I went to take out money from the wall, and the wall swallowed my credit card. I stood there, completely puzzled and helpless and started to talk to the wall knowing that it wouldn’t do any good.::
“Wall oh wall, why? Why my credit card? Why not someone else’s credit card? Please. just spit it out again! Are credit cards the food you live on? Now, on holiday’s eve I need to buy all kinds of things, also New Year’s gifts for my friends…So, please return my credit card! What will you do with it anyway? It’s in my name, and you can’t go shopping with it!”
The wall was silent just like only a wall could be.
Back home in a murderous mood I called my bank and got Dalit, a nice young woman that I am friends with.
“It’s a credit card issued by your bank, I say to her, I am your bank’s client and I want it back! As soon as possible!”
Dalit’s voice was placating:
:This will take some time, she said, I don’t know how the Elisha handles the swallowed credit cards, and exactly after how much time they attend to it. The credit card will then go to the central office of Visa, they check the situation and then they decide to send it back to you!”
“When??? How??” What do I do when someone goes shopping with it in the meantime?
I don’t know those people! How can I trust them? This credit card is part of me and I want it back! Your bank should handle this!”
I would do so with pleasure, said Dalit, if I only could!’
“How long is this going to take?”
“A week maybe! Maybe more!”
“And this happens to me just before the holidays? I am a destitute person now! No money, no prospects of buying anything! I thought you were my friend!”
“Of course I am, of course I am, you are one of our nicest clients but there are rules and regulations and I am helpless in this case!”
Rules and regulations. Two words which can topple a whole world!
And then suddenly I remembered that I own another credit card, which actually I hadn’t wanted in first place, but a pleasant man kept on convincing me and talking to me until I got tired of listening to him and I said:
“OK, let me have it!”
So good! I have another credit card, but I need the code! Oh heck, I did write down the code somewhere, but where? I start to rummage among a thousand papers. A needle in a haystack. But see here, I finally find the warranty certificate for my washing machine, I had looked for it for many weeks! I search and search and find 3 old birthday cards I had a birthday in February, it’s hard for me to discard cards which are pretty! I also found a prescription for some pills which I never bought, also an invitation to a special sale from a cosmetics store which is dated 20th June, why did I keep it? And I find a shopping list which I had mislaid before going shopping, but ..no code for my credit card.
I am really and honestly upset and start talking sense to myself:
“See here, I say to myself, did you have a credit card 15 years ago? Or even 10 years ago? If they would have said the words ‘credit card’ would you have known what it was? At that time you had no reason to feel so badly deprived! You will survive somehow, and the lady from the bank said they are going to send it back! Yes, yes… but what happens if they loose it?
They may also forget all about it with the holiday coming and so…”
The man who owns the shoe store passes by and doesn’t say hello. Does he know that I have no credit card now?
What a bad beginning for a New Year!
Lucca