My Life with Nanaimo

by Mike the Red

A Very Unpleasant Discovery

I got dressed in my work clothes, despite Nanaimo's repeated insistence that I stay with her. I begged her to wait for me, I told her I would try to return as swiftly as I could, but time had run out for me and I had to leave for work. I kissed her several times to let her know I loved her and that I would try to be back as soon as I could. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind as I locked my apartment door behind me and headed out to my car to head to work. Before I had even reached the door to the outside, I heard her whimpering inside my apartment. I went back in and comforted her for a few moments, holding her close, hugging her, and kissing her on her lips.

"Please don't leave me here by myself," she pleaded, tears starting to well up in the corners of her eyes. I hugged her a little tighter.

"Okay, you can come with me, but try to be quiet, my coworkers might not understand," I said softly. Her mood brightened at this and she hugged me back as tightly as I hugged her.

"Yay!" she chirped and pranced on her hooves.

"Just be careful, okay?" I asked, motioning her to follow me. I locked the door behind us and led her to my car. She was somewhat apprehensive about getting in, but I was able to gently guide her into the passenger seat. My touch seemed to calm her down as I fastened the seat belt across her body. Her tail folded under her and between her hind legs -- and I forced myself to look away from her lower section, as distracting as it was. I got into the driver's seat and started up my car, then headed off to work. Nanaimo took in the sight of everything, marveling at everything, and talking nonstop, asking questions about everything. After about ten minutes, we made it to my jobsite. I helped her out of the car and cautioned her against speaking, as my coworkers might not be able to comprehend the concept of a talking pony.

My jobsite has a secure entry system and a keyfob was issued to every employee who works there. I readied my fob and was surprised to see the little LED turn red instead of green. Out of curiosity, I knocked on the door and was greeted by my supervisor, but the expression on his face puzzled me. He held the door open long enough for me to enter, along with Nanaimo.

"Excuse me, Jim, I was wondering why my fob didn't work," I stated, my state of bewilderment evident in my tone. It appeared he didn't hear me, nor did he acknowledge my presence (or that of my pony companion, either). I turned to Nanaimo at this point. "I don't know what's going on, he usually greets me warmly when I get here," I said softly. It was when I tried to clock in that I noticed something very peculiar was going on. The timeclock was set up using biometric data, but it was not recognizing my attempt to clock in. I noticed Jim had closed the front door to our building and was heading back to his office.

"Hey, Jim, what's going on? I can't clock in," I asked as he walked right past me without even acknowledging my presence. I followed him into the office, Nanaimo trailing me fairly close. A couple of my coworkers were chatting amiably with Jim, but when the subject of my status came up, I was shocked to hear that I had been replaced with a new worker. I tried to get the attention of the other guys but no one heard what I said, nor did they even acknowledge the existence of my pony companion.

They then went out into the main area of my worksite and I followed them to try to see if I could talk to anyone else who was there -- I had about fifteen coworkers, most of whom I was on good speaking terms with, but a couple I tried to avoid. I wandered all over the place, Nanaimo trotting behind me fairly closely, but no one made eye contact with me, and none of my coworkers even noticed the pony who was with me. After about fifteen minutes of this and listening to some of the conversations they were having did it finally occur to me what had happened.

I had died in my apartment the night Nanaimo was brought to life. I was dead and I didn't even realize it. I turned to Nanaimo and picked her up, hugging her tightly to me as tears streamed down my face. It didn't matter if my coworkers saw or heard me at this point, the fact that I had just now discovered I had died made me very sad. Nanaimo hugged me back, holding her head close to mine.

"I think it's time for us to leave," I said softly as I regained my composure. "I don't know how long we'll be able to stay in my apartment, but we will have to stay together," I noted softly. She smiled at me, a few tears trickling down her cheeks as well.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered to me, hugging me tightly. She gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I glanced around to see if any of my coworkers were paying attention to us. Truth be told, Nanaimo and I might just as well have been on the moon, no one paid us any mind. I took that as my cue to leave.

"Come on, Nanaimo, there's nothing more for us to do here," I announced. I noticed one of the other doors to the building was open, so I urged the pony to follow me back to the car. She followed me silently, but once out of the building she asked a lot of questions. I helped her into the car again, answering her questions as best I could. I couldn't understand why I was able to drive to work or anywhere else, but being dead made me also question whether or not the pony was also a figment of my imagination. I deduced that since none of my coworkers paid either of us any attention, the pony was most likely an artificial construct my mind had created to cope with actually being dead.