Coming Up Short

I went to an automated banking machine yesterday to withdraw two hundred dollars. I put in my card, entered my PIN, and followed the prompts. The machine made an unexpectedly brief sound and started flashing. I reached inside and pulled out a single twenty-dollar bill.

My first thought that the machine must have malfunctioned. I worried that it had withdrawn the full $200 from my balance while only giving me twenty bucks.

I took a quick look at the little paper receipt that the machine dutifully offered after closing it’s money door. Thankfully, the machine had not made a mistake. I had. The entire translation was for twenty dollars; I had entered the wrong number of zeros.

I goofed, and I came up short, an apt metaphor for this entire week.