It was a gray morning and the four friends were sitting under the porch of Ale's house, watching the rain fall gently on the garden flowers. Grace, Ale's mom, had brought a cup of hot chocolate for each of them.

"How boring!" huffed Lori, who could never stay still. He tapped his feet on the ground like a little drum.

"It's not boring," said Eletta, blowing softly on her chocolate to cool it down. "It's just that today is a slow day." She looked up at the clouds, which were low and puffy like enormous pillows.

Violet sipped her chocolate in silence, but her blue eyes darted here and there, as if she was looking for something. "I smell something strange," she said suddenly.

The children sniffed the air. It wasn't the smell of rain. It wasn't the chocolate. It was something different, like steam from a boiling pot, but sweet, like caramel and mint mixed together.

"It's steam!" exclaimed Ale, pointing at a purple cloud rising slowly from the bottom of the garden. "But it's not normal steam... it's purple!"

The steam curled and moved as if it were alive. It formed little spirals that twirled around themselves and left behind a trail of golden sparkles. And right from inside that cloud of magical steam came a sound they knew well.

"CHUFF CHUFF!"

"Toby!" they all shouted together, setting down their cups at once.

Toby the Magic Train emerged from the purple steam like a cheerful little dragon. He was all shiny from the rain and his eyes sparkled more than usual. He stopped in front of them and whistled twice.

"Dear friends, good morning to you!
Today's a mischievous day, it's true!
There's a cave waiting to explore,
But something needs doing, that's for sure!"

"A cave?" Violet was already on her feet. "Let's go right away!"

"Wait!" said Eletta, who was still finishing her chocolate. "The chocolate is warm, I can't leave it." She took one last sip, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and stood up calmly. "There, now I'm ready."

"You always take forever!" laughed Lori, who had already climbed onto the train.

"Things done calmly turn out better," replied Eletta, climbing on last and settling comfortably by the window.

The train set off. They crossed a waterfall that flowed backwards, then a field of singing sunflowers, and finally slipped inside a mountain through a hole that magically opened in the rock.

When they stopped, they found themselves in front of the entrance to an enormous cave. The walls were full of stones that sparkled in a thousand colors: blue, green, orange, pink. It felt like being inside a rainbow made of stone.

"How beautiful!" whispered Ale, reaching out to touch a blue crystal sticking out from the wall. The crystal rang, like a little bell.

"The others ring too!" discovered Violet, touching a green one. Each crystal made a different note.

They walked slowly along the cave corridor, touching the crystals as if they were keys on a giant piano. Lori, who was always fast, ran ahead and tapped the crystals with his fingers at full speed, producing confused but fun music. Eletta instead touched one crystal at a time, gently, listening to each note before moving to the next.

Then they arrived in a larger cavern, and saw something strange.

At the back of the cavern there was a door. Not a normal door, but a door made of light. It shone with a golden color, and around the edge there were symbols that looked like flowers and stars. But the door was closed. And in front of the door, sitting on a big polka-dotted mushroom, was a lady.

She wasn't a normal lady. She had a pointed hat, but it wasn't black and scary: it was apple green with daisies painted on it. Her nose was long and a bit crooked, like a carrot bent by the wind. And she wore an apron full of colorful stains, as if she had just painted a picture with her hands.

"Who's that?" whispered Lori.

"I think she's a witch," said Eletta.

"A witch?!" Ale took a step back. "Like the evil ones from fairy tales?"

"No, no," said Eletta, who had read many books. "Witches aren't all evil. Some are good. This one has daisies on her hat. Evil witches don't wear daisies."

The witch had already seen them. She stood up from the mushroom, dusted off her apron, and smiled. She was missing a front tooth, and this made her smile even more likeable.

"Oh! Visitors! How wonderful!" she said with a cheerful and slightly croaky voice, like a laughing frog. "I am Gardenia! The witch of remedies. I make potions to heal, not to play tricks." She bowed, making her hat sway. "But I have a problem as big as a mountain."

"What problem?" asked Violet, who always got straight to the point.

Gardenia pointed to the golden door behind her. "That is the Door of Passages. It connects my cave to all the places where my potions are needed: the village of sniffly pixies, the forest of owls with tummy aches, the lake of frogs who lost their voices. But this morning the door won't open anymore! And I have all my potions ready..." She pointed to a row of colorful little bottles resting on a rocky shelf. "But I can't deliver them!"

Lori walked up to the door and tried to push it. Nothing. He tried to pull it. Nothing. He kicked it.

"It doesn't work that way!" said Gardenia, waving her hands. "The door opens with calmness, not with force! You have to touch the symbols in the right order, slowly, without rushing. But I... well... I'm too anxious. When I'm nervous my hands shake and I touch the symbols too quickly, and the door gets even more stuck."

"Then we need someone who's not in a hurry," said Violet, and everyone looked at Eletta.

Eletta blushed a little. "Me?"

"You do everything calmly," said Ale, smiling. "Even drinking chocolate!"

Eletta approached the door and observed the symbols. There were flowers, stars, moons, and drops. There were many and they seemed randomly placed.

"You have to find the right order," explained Gardenia. "But there's no trick, there's no map. You have to feel which one comes first. Each symbol, if you touch it gently, makes a little sound. If it's the right one, the sound is sweet. If it's wrong, the sound is off-key."

Eletta took a deep breath. She reached out and touched a star. A very sweet sound, like a distant flute. "This one is right," she said softly.

Then she touched a flower. An off-key sound, like a falling pot.

"No, not that one," she said, without getting upset. She tried a moon. A beautiful sound, like a drop falling into water.

Lori, behind her, was hopping impatiently. "Come on, try that one! No, that one! That one up there!"

"Lori, stop," said Violet, freezing him with her gaze. "Let her concentrate."

Eletta continued, touching one symbol at a time. Each time she stopped to listen. She wasn't in a hurry. She didn't get upset when she made a mistake. She simply went back and tried again. Ale and Violet watched her in silence. Even Gardenia had sat down on the mushroom again, finally calm, because she could see that Eletta knew what to do.

After a few minutes, Eletta had found five correct symbols. The door began to tremble slightly. A golden light was coming out from the edges.

"You're almost there!" whispered Gardenia.

Eletta touched the last symbol, a drop at the bottom right. A sound like a music box played in the air, and the door opened. It didn't burst open suddenly, but opened slowly, like a flower blooming. Behind it was a corridor full of light, and in the distance you could see forests, lakes, and faraway villages.

"It worked!" shouted Ale, jumping with joy.

"Well done!" Lori gave her a pat on the back so strong that Eletta took a step forward.

Gardenia jumped up and clasped her hands with happiness. "Oh, wonderful! Splendid! Fantastic!" She ran to get her little bottles of potions. "Now I can bring the cough syrup to the pixies, the mint tea to the owls, and the voice drops to the frogs! Thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome," said Eletta, with her usual calm smile. "You just needed to have patience."

Gardenia stopped and looked at her with her bright eyes. "You know something, little one? Everyone wants to do things quickly. Everyone runs, pushes, gets worked up. But things done calmly always turn out better. You've understood that, and you're still so young." She gave her a kiss on the forehead and placed in her hand a tiny, transparent bottle with a liquid inside that sparkled like the stars. "This is my gift for you. It's the Patience Potion. When someone around you is in too much of a hurry, just open the bottle and everyone will calm down a little."

Eletta held it carefully in her hands. "Thank you, Gardenia."

The children said goodbye to the witch with a hug each. Gardenia waved her hat and disappeared beyond the door with her tinkling potions.

They returned to the big cave, and there they found Toby waiting for them, puffing warm steam that smelled like chocolate.

"What a lovely adventure you've had,
With patience you solved what seemed so bad!
Slowly, slowly, with such grace,
The door opened like a soft embrace!"

The children climbed on laughing. Eletta took her usual spot by the window. Outside, the crystals in the cave sparkled like a farewell. As the train crossed the field of singing sunflowers and the backwards waterfall, Eletta felt sleepiness arriving, as always after adventures. She clutched the patience bottle in her pocket and closed her eyes.

When they arrived home, the rain had stopped and a rainbow crossed the sky. Andrew, Eletta's dad, picked her up in his arms as he always did.

"Hello adventurer. How did it go today?"

Eletta, with her eyes already half closed, murmured: "Daddy, do you know why things done calmly turn out better?"

"Why?"

"Because when you go slowly, you listen. And when you listen, you understand. And when you understand, you don't make mistakes."

Andrew held her tight and smiled. "What a wise thing to say. And who taught you that?"

"A witch with daisies on her hat," whispered Eletta, before falling asleep.

And this is the most important thing that Eletta and her friends learned that day: that you shouldn't rush, because things done calmly always turn out better. And sometimes, you just need to touch things gently to open the biggest doors.