I dreamed Jon died. I mourned for two years. Then I saw an ad for an AI dream companion. It was like a life partner, only not real and only around while someone was dreaming. The idea was that if you had a partner while you were sleeping, you’d feel happier and more fulfilled while you were awake. Also, people were having dream sex with their companions. But that’s not why I wanted mine. I got the companion so they could bring me a baby zebra every night, one I could care for and play with.

My companion didn’t let me down. I had the baby zebra, and I was transformed. I loved the baby zebra. My dog, Lexi, loved the baby zebra. We’d see black-and-white stripes run past the windows at the beginning of a dream and know the baby zebra was in the yard. My waking life was beautiful because my sleeping life was all baby zebra, all the time.

One day, after another two years had passed, the doorbell rang. It was Jon.

I’m alive again, he said.

I didn’t ask why. It was just a fact. There he was, alive. I felt elated until I thought about losing the baby zebra.

I tried to hide the baby zebra from him at first, but he could tell I was different, happy. He took this personally. I finally told him about the AI companion and the baby zebra and how much Lexi and I loved and needed the baby zebra. The look of sadness on his face was beyond description. He was inconsolable, as was I. It was a feeling I hadn’t experienced since the baby zebra came into my life.

Maybe I can get you a baby zebra, he said, knowing he couldn’t.

Maybe you can, I said, knowing he couldn’t.