Cactus

　　It has been a time since this happened. Christine and Erik were both young then and Erik was known to Christine as her angel.
　　Christine＂s birthday was coming soon and she was really excited. Not only of her birthday, but also a peculiar plant which she saw in the market when she was having a walk with Meg outside the opera house.
　　Their conversation was something like this on the same night when Christine saw the Cactus plant. And the day was…I＂d say, two days before Christine＂s birthday.
　　＂Angel, I saw a green plant shaped like the upper part of a ball with small spikes on the market today. I would like to touch it but of course there are spikes on it and I can＂t do so. It＂s on sold and the gypsies say that it comes from a faraway place named…Africa, if I haven＂t remember it wrong. And it＂s called a…called…＂
　　＂A Cactus?＂
　　＂Yeah I think that＂s the word. Anyway there are small pink flowers on the top of it and it looks gorgeous! By the way, the day after tomorrow will be my birthday…Yeah, you already knew it, Angel…＂
　　Christine kept on talking happily and Erik listened quietly. Christine seemed to like the Cactus a lot. She didn＂t notice that all she talked about is the a-half-of-a-ball shaped Cactus plant and she didn＂t realize that she had been repeating the same thing again and again. She found that it had past her bedtime only when Erik told her it＂s time to go to sleep.
　　What she did notice is that her angel asked her an odd question before she left the empty room.
　　＂Would you like to have such a plant?＂ That was what her angel said.
　　And her answer was ＂Yes!＂ It contained so much excitement and desire that it sounded like a light yet high-pitched squeal. She worried for a minute if her angel heard her clearly, but apparently he did and he told Christine goodbye.
　　On the morning of her birthday, Christine woke up and found a Cactus plant in a pot on her window sill. It was the same Cactus plant that she liked. The same a-half-of-a-ball shape, the same kind of green that looked like the colour of grasses during the beginning of summer, the same little pink flowers on top. But there＂s something different --- all the spikes had disappeared.