Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Yeah, I know it's just awful. I rang her this morning and she was fine. This af-
ternoon she passed away. Now they are digging her grave,' he said. He shook his
head sorrowfully.
Eventually, we came to a teller machine. It was enclosed in a special room that
could only be opened with a swipe of a card.
My mind raced. Sergei glared impatiently through the glass door. I knew that
the card wouldn't work. It dawned on me that if I typed an incorrect
PIN
number it
would cause the machine to eat the card. To my dismay the card was spat straight
back out. 'Card expired, call your bank' read the message on the screen.
I eyed the disposal slot, but the card was too thick. 'All right then, it looks like
you are going into the receipt slot,' I muttered. Frantically, I pushed the card into
the slot.
'Tim what are you doing in there? Where is the money?' shouted Sergei,
banging on the glass. Halfway in, the card jammed. I pushed harder but it wouldn't
budge, and now it wouldn't come out either.
The banging came again. I pushed the card harder and it disappeared from sight.
Then I stepped through the door looking bewildered and upset. Under the circum-
stances it came pretty naturally. 'The machine ate my card!'
Sergei fell for it. Unfortunately, so did Chris. Before I knew it there was a
crackle over an intercom on the wall. 'What's the problem?' a voice enquired.
'Tim, tell the lady what happened!' Chris shouted, angrily.
'Chris, Chris, mate, it didn't really eat my card,' I whispered.
'The machine ate this man's card. What are you going to do about it?' Sergei
demanded.
Meanwhile, Chris stormed through the door and withdrew money with his own
card. When he emerged, Sergei grabbed the money, waved down a car and disap-
peared.
Chris and I walked back to the cabin, agreeing that we should leave the city as
soon as possible. We'd barely had time to reflect on the journey from Kirov, let
alone take in Perm and rest our bodies. Worst of all, we'd been hoodwinked out of
a substantial sum of money - more than the hotel would have cost. And we hadn't
even had a decent wash!
———
I felt jaded. How could someone spoil the perfect lifestyle we had been leading to
this point? For days, as we rode east, the image of Sergei's steely eyes was branded
