Molly rolled on the grass, back and forth, her long brown pigtails wrapping around her face. She liked the smell of her backyard in the spring, the lilacs and grass and the dirt. It made her feel like she was part of it all.

She could hear her mother in the kitchen, singing the way she did every evening, songs that made Molly feel safe. Molly didn't always understand the songs but the fact that her mom sang them was all that mattered. She stopped rolling and noticed something shiny in the corner of a garden. Maybe a treasure! Maybe gold! Getting up, Molly put on her best pirate face and slowly approached the shiny object. Go slow, she thought, it could be a trap! Another pirate may be waiting to capture you!

As quietly as she could, she came upon the treasure. Eyes wide, she held her breath.

A TOAD! Not just any toad, but a purple toad! She knew that toads were green so this was a real prize. And she couldn't hold her excitement anymore.

"MOM! Look what I found!"

Molly's mom, Stacy, came running out the back door. Her little girl was always discovering new things in the old backyard.

She turned to her mother and pointed at the great treasure she had found.

"Look! Look! A purple toad!"

As they both crouched to look where the little girl was pointing Molly felt her heart stop. It was GONE! Molly ran to the spot where she had seen her prize, pulled back leaves and branches, but her toad was gone.

"It was here! I saw it!" Tears filled her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

Stacy began looking under bushes, behind branches but couldn't find her daughter's toad. She turned to Molly, saw the tears, and gave her baby a big hug.

"It probably got scared and hopped away, honey. Don't worry. If we're quiet, maybe it will come back." Molly hugged her mom and sniffled, but kept an eye on the corner of the garden. They sat there for a long time, Stacy just holding her child, Molly watching for her treasure to return, until darkness began to settle on the two of them. Scooping Molly up, Stacy headed back into the house, the little girl still watching the garden.

Molly loved and hated school. She loved to learn new things, but hated how the other children made fun of her. They all lived close together, while she and her mother lived farther away near the edge of their town. They all walked home together. They played together after school and on weekends. And they all seemed to make fun of Molly.

It was show and tell. Molly sat there with her mom's vase. Stacy had made it a long time before she became a mom and always kept it. It was small enough for the little girl to hold easily, a dark shade of blue that Molly always thought reminded of her of the ocean. She liked the way her hands felt around it.

"Molly, what do you have for us?" asked Mrs. Hanson, Molly's teacher. She didn't even look at the girl until Molly stood up to come to the front of the class.

"This is a vase my mom made a long time ago."

Some of the children giggled. Some didn't even look up, looking at their own things for show and tell.

"Mom likes to work with clay and make pretty things. This was one of the first things she ever made."

"And it shows!" giggled Joey, in a low whisper to his buddy, Ted. It was loud enough for Molly and Mrs. Hanson to hear.

"Joey!" Mrs. Hanson put her finger to her mouth to quiet the boy.

Molly felt her face get hot and knew she was turning red. The children began to giggle even louder, at least to Molly. She just wanted to go back to her seat. No, she wanted to go home.

Looking at the floor, she mumbled, "She still makes things with clay."

And she hurried back to her chair, careful not to drop the vase.

"A vase? OOOOhhhhh, I'm soooo impressed!" Joey stood next to Molly on the playground. His hair was always dirty from wrestling on the playground with his friends. "Next time I'll bring my frog and put it right in your face!!"

Molly kept fingering the blades of grass as she sat crossed-legged next to him. "I found a purple toad in my backyard." she mumbled.

"A purple toad?" Joey only LOOKED surprised. "Hey, guys, Molly-Dolly here says she found a purple toad!" Ted and a few of the other children came over and stood looking down at her. Joey pulled on one of her braids.

"Tell us where you found this magical purple toad!"

"Yeah, why didn't you bring that to school instead of some dumb old vase?" Ted's cackling sounded almost like Joey.

"It got away."

"Oh, yeah. They always get away." Joey threw his head back in laughter and the other boys joined in. Molly quickly got up and ran into the class, to her chair. She put her head down on the desk and began to sob. Mrs. Hanson looked up from the papers she was grading.

"What's wrong?" The teacher seemed more irritated than interested.

"Joey and Ted and his friends thought my vase was dumb." She wiped her nose on her sleeve.

"Then I told them I found a purple toad and they laughed at me because it got away."

Mrs. Hanson came over with a tissue and told Molly to dry her eyes and blow her nose.

"Just stop crying about it, Molly. Joey and his friends are like that, you know that. I don't know why you let it get to you. Just ignore them."

Heading back to her desk she continued, "Besides, everyone knows there's no such thing as a purple toad."

Molly sat quietly at her desk the rest of the school day and waited for the bell to go home.

As the other children joked and ran out of the school after the final bell Molly dragged her feet as she headed to her mom's car. Stacy could see that her daughter was sad and hugged her when she got in.

"I told them about the purple toad and they laughed at me. Even Mrs. Hanson didn't believe me."

"That's because they have no imagination." Setting her girl in the back seat and buckling her up she smiled. "When we get home we'll see if this purple toad comes back. How about we have dinner outside?"

Molly's sadness melted into a big grin and Stacy knew that things would be okay.

Stacy always knew the best things to make Molly happy were the simplest - hot dogs, pork and beans, carrot sticks, and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. As she prepared the dinner Molly was setting the picnic table in the backyard, always turning to watch the corner of the garden for the toad.

Dinner went quickly, Molly facing the garden and barely looking at her food as she ate. Stacy cleared the dishes and brought out the ice cream and sauce for the two of them and sat back down next to her little girl. They both ate slowly and watched the garden, afraid that if they said anything the toad wouldn't come back.

Then it happened! Molly's eyes widened and she whispered, "Mom!"

Looking at Molly, Stacy followed her stare to the corner of the garden. There, under the lilac, was a gleam of purple.

Quietly, both mother and daughter edged towards the shiny figure in the corner of the yard, like cats stalking birds. The closer they got, the more they crouched to the ground until they were just a few feet away from it.

It was a purple toad! Stacy slowly moved her hand to the toad and gently, gently took hold of it. She brought the animal close to both of them.

Now out in the evening light the toad was green, just like any other toad. But they had seen it when it was purple.

"The light through the bush must have made it look purple. But see, Molly, it is really green."

Molly stroked the wet skin of the toad, its dark eyes watching her.

"But it WAS purple."

Stacy smiled. "Yes, from where we were, it was purple. Sometimes things look different in shade or in the dark."

Molly held the toad up and could see different colors bouncing off of it.

"It's all in how you look at things."

She gently cradled her daughter in her arms, glad the girl had a witness to her treasure.