Esi is a firefighter. She works at a fire station. The fire station has a big common room. The firefighters eat and rest there. They also tell stories in the common room. One day, Esi sits in the common room with her friends. She drinks a cup of tea. Her friend Kofi asks her a question. "Esi, why were you so late yesterday?" he asks. Esi laughs and puts down her cup. "I have a funny story for you," she says. She looks at all her friends. They all listen carefully. "It happened on the way home from work," she begins. Everyone leans forward to listen. Esi got on a bus after her shift.

She was very tired. She did not look at the number on the bus. She just got on and sat down. She looked out of the window. The streets did not look right. "This is strange," she thought. She looked at the bus number. It was number 47. She wanted bus number 74. She stood up quickly. "Oh no!" she said out loud. An old man looked at her. "Are you okay?" he asked kindly. "I got on the wrong bus!" she told him. She pressed the button to stop the bus. She got off at the next stop.

She stood on the street and looked around. Esi did not know where she was. She called her friend Mia. "I am lost," she said. "I got on the wrong bus." Mia laughed a little. "Don't worry," said Mia. "I can help you." Mia told her the right bus to take. Esi waited at the bus stop. She was very careful this time. She checked the number two times. She got home one hour late. The next day, she told the story in the common room. All the firefighters laughed. "You find fires easily," said Kofi, "but you cannot find your bus!" Esi laughed too. "Next time I will pay attention!" she said. They all drank their tea and smiled.

The common room at the fire station was quiet that morning, filled with the smell of fresh coffee and the low hum of conversation. Esi sat at the long table with her colleagues, warming her hands around a mug, when her teammate Kofi leaned across and raised an eyebrow. "So," he said with a grin, "are you going to tell us why you were an hour late getting home yesterday?" Esi groaned and shook her head slowly, the memory still making her feel slightly embarrassed. "I made the most ridiculous mistake," she admitted, setting her mug down. "You are all going to find it very funny." The others exchanged glances and smiled, clearly delighted at the prospect of a good story. After her shift had ended, Esi had been so exhausted that she boarded the first bus that pulled up at the stop, without bothering to check the number displayed on the front.

She found a seat near the window and stared blankly outside, her mind drifting after a long and demanding day. It was only when the streets began to look completely unfamiliar that she snapped back to attention and noticed the number above the driver's cab. "Bus forty-seven," she muttered under her breath. "I wanted seventy-four." She pressed the stop button immediately, apologized to no one in particular, and stepped off onto a pavement she had never seen before. Standing there, tired and slightly disoriented, she pulled out her phone and called her friend Mia, who answered with a cheerful, "Lost again, are we?" Mia had helped her navigate back to a familiar route, talking her through each step with patient amusement rather than frustration.

Esi had caught the correct bus home eventually, arriving much later than planned and promising herself she would never again step onto public transport without reading the number first. Back in the common room, as she finished the story, the whole team erupted into laughter. "You spend your days rescuing people who are in the wrong place," said Kofi, barely containing his amusement, "and yet you cannot find your own way home!" Esi pointed a finger at him in mock protest. "In my defense," she said, "I was absolutely exhausted." She picked up her mug and smiled broadly. "And it will never, ever happen again."