" Good afternoon oh " " Good afternoon sir " The bank teller collected the withdrawal ticket he stretched forth towards her and checked the application needed to verify if he was indeed the one. Verifying that, she went ahead to attempt to debit his ticket but it bounced back because his account didn ' t have the amount he requested. " Are you expecting cash?" she asked. That was a stylish way of telling him he didn ' t have the cash in account. He nodded in the affirmative. She felt sorry for him not because of his balance because that was something she saw happen everyday, she only felt sorry because he looked like he really needed the cash. The smiling expression on his face turned straight as soon as she broke the news.
Few days later, he came again with the same ticket. She didn ' t bother verifying his signature and photograph as she was still yet to get over the other day ' s event. " Ekaasan sir " she greeted him in yoruba trying to be more friendly, he answered with a wide smile. " Did the person later send it?” she asked. " Beeni " he said. Relieved, she went ahead to attempt to debit again and it bounced back. " It seems the person hasn ' t sent it oh ", she informed him like the last time. He was braver this time as the smile slowly disappeared rather than disappearing suddenly. He left again, without his cash. She wished she had the cash because she wasn ' t happy with how he left disappointed. Unfortunately for her, she had no cash too otherwise she would have just given him and pretended as if the person had paid. That was her thought and plan in the event that he came again another day and the same thing happened.
He went to her again some weeks later which was exactly a week after her pay day. He didn ' t first go to her probably out of shame. He queued in front of her colleague and as soon as she noticed him standing there. She greeted him and beckoned on him to come to her. She checked his account history this time and saw that there had been no inflow in a while. She asked again, " Are you expecting cash?" " Has he not sent it?" he replied with his expression saying " no, not again ". " He has " she replied and paid him the N1400 he wrote on the same ticket he presented
Empathy goes a long way in our relationship with others. You can’ t really help people until you truly understand how they feel by putting yourself in their shoes..