Malingering

On Monday, my back twinged when I went to exercise. I have a recumbent bike, so exercise puts very little stress on my back. I went through my usual "40 min of exercise bike", with my back grumbling at me.  Tuesday night, it was back to normal and I exercised as usual.

I didn't think about it again until Wednesday night, when I went downstairs. As I connected my iPod to the speakers:

Back: "Ow!"
Me: "What? You were fine all day."
Back: "*whine* I hurt now.  You should skip exercise."
Me: "So walking to and from work, up and down stairs at work, and sitting for several hours is all fine, but ... what ... you were thrown out by plugging in an iPod?"
Back: *whimper* "I'm stll weak from Monday!"
Me: "We didn't do anything unusual Monday either! And, hey, it was my other side that hurt on Monday."
Back: "Oops, was it?  Oh I mean, owwwww nooooo don't exercise."
Me: "Shut up. Big baby." *starts exercising*
Back: *pouts, whines vaguely, finally gives up and admits it's fine*