It was a golden, warm afternoon. Dash, Ziggy, Lily and Skye were in the garden having a snack. They had a little basket full of bread slices with strawberry jam, and a bottle of apple juice cooling under a bush. Dash, who was the fastest of all, had already finished his slice and was asking for another one.

"More already?" laughed Skye, who was eating calmly sitting on the grass.

"Yes, and then we run!" said Dash, chewing fast.

Ziggy was jumping through a cloud of butterflies, and Lily was gathering shiny pebbles to make a mosaic in the grass. The sun was about to set, and the sky had turned the color of honey.

All at once, Lily looked up.

"Look!" she cried, pointing high.

A golden streak had crossed the sky. Then another. And then another. They were shooting stars, so many, leaving behind threads of light like golden noodles.

"A shooting star!" said Ziggy.

"A thousand shooting stars!" said Dash, jumping to his feet.

Skye stayed silent and watched. It was so beautiful that she didn't want to speak.

Then something strange happened. One of those golden streaks came down toward the ground, lower and lower, and seemed to land right near their garden, behind the hedge by the apple tree. There was a tiny "tink," like the sound of crystal resting on a stone.

The children looked at each other.

"A star has fallen!" whispered Lily.

Just then, from behind the hedge, came a sound they knew so well.

"CHUFFFF CHUFFFF!"

It was Toby the Magic Train, with his white steam shaped like a heart. He stopped right on the lawn, as if the tracks had grown out of the grass just for him. He opened his little door and said, in his cheerful rhyming voice:

"Climb aboard, my little friends,
a happy ride that never ends!
A tiny voice is all alone,
wishing someone heard its tone."

Dash burst out laughing.

"A tiny voice? But we're big kids!"

"Maybe that's exactly why," said Skye. "Tiny voices need someone big enough to listen to them."

The four children climbed onto the train. The little door closed with a gentle whistle, and Toby set off. The wheels made a happy rhythm, like a heart beating fast with excitement. The sky outside the window was full of shooting stars, and each star looked like a little wave hello.

After a while, Toby slowed down. In front of them was a hill with a round door carved into the rock. It was the entrance to a cave. But not a dark cave: inside, a soft sparkle shone, as if someone had lit a thousand tiny silver candles.

The children stepped down. They held hands. Dash, who usually ran ahead, this time stood still for a moment and just looked.

"It's so beautiful!" whispered Ziggy.

They went inside. The walls of the cave glittered. They were covered in glowing dots, like an upside-down sky. Everywhere.

"It's the sky!" said Lily.

"It's the Cave of Starry Whispers," said Skye in a low voice, as if she'd always known.

Inside the cave there was a good smell, the smell of fresh rain on stones, the sweet smell that stays in the air after a thunderstorm. And little drops of water fell from the ceiling, each with a different sound: "plink, plonk, ploonk."

"Hello!" Dash shouted with all his voice.

"Hello!" the cave answered.

"Hello!" Dash shouted again, louder.

"Hello!" the cave answered, louder.

Dash burst out laughing.

"There's someone in here!"

They looked around. They couldn't see anyone. But suddenly, from one of the walls, something made a tiny leap. A little glowing cloud bounced from one rock to another and stopped right in front of them. She looked made of see-through light, like a soap bubble with a little smile inside.

"Friends," said Ziggy softly, "I think it's her."

The little cloud trembled a bit. Then she looked at Ziggy and said, in a shy voice:

"You... you... I am Echo! That's my name, Echo."

Then she looked at Lily.

"Lily... Lily... hello, Lily! What a pretty name!"

Then she looked at Skye.

"Skye... Skye... hello!"

Then she looked at Dash.

"Dash... Dash... ah, you have a lovely voice too!"

The children laughed softly. Echo always repeated the last word of whoever stood in front of her, before speaking with her own voice. It was funny and sweet all at once.

"Why do you do that?" asked Lily, curious.

"That... that... is my way of saying hello. If I repeat your word, it means I listened to you. And if I listened, it means we can be friends."

From the palm of her tiny hand of light she pulled out a small crystal shell. It was see-through, with a little spark inside that twirled around.

"This is my shell. It only shines when someone really listens. Not when they speak. When they stay quiet to listen."

Dash looked at her, enchanted. He had never seen anything like it.

But just then, from one of the side tunnels, a sound was heard. Small. So very small. Like a little sob. A "hee... hee... hee..." sweet and sad.

"Echo, what is it?" asked Skye.

Echo became a little smaller. She was afraid.

"Afraid... afraid... it is a little star. A little star fell from the sky tonight, and now she is somewhere among the tunnels. She's calling for her mommy. But there are so many tunnels, so many, and they all look the same. I'm too upset to listen well, and I don't know where to bounce to reach her."

Dash didn't wait a second. He took off running toward the first tunnel.

"I'll go! I'm the fastest!"

The others followed him. But after ten steps, the tunnel split in two. Dash went right. After ten more steps, it split again. He went left. And again. And again.

"Wait, Dash!" said Ziggy, out of breath. "They all look the same!"

"I'm going! I'll find her!" said Dash, and ran off.

But the more he ran, the more confused he got. He turned back, took another tunnel, and ended up in the very same spot he'd started from.

He stopped. His heart was beating hard. He had run such a long way, but he hadn't gone anywhere.

"It's not working," he said, and for the first time in his life his voice trembled a little.

Lily, who was stubborn and never let go of an idea, scratched her head.

"Echo," she said, "you can bounce sounds, right? So if you listen to the little star's crying, can you bounce it all the way to us? Like a bouncing ball?"

Echo nodded with her tiny hand.

"Ball... ball... yes, I could. But only if there is silence around. If there's noise, the sounds get mixed up and I get confused."

Dash looked down at the ground. He was used to being the fastest, the loudest, the one who spoke first. The idea of sitting still in silence felt as hard as climbing a mountain.

Skye sat down on the ground, gently. Then Lily. Then Ziggy.

"You come too, Dash," whispered Skye.

Dash sat down. He pressed his hands on his knees. He closed his mouth. And then, after a second, he closed his eyes too.

Something magical happened. The more still he stayed, the more he could hear. He could hear his heart beating. He could hear Ziggy's breath next to him. He could hear a drop falling far away, "plink." He could hear the wind slipping through a crack. And then, in the middle of all this, he heard the little star's crying. It was very tiny, but it was there. It was real.

Echo's crystal shell lit up. It shone like a little star itself.

"It's shining!" whispered Ziggy.

"Because we are really listening," said Skye.

Echo smiled. Now she was calm. She stretched out her little hands of light, listened for a moment, and then made a tiny gesture. The little star's crying bounced from one wall, then another, then another, until it came right next to Dash's ear. It felt like the little star was sitting on his shoulder.

"That way!" said Dash, pointing to a tunnel he hadn't even noticed before.

They got up and followed the bouncing sound. They didn't run. They walked. Every now and then they stopped, listened, and Echo moved the sound in a new direction. Tunnel after tunnel, the crying grew clearer.

Until, in a tiny chamber with a very high ceiling, they saw her.

She was sitting on a blue stone. She was as small as a glowing raisin, with five thin little points. She was trembling a little, and when she saw them she opened her tiny eyes like two golden commas.

"Mommy," she whispered, "mommy..."

Skye came close and held out her hands. Her hands were the calmest in the world. The little star rolled gently into her palm. She was warm, like a crumb of sunshine.

"Now we'll take you home," said Skye.

Just then, from the very high ceiling of the chamber, a warm breeze came in, smelling of summer. It lifted the little star gently from Skye's hands. It carried her up, higher and higher, through a small opening in the ceiling. For a moment they saw her pause at the opening, as if to wave goodbye. Then she shot away into the sky.

The four children stood with their mouths open. Echo, beside them, swayed happily.

"Wait," said Echo. "I have a gift for you."

She held out her crystal shell, but did not give it to them. She only touched it, with a finger of light. And then she said:

"From today on, every time you want to hear something beautiful, all you have to do is be silent. You will feel a tiny bounce in your ears, a gentle caress. That will be me, saying hello from far away."

Dash felt his eyes sting a little, but he smiled. He had never been given a gift like this.

Outside the cave, Toby the Magic Train was waiting for them. They climbed aboard. As the train started up again, Toby said, in his rhyming voice:

"Who listens in silence will find the way,
who only runs gets lost today.
Tiny voices are treasures bright,
found by hearts that listen right."

The children smiled. Dash leaned against the window and closed his eyes. For a second, inside his ears, he felt a tiny bounce. A gentle caress. Echo was still with them.

And it would always be that way, forever.