Eletta was lying on her tummy on the living room carpet, with her chin resting on her hands. She was looking out the window without saying anything. The snow covered the tree branches like whipped cream, and the garden looked like an enormous white cake.

"When will it stop?" huffed Violet, with her arms crossed and her blue eyes watching the flakes fall. "I want to go outside."

"Me too!" Alex was bouncing on the sofa like a spring. "I want to run! I want to jump in puddles!"

"There aren't any puddles, there's snow," said Lori, who was trying to build a tower with the sofa cushions. The tower collapsed for the third time. "Ugh!"

Eletta didn't say anything. She kept looking outside. She wasn't angry and she wasn't bored. She was just waiting, because Eletta was good at waiting.

Andrew, her daddy, passed by from the kitchen with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. He was so tall that he had to duck his head to pass under the shelf. "Do you know what my friend Gino the penguin says? He says snow is lovely because it makes you appreciate the sun when it comes back."

"Daddy, you don't have any penguin friend," said Eletta, but she smiled.

"Of course I do. He just lives at the South Pole, so you never see him."

It was at that moment that a sound came from outside. A sound that all four of them knew well and that made their hearts beat very fast.

"CHUFF CHUFF!"

Alex stopped bouncing. Violet uncrossed her arms. Lori abandoned the cushions. And Eletta got up from the carpet with a smile that lit up her whole face.

"Toby!" they all shouted together.

They ran to the door and flung it open. Toby the Magic Train was out there, in the snow, with his smoke drawing the shape of a rainbow in the cold air today. His wheels sparkled and snowflakes settled on his roof like a little white hat.

Toby whistled and said:

"Hello friends, how cold out here! I'll take you where hearts are needed near. Behind the colors there's a surprise, but only those who wait will see it rise!"

"Behind the colors?" asked Alex, confused. "What does that mean?"

But Toby didn't explain. He opened his colorful little doors and everyone climbed aboard.

The little train set off. It flew over the snow-white rooftops, over the fields, over the hills. It climbed higher and higher until they came out of the grey clouds and found themselves in a wonderful sky. The sunset had painted everything: orange, pink, purple, and those shades that don't have a name but make you want to say "oooh."

And right there, in the middle of the colorful sky, there was a rainbow. An enormous, luminous rainbow, with all its colors. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. But when Toby got closer, the children saw something strange: at one point of the rainbow, between the green and the blue, there was a hole. An empty, grey space, as if someone had erased a piece with a rubber.

"A color is missing!" said Violet, pointing.

Toby didn't slow down. In fact, he headed straight for the hole and passed through it.

On the other side there was an incredible place. A clearing suspended among the clouds, lit by the sunset light. And in the center of the clearing, still and silent, there was a carousel.

It was the most beautiful carousel they had ever seen. It had horses with golden manes, swans with open wings, carriages with red velvet cushions, and an elephant with gentle eyes. Hundreds of little lights decorated it, but they were all off. The music was still. The carousel wasn't moving.

The children got off the little train. Eletta approached the carousel and saw, sitting on one of the little horses, a small stuffed monkey. She had a little dress with red and white stripes, like a circus tent, and a little hat with a pompom on top. In one paw she had a little brass cymbal, like those of musicians. But in her other paw, where the second cymbal should have been, there was only a torn thread.

And then there were her eyes. One was a black button sewn on well. The other was a loose button that wobbled from side to side when the monkey moved her head.

The little monkey saw the children and opened her mouth wide. "Oh! Children! Finally! I've been waiting for... for..." She turned her head and her eye wobbled to the left. "For... wait, what was I saying? Oh yes, my name is... well, my name is..." The eye wobbled to the right. "Oh, look at that cloud! It looks like a rabbit with a hat!"

Lori burst out laughing. "Her eye wobbles!"

"My name is Melody!" said the little monkey, suddenly remembering. "And this is my carousel. Well, it's not mine. It belonged to the boy who brought me here. But then he grew up and went away and I stayed and the carousel stopped and now the lights don't work because the rainbow lost a color and..." She stopped suddenly, distracted by a reflection on the carriage. "Oh, what a lovely reflection!"

"But how do we make it start again?" asked Violet, practical as always.

Melody concentrated with all her might. The loose eye trembled. "The carousel works with... with..." She saw a feather pass through the air. "What a beautiful feather!"

"The carousel works with what?" Violet stamped her foot on the ground.

Melody shook herself. "With patience! You have to sit on a little horse and wait. Without moving. Without touching anything. Without talking. If you wait long enough, the carousel wakes up by itself and the rainbow color returns to its place."

"Easy!" said Alex, and he jumped onto a golden horse. He sat down, crossed his arms and squeezed his eyes shut. Five seconds passed. Ten seconds. "But how long does it take?" Fifteen seconds. "I can't do it!" He jumped down and ran off. "It's impossible to stay still!"

"I'll try!" said Lori. He climbed onto a swan and stayed seated. He lasted longer than Alex. Twenty seconds. Thirty. Then he started swinging his legs. Then looking around. Then he saw a luminous butterfly and ran to chase it. "I can't, there's too much to see!"

Violet climbed into a carriage. She sat up straight, with a serious face, and decided she wouldn't move for anything in the world. A minute passed. Two. Violet was very good at resisting. But inside her something was growing. An irritation. A thought: "Why do I have to wait? Why isn't anything happening? It's a waste of time!" In the end she huffed, stood up and said: "It doesn't work. It's just broken."

Melody looked at all three of them with her little eyes, the fixed one and the wobbly one. Her little voice became smaller. "It never works. No one manages to wait. No one ever."

Eletta hadn't tried yet. She had stayed watching her friends, in silence. She had seen Alex run away, Lori get distracted, Violet get angry. And she had understood something: it wasn't the carousel that was broken. It was the waiting that was difficult.

Without saying a word, Eletta walked to the nearest little horse. It was a white horse with a blue mane and a saddle with little stars. She climbed up and sat down.

"Eletta, it doesn't work!" said Violet.

"It doesn't matter," said Eletta. "I'll wait anyway."

And she stayed still.

The seconds passed. Ten. Twenty. Thirty. Nothing happened. The carousel was silent. The lights off.

Alex, Lori and Violet watched her. Melody watched her.

One minute. Eletta felt the sunset wind on her face. She smelled the scent of the clouds, which smell of sugar and rain. She felt the silence of the sleeping carousel. It wasn't a bad silence. It was a full silence, like the one when you're about to fall asleep and you feel safe.

Melody, without realizing it, stopped getting distracted. For the first time, she didn't look at the clouds, didn't chase a reflection, didn't lose her train of thought. She just looked at Eletta. Her two eyes, the fixed one and the wobbly one, were focused on the little girl sitting on the white horse, still and calm like a star in the sky.

A minute and a half.

Something creaked.

It was a small sound, like when a door opens after a long time. Everyone's ears pricked up.

Another creak. And then a little light came on. Red. Just one, among all the others that were off. Then another arrived. Orange. And another. Yellow. One after another, the little lights of the carousel were waking up, like eyes opening in the morning.

"It's happening!" whispered Alex.

The music began. Not all at once, but one note at a time. Ting. Ting. Tiing. Like someone trying out a piano after a long silence.

And above the carousel, in the rainbow, the grey space trembled. The emptiness filled with light. The missing color returned to its place: a brilliant, warm, luminous blue, that spread like a smile between the green and the indigo. The rainbow was complete.

The carousel moved. First slowly, then with more and more joy. The horses rose and fell, the swans spread their wings, the carriages swayed, and the music played cheerful and full, like a laugh that had been waiting too long.

"It worked!" shouted Lori. "Eletta, it worked!"

Everyone jumped onto the carousel. Alex rode the elephant, Violet got into the carriage, Lori jumped onto a swan. And Eletta stayed on her white horse, with a big smile.

Melody jumped to her feet on the horse next to Eletta. The wobbly eye sparkled. "I waited so long," she said, and this time she finished the sentence without getting distracted. "I waited so long, and finally you arrived."

Then she did something she hadn't done since her boy had gone away. She raised the paw with the cymbal and clapped it against the paw without the cymbal. A sound? No. No sound. But Eletta took a purple ribbon from her hair, tied it to the torn thread and attached a little golden lid found on the carriage.

Melody tried again. This time the cymbals sounded! A cheerful and rhythmic ting ting ting ting. Melody began to dance on the horse, spinning around, clashing her cymbals. Her eye wobbled everywhere. The pompom on her hat bounced. And the sound was so cheerful, so contagious, that all the children began to laugh and clap their hands.

It was the most beautiful circus act in the world. Not because it was perfect, but because it was full of joy.

The carousel spun and spun, under the complete rainbow, under the sunset sky that colored everything orange and pink.

When it was time to go, Toby was waiting for them with his smoke drawing a carousel in the air.

Melody looked at Eletta. "Can I... can I come with you?"

Eletta took her in her hands. She was light as a breath. "Of course you're coming with me."

When everyone was aboard, Toby whistled and said:

"Those who wait with a heart that's true, find a treasure that's great through and through! Haste is the enemy of wonder and awe, patience is the friend of every family's law!"

The little train set off, flying over the colorful clouds.

Eletta leaned against the window with Melody on her lap. Melody started to say something, got distracted looking at a star, then came back and said: "Thank you, Eletta."

"For what?"

"For waiting."

When Toby brought them home, Andrew picked Eletta up in his arms. She was holding Melody in her hands, with her eyes already half closed.

"Who is this little monkey?" asked Andrew.

"Her name is Melody," murmured Eletta, snuggling against his shoulder. "She was alone, and she waited so long. But now she has me."

Andrew kissed her on the forehead. "Clever girl, my Eletta. You did the hardest thing in the world."

"What?" asked Eletta, already almost asleep.

"You had patience."

Eletta smiled in her sleep. And Melody, from the bedside table where Andrew placed her, clashed her cymbals one last time. A tiny, sweet ting, as if to say goodnight.

Because those who know how to wait, sooner or later, always find someone who was waiting for them.