Gregor could smile and feel the pride that his family had been missing for a while. Grete, inspired by Gregor, works hard on poetry and writing and becomes quite good. Gregor thinks to himself, “it may have taken me dying, but my family is finally prospering and I would not take back my death.” Gregor is filled with peace and as he lies down he knows this will be his last night in his house, his last night of watching his family get their second wind, their second chance. Gregor lies down knowing that he was just lucky to see his family after death. His mind slows, his eyes close.