I amost got arrested

I took a lot of public transportation before getting my license, and I enjoyed most aspects of it. After some time the novelty of the experience started wearing off, and to me, it became just a means to move around because I couldn't drive.

What thrilled me the most when I first started using the trains was the payment process. You see to pay for your bus fare, all you had to do was to either use cash or credit/debit card to pay at the designated machine. You input the number and type of ticket you want into the machine, the machine comes up with the cost, you pay and your Viola!, your ticket is printed out to you. One time I had to pay double twice because the first time I selected the youth price. I actually considered myself a youth and it wasn't until I had finished paying that I realized that the age range was 7-17. Fear gripped me and I paid again, this time for the adult ticket (Lol Grandma like me, thinking I am still a child).
 The reason I thought I was a youth because back home in Ghana, people within my age group(early 20s), call themselves the youth.

Mind you this was one of my first times of taking the train so I wanted to follow every procedure, I didn't want to get in trouble.

After getting used to the whole system, I started realizing that the tickets were hardly checked. I had picked the train more than 20 times now, and out of that it was only once that some guy came round to check everyone's ticket.

So I kept thinking, why should I even pay for the train when they would probably not check?.. The mischievous and adventurous character in me wanted to try not paying and see whether I would get in trouble or not. I didn't know the repercussions of not having your fare on you, but I thought It really wouldn't be so bad after all it was just at most $5

So one day, on my way to class, I decided that I was not going to pay for that particular train ride. I told myself that nothing was going to happen and that the probability of them checking for your ticket was very low. So I waited for the train to arrive.

It was whilst waiting that I remembered that I had a history of getting caught whenever I did something wrong. Like right from secondary school, when ever as a group of juniors we did something wrong, I was always the first to be called out. Sometimes my friends would break a rule and never get caught, but me, the first time I try I always get caught. For some reason I was even suspected when I had nothing to do with anything. Maybe there was something written on my face that others could see I don't know.

It was just this thought that made me quickly dash into my purse to take out money to pay for my fare. I was disappointed that I couldn't even try this, but the warning I felt in my heart was too strong to avoid.

My ride to class was uneventful, and yes nobody checked. It was the ride back home that had all the action. When the train stopped at one of the stops, the conductor announced through the P.A system that 'as we all know we are supposed to have a valid ticket before we board the train. As such he said they would be conducting a short verification of tickets exercise and that they are sorry for time wasted or something like that. Just after the announcement, I saw a policeman enter my compartment and he started asking everyone for their tickets. My heart began beating fast because even though I had bought a ticket I started thinking that maybe I had lost it somewhere. I quickly searched through my bag and luckily for me I found it.

Everybody in my compartment had a ticket, and I realized that as the train began to move, some people were being questioned by the police. I saw a guy being handcuffed. I don't know if it was just because they didn't pay or it was for another reason but one thing I know for sure is that I would never doubt my instincts