Like most schoolmates, I have a bus card and a meal card. They look so much alike as if they were two peas in a pod. My normal practice is to put the two cards in two different places, in order not to mix them up. At school, I store my bus card in the schoolbag and the meal card in my pocket. After school, their places are swapped.

One Saturday afternoon after school, I went to a bus shelter. A No 28 bus pulled in and I got on board. I took the card out of my pocket and swiped it across the reader. The reader did not respond. I frantically tried a couple more times, but still there did not come the familiar beep from the reader.

I was frustrated. The moment saw the driver amused, who said kindly, “Boy, that is not a bus card.” His words reminded me to shoot a glance at the plastic in my hand. Gosh, it was my meal card. How foolish I was! Promptly, I delved into the schoolbag and dug out the bus card.

The next day back at school, I went to the canteen to sup. When my order of beef noodles was filled, I took the card out of my pocket and swiped it across the scanner on the counter. No response. Gosh, what had gone wrong? All of a sudden, the bus scene popped up into my mind’s eye. Quickly I lowered my eyes and looked down at the card in my hand. It was my bus card. My meal card left behind in the classroom, I felt like giving myself a hard kick. Luckily, one of my friends, Jack, who was right there in the queue, came to my rescue.

The embarrassment I got myself into on the bus and at the canteen has made me change tactics with the cards. Now they are not separate from each other. Instead, they are on the same string, like two peas in a pod.