I picked the wrong ATM Card.

I don't know why banks do not take one's expired card while giving a new one. I have lots of expired ATM cards with me which are stored somewhere. Why do we keep renewing cards then if they wouldn't be collecting the old ones from us? Perhaps they don't want thrash in their banks, who knows?

I was urgently in need of cash to get some foodstuffs on this faithful day as I was starving. I caused it myself too because, when I needed to prepare my meals, I didn't. There is something about me and one would have to think well before coming to stay with me except you are the kind that cooks every time; cooking isn't something I like doing except I am in the mood. Don't get me wrong! I love cooking but I find it lazy to cook food I would eat, not until those little creatures start disturbing my stomach, grumbling and demanding for food. That is when I drag my legs to the little space I gave as my kitchen and by this time, I would find something light to make quickly before the big meal is ready.

I felt reluctant to go to the market across the road at first but when the hunger dealt with me, I do not know when I carried my body out to get whatever I needed. I picked up my black purse and dipped my hands to where my ATM card was without looking in that direction as there was a different space for my old and new card. I locked my door and on a normal day, I would have gone with my phone in case something came up but I didn't as I thought, "Who would call me or what do I want to do with it since I am not going far?"

I dashed out and after walking past over 10 shops, I found a POS space and extended my hand to give the lady my card while I told her the amount I would be withdrawing. There was an old man beside me who wanted to withdraw too, I minded my business and expected her to release my card and money. Some seconds later, she said, "Sis, it's saying insufficient funds." Insufficient what? Money that I just transferred there some minutes ago and even got an alert. She tried it thrice, we both were fooling ourselves. After the third attempt, she wanted to clean the card as they did thinking something must be wrong with it, her eyes went to the date and saw 2017 (one of the expired cards) instead of 2027 when it was supposed to expire.😂😂

"Sister, your card has expired na"..her face had changed as if I purposely gave her the wrong card just to fool her. My eyes opened in shock and the hunger in me grew to another level because I already knew what I was in for that day. The old man who didn't speak to me all along laughed at our silliness because he was watching the whole drama. I smiled too while trying to cover how angry I was and not wanting to let them know I was hurt. I collected my card and did a U-turn back home. It would have been good if I had taken my phone so I could do the transfer while saving myself from coming back here. That place was too far for me to go back again.

I got home and drank a lot of water, prepared some garri (cassava flakes) with groundnut and slept, with the plan that once I woke up, I would find a solution to my problem 🙃 😃 It was hunger that woke me back up at exactly an hour and I remembered would have to go out to withdraw some cash, fortunately, a neighbour came asking if I needed cash so I could transfer to someone else. I collected the money and did the transfer, bought some ingredients for my food around the environs and cooked my meal.

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