Lend a Helping hand

I was working at the Clementi Sing post yesterday when a skinny up-to-age lady approached me in Cantonese. She looked like a very outdated disco mama with badly-dyed red hair combed back with high blown-up fringe. She wanted to know if we could help her pay some fines using the SAM machine and I volunteered to help even though 1) we are not in charge of this business, 2) I have no idea how to use the SAM machine and 3) she looked so weird.
When we came to the machine, I tried to follow the instructions and scan the barcode found on the letter that she handed me. Nothing happened. Panic started to rise but my self-pride that I am capable in doing this seemingly easy task doused the heat of nerves. As I began to attempt again, a friendly Malay uncle who, I think, had been lurking around the area for the past 5 minutes and witnessed our juvenile comprehension of the machine, stepped in to assist us. He was really a pro and quickly brought us through the many steps that ended with the payment using nets. Unfortunately, the pin numbers written on a piece of tissue that the lady had were quite wrong. Impatience kicked in and I told the lady to check if the pin numbers were correct. She then shrieked out something and I soon realised that it was only her primal way of calling out for her husband. At least he looked more of his age, what a normal 60tish man should look like. They investigated the mystery of the pin numbers for a couple more minutes while I mentally rolled my eyes, folding and unfolding my arms and doing all those actions that screamed of my relunctance to help anymore.
Finally, the old man miraculously remembered the correct pin numbers. As I was about to escape fast in case they had more fines to pay, the lady took my right hand in both of hers in the form of a congratulation and acted as though I had just saved her life literally. Well, I guess lending a helping hand may be quite fulfilling after all though that act of repayment itself feels just as elaborate as making payments using the SAM machine.