A Moment Of Senility

Went to the ATM at the bank this morning to withdraw some cash. Or at least that was the intention. But as I was in a frantic rush, I didn't bother reading everything on the screen until I realised that my withdrawal has exceeded my balance.

Under normal circumstances, the ATM card is spat out first before the money. In this case, the ATM card did come out, but no money came. I was too caught up with the "exceeded my balance" issue that I completely shut out other thoughts and action.

The screen then read, "Please remove your ATM card" before it turned back to the introduction screen. I stood there still waiting for my ATM card (because in actual fact I was waiting for my money that would never come at that point), and waited and waited. I thought it must be stuck. I randomly pushed whatever buttons my fingers could find. Still to no avail.

Then I rushed in in an annoyed mood, and told them the ATM swallowed my card. The girl behind the counter asked if my card was "captured" - denoting that my card was faulty, which the machine would usually withhold the card. But I smugly  told her that the machine asked me to "remove my card". So she went to the back.

Four minutes later, two guys lazily strolled out and I scolded them in my head that they looked so demotivated and were even looking at the television as they listlessly walked over. They opened up the machine and couldn't find my card.

Then my heart skipped a beat. I reached in to my pocket and pulled out my wallet. Lo and behold, the blasted ATM card was sitting there comfortably in the sleeve. I pretended an exclamation, made some sincere apologies and quickly went back into my car.