What Mollie Saw

              It was the winter when she was eight that Mollie first saw the unicorn.  It was early on a snowy morning, just after daylight.  The unicorn was standing in the snow by the evergreen trees.  It was so white it made the snow look gray.

         The unicorn looked exactly like the one in her picture book but more beautiful.  As she watched it tossed its mane and ran away into the trees. 

         Her mother said, “You must have been dreaming.”  But Mollie knew she was not dreaming.  She wanted to take her mother outside and show her the unicorn tracks in the snow. 

         But her mother just said “Hurry up and get dressed or you’ll miss the school bus.”

         By the end of the day the snow was gone and so, of course, were the unicorn tracks.  But Mollie knew what she saw

         So the second time she saw the unicorn she didn’t tell anyone.  That day she was having a time out in her room because her brother started a quarrel and she got blamed.  There it was.  She blinked away her tears for a better look and just like that it was gone. 

         When her time out was over she went outside hoping to find tracks but there weren’t any.

         Years went by.  She had almost forgotten the unicorn.  She had been busy all this time.  School, college, working, getting married, bringing up children.  There had been no time for unicorns.

         And then one lovely summer morning her great granddaughter called “Grandma! Come and look!”

         And they saw the unicorn together.                    


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