Bedside Manor
by Hilary Leichter
She is asleep on the couch for hundreds of years. Her hair grows long and into the cushions. Once, the couch was mid-century modern, but the century has since changed.
Despite her enchantment, life goes on. The room is rearranged every year or so, a new lamp, a reading nook, a rug, a chandelier. A chair that everyone hates. The castle has no place to put the big television, and so it goes across from her couch. Every night the royal family huddles around her sleeping form to watch their favorite programs. There are popcorn kernels in her collared shirt that outlast her brothers and sisters. Her ancestors die and her predecessors proceed.
The rules of the enchantment are muddled as the years progress. Can she hear us? Is she frozen, or unconscious? Can we move her? Can we pass gas in her presence, and then blame it on her? She does not age, her face preserved in a wrinkle-free rest. Eternal youth! Her granddaughters moan. Well yes, but no.
The castle is a tourist attraction for the town; tours cascade through the halls. Cameras are permitted, but no flash allowed near the sleeping princess. A tour guide becomes famous for his expert retelling of history, and eventually writes a fictional book about the castle, its many mysteries. The book is the first in a series of novels beloved by children. Eventually, the tour guide dies, and a room of children who grew up reading his books continues the task of writing the next installments in the series.
When she wakes, the room is dark and the castle is asleep. A purple shadow extends across the floor, saturating a perfect wafer of window. She considers going to the bedroom, but no, the couch is so comfortable. She rolls over and closes her eyes again. In her dream, the sun was close to the ground and she was queen.
Hilary Leichter is the author of the novel TEMPORARY, which was shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and is longlisted for the Pen/Hemingway Award. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, n+1, Harper's, Conjunctions, and The New Yorker. She teaches at Columbia University.
