Once, a young woman decided to grow a cactus at home. For four years, it sat forlornly on the windowsill, showing no signs of growth or vitality whatsoever, and then suddenly one day came a surprise: the woman noticed that it had begun to blossom at a healthy pace. ’I wonder why everyone thinks I’m a spiteful heartless witch,’ the woman thought to herself. ’That can’t be true — plants don’t blossom if the owner is heartless and spiteful.’
Absorbed in the delightful thought that her cactus was now blooming, the woman accidentally stepped on a gloomy-looking man’s foot in the subway. When he complained, she didn’t start screaming at him with a look profound offence on her face, as she usually did: Instead, she just smiled and said:
’Don’t be angry with me, please. I had nothing to hold on to and I slipped; step on my foot too, if you like, and we’ll call it even.’
The gloomy man swallowed the insults he had been about to hurl at her. Slightly later, after he’d gotten off at his stop and was buying a newspaper, instead of being rude to the sales assistant who gave him the wrong change the man said:
’No big deal. Just count it out one more time; I’m no good at maths early in the morning either.’
The sales assistant hadn’t expect that kind of patient response. Feeling warm inside, she spontaneously gave two old magazines and a pile of old newspapers to an elderly gentleman for free. He was a regular customer at the shop, who really liked to read all the news, but could only afford to purchase one cheap newspaper every day. Surely, the remainders were supposed to be written off, but there is always a way to get around rules.
The happy old man went home with an armful of newspapers and magazines. When he met his upstairs neighbour, he didn’t make his customary complaints as he was prone to do (’Your child stamps like an elephant and stops me from getting any rest; you should bring her up better’, and so on). Instead, he just looked at her and said almost in a daze:
’You daughter is growing up so fast. I can’t figure out whether she looks like you or her father, but she will definitely be a beautiful young lady.’
The old man’s neighbour, somewhat confused but oddly pleased, then walked her child to kindergarten before going to her work. And instead of shouting at a muddle-head granny who had made an appointment with the doctor for the previous day but had only turned up the next, she said to her:
’Don’t worry about it, my dear! Sometimes I forget to do things, too. Wait here a minute, and I’ll will check with the doctor to see whether he can talk to you today.’
Having managed to see the doctor, the old lady didn’t make any demands for treatment which would cure her ailments straight away, or threaten to go to the authorities if the hospital staff didn’t do what she said, as she had done in the past. Instead, she just sighed and said: ’I haven’t lost my mind completely just yet, and I understand that you cannot cure my old age. I’m sorry, doctor, that I bother you so often.’
Later, on his way home, the doctor recalled the meeting he had had with the old lady and began to feel sorry for her. Suddenly, he realised that life was passing by so fast amid all the usual mundane bustle, and, inspired by this thought, stopped by the nearest supermarket, bought a bunch of flowers, a beautifully decorated cake with cream, and drove in the opposite direction to home. He drove up to a nondescript apartment block, went up to the third floor, and knocked on the door. It was opened by a young woman.
’I’ve just been thinking — why on Earth do we feel the need to cut ourselves from others and live in our own separate worlds without concern for anyone else? I’ve bought you a cake, but I accidentally put my bag on top of it, so it’s a bit crushed. But it doesn’t matter, as it won’t affect the taste, anyway. I bought you some flowers as well, but they also got a bit crushed by my bag as well. But maybe they can be straightened out again?’
’Of course they will,’ the woman said, ’we’ll bring them back to life. I have some news, by the way. Can you imagine — I woke up this morning, looked over at the window, and saw that my cactus had blossomed. Take a look!’
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