Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven

When he arrived at school, he was shivering with cold, it was already very dark, and the candles in the two lanterns had been lit; the assistants were already familiar with the way here, and under their guidance, he groped into a classroom . "This is your first creditable service," he said, recalling Crumb's letter.From the corner of the room Frieda cried drowsily: "Put K to bed! Don't disturb him!" Although she was too tired to sit and wait for his return, she was still thinking only of K.Now I got a lamp, but I couldn't turn it on very brightly, because there was only a little paraffin oil left.There are still not many daily utensils in the new house.True, there was a fire in the room, but it was a large room, sometimes used as a gymnasium—there were sports machines all around and hanging from the ceiling—and the supply of firewood was all gone, too, K. I am convinced that it was once warm and comfortable here, but unfortunately, it has become terribly cold now.In one of the technical sheds there was a large pile of wood, but the door of the lean-to was locked; the key was with the teacher; and he was only allowed to use the wood for the fire during class hours.If there were a few beds that could barely fit in, the room might be able to get by.But in that respect there was nothing but a mattress stuffed with straw and on top of it one of Frieda's neat woolen blankets, no eiderdowns, just two pairs that would have been impossible to keep out of the cold. thick, hard blanket.But the two assistants stared greedily at the straw mattress, and naturally they had no hope of sleeping on it.Frieda looked at K. anxiously; she knew how to make a room, even the most rudimentary, habitable, and she had shown her skills at the Bridgehead Inn, but here there was nothing she could do. . "These fancy exercise machines are our only decorations," she said with a forced laugh through tears.But she firmly promised to get help tomorrow to solve the big problem of lack of bedding and fuel, and begged K. to be patient until then.She had not a word, not a hint or a gesture, which would have made it seem that she harbored the slightest hatred in her heart against K., but K. remembered that he had dragged her out of the Herrenhof Hotel and now from the Bridgehead Inn. Come here, but I have to feel guilty in my heart.Therefore, in order to repay her affection, K. did his best to see everything as tolerable. This was indeed not difficult for him, because he was still repeating his message to Barnabas word for word. , as if he was not delivering the message to Barnabas, but as if he was imagining it to Klamm in person.Besides, the coffee that Frieda made him over the spirit lamp gave him heartfelt pleasure. Leaning on the almost cold stove, he watched her spread the indispensable white tablecloth on the teacher's table, and took He brought out a carved glass, then bread and sausages, and even a tin of sardines.Her movements are quick and skilled.Everything was ready now; Frieda hadn't had dinner either, she was waiting for K. to come back and eat with her.There were only two chairs, and K. and Frieda sat down at the table, and the two assistants had to squat on the podium to eat, but they were never quiet, and even while eating they were still mischievous.They had had enough and hadn't finished eating, but they got up from time to time to see what was left on the table, and to hope for something; He didn't pay attention to them until Da laughed at them.He tenderly put his hand on Frieda's and asked in a low voice why she was so pampering and even polite to their mischief.With this attitude you can never try to get rid of them, only by maintaining a certain degree of severity with them (which is also determined by their behavior) can you restrain them, or more likely, and more appropriately, It can prompt them to feel that their situation is so embarrassing that they run away.This school doesn't look like a safe place to live in, well, not for long anyway; but if the assistants are gone and the two of them quietly occupy the room, they won't notice So much was lacking; now that the assistants were getting more and more insolent every day, as if they were encouraged by Frieda's presence, and hoped that K. would not treat them as harshly as he did on other occasions, wouldn't that be true? Did she not notice at all?Besides, there were probably quite a few straight-forward ways to get rid of them at once, and Frieda, who knew everything, probably knew them herself.All things considered, it was only a matter of doing them little good to get rid of them, for they could do little good by staying here, and besides, the idle life they had hitherto enjoyed would have to come to an end, no matter what. Well, something must be changed, because Frieda herself needs to rest after the tense days, and he, K. himself, is busy looking for a way out of the current predicament, so they have to work hard. .Still, he would feel relieved if they were gone, and he would surely be able to take on all the school work with ease, among other tasks.

Frieda, who had been listening attentively, patted him on the arm, said that he had exactly the same opinion as she did, but perhaps he took the naughtiness of the assistants too seriously; they were only children, Having just been liberated from the strict discipline of the castle, they are full of energy and a little silly, and now they are doing this kind of strange job for the first time, so it is inevitable that they will be a little dizzy; in this case, they will naturally have a lot of trouble A joke, which is naturally irritating, but it is wiser to laugh it off.Often she herself could not help laughing.Nevertheless, she absolutely agreed with K. that it would be better to send the two assistants away and let them live on their own, just the two of them.She cuddled K. even closer and pressed her face on his shoulder.At this moment, she said something in a low voice, so low that K. had to bow his head to listen to her. She said that she didn't know how to deal with the two assistants, and she was afraid that the measures K. had just proposed might not work. Solve the problem.As far as she knew, K. had asked for the two assistants himself, and that was why he had them now, and he had to keep them.It's best to treat them as a joke, which is what they are; and that's the best way to deal with them.

Displeased by her answer, K. replied half-truthfully that she seemed to be really allied with them, or at least to be on their side.Well, they were all good-looking young men, but as long as there was determination, no one was invincible, so he was willing to show her a hand in dealing with these two assistants. Frieda said she would be very grateful if he could do it.From now on, she will never laugh and laugh with them, or say anything irrelevant to them.Besides, she couldn't find anything funny now, indeed, it wasn't funny to be constantly watched by two men, and she had already learned to see them through K's eyes.At this time, the two assistants stood up again, half looking at the food left on the table, half trying to figure out what they were whispering, at this moment Frieda was really a little afraid of them .

K. took advantage of this incident to deepen Frieda's dislike for the two assistants, drew Frieda to him, and finished the dinner side by side.It was time to go to bed, for they were all very sleepy; one assistant fell asleep while eating his supper; this cheered the other up, who was trying to tell others to see his companion's idiot. Leng Leng face, but he did not succeed. K. and Frieda sat there and paid no attention to him.It was getting colder and colder now, and they went to bed shivering; at last K. said that the room must be lit, otherwise it would be impossible to sleep.He looked around to see if he could find an ax or something.The helpers knew there was an ax and went to fetch it, so they now went to the lean-to where the wood was kept.In a few minutes, the thin wooden door was smashed open; the two assistants seemed to have never had such an honorable errand, and they started to move the firewood into the classroom, pushing and chasing each other. and soon a great pile of wood was brought in, and the fire was lighted, and everybody lay down round it, and the helpers were given a blanket, in which they wrapped themselves--they had a blanket which was very Enough, and it was stipulated that one of the two of them must be awake to add wood to the stove - so, after a while, it was too hot to cover the stove, the lamp was blown out, and K. and Frieda were warming. Blissfully stretched out in the silence and fell asleep.

In the middle of the night K. was awakened by a noise.In his drowsiness, he first stretched out his hand to feel for Frieda, but found that it was not Frieda who was sleeping next to him, but one of his assistants.It may be because the sudden awakening from sleep had already made him extremely nervous, and this time he was even more frightened out of his wits. It can be said that he had never been so surprised since he entered the village.He yelled and sat up, and slapped the assistant thoughtlessly, causing him to cry immediately.But the whole thing became clear in a moment.It turned out that Frieda had been woken up by something—or so she felt,—and a large animal, probably a cat, had jumped on her chest and then slipped away.She got up, lit a candle, and searched for the thing all over the room.One of the assistants seized the opportunity to climb up on the straw mattress and enjoy it, a mistake he now regrets.But Frieda found nothing; perhaps it was just an illusion, and she went back to K., past the curled up and whimpering assistant, and comforted him by stroking his hair, as if she had Forget what I said last night. K. said nothing, but told the assistant not to put more wood on the fire, because the huge pile of wood was almost gone and the room was already hot enough.