Outside the window, snow was falling, light as powdered sugar, and the branches of the trees were all white, as if someone had spread whipped cream on top of them. Inside the bedroom, instead, it was nice and toasty. The night light gave off an orange glow, the drawings on the wall flickered just a little, and toys were scattered all over the floor.

Dash, Ziggy, Lily and Skye were playing together before going to sleep. Dash ran back and forth between the bed and the door, fast as lightning.

"I'm the fastest of everyone!" said Dash, laughing. "Faster than a rocket, faster than a scared cat, faster than a snack that disappears!"

"You're also a real little klutz," said Lily, as Dash tripped over a stuffed animal and fell onto the pillow with a soft thud.

Everyone burst out laughing, even Dash, who got back up pretending to be a champion waving to the crowd.

Skye, calm as always, was sitting near the window. And right at that moment, the window did something very strange.

"Achoo!" The window sneezed.

The children froze.

"Did... did the window just sneeze?" asked Ziggy, with his eyes wide open.

"Achoo! Achoo!" The window sneezed again, and started to wobble. Then it tripped on its own curtains, got all tangled up, and finally showed the wrong landscape: instead of snow, a desert appeared, full of dancing camels.

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" said the window, in a shy little voice. "I'm Whirly the Window, and I always do everything backwards! I wanted to show you the snow and instead... camels! What a mess!"

Dash stepped closer, curious. "Why are you called Whirly?"

"Because inside me everything gets mixed up, like in a blender!" answered the window, and sneezed again, this time showing a sea full of penguins wearing little hats.

While the children were laughing, a cheerful sound came from far away.

"CHOO CHOO!"

It was Toby the Magic Train, popping right out of Whirly the Window, puffing little clouds of steam that smelled of cookies.

"Good evening, dear children, the night is so bright,
hop onto my train, we are leaving tonight!
I'll carry you off to a land of whipped cream,
where everything's silly, like inside a dream!"

The children clapped their hands and quickly climbed onto the little train. Whirly the Window wanted to come too, and hooked itself behind the last car, all happy.

"CHOO CHOO!" And off they went, into the window, beyond the snow, into a world as soft as a cloud.

When Toby stopped, the children got off with their mouths wide open. They were inside the Whipped Cream Cloud Stadium! There were fluffy tracks, pools of whipped cream, clouds that worked like trampolines, and a strawberry-colored sky. It was beautiful.

But something was not right.

In the middle of the stadium, everything was a disaster. A big, strong athlete, who was supposed to do the high jump, was lying on the ground doing swimming strokes as if he were swimming. A lady athlete, who was supposed to swim, was running in circles with no water, huffing and puffing. Another one, who was supposed to throw the ball, was fast asleep and snoring.

"What is going on here?" asked Dash, scratching his head.

From behind a cloud popped out two identical brothers, wearing nightcaps and star-shaped slippers. Their arms were crossed and their backs were turned to each other, all grumpy.

"I'm Snoozy," said one.

"And I'm Rumble," said the other, without looking at his brother.

"We run the Dream Factory," explained Snoozy. "Every night we push the magic button, and every child in the world gets just the right dream."

"But tonight we had a fight," said Rumble, his lip trembling. "We both wanted to push the button. We shoved each other, we bumped the button with an elbow, and now all the dreams are upside-down! The high-jump champion is dreaming of swimming, the swimmer is dreaming of running, it's a disaster!"

"And we're not talking to each other anymore," added Snoozy, turning even further away.

Skye walked slowly up to the two brothers, with her gentle voice. "But if you're brothers, doesn't it make your heart ache to stay this angry?"

The two brothers didn't answer, but they turned a little red.

Dash, meanwhile, was looking around, and his eyes were sparkling. A race! There was a race to fix! And he was the fastest of everyone.

"I'll take care of it!" said Dash. "Let's fix this race and everything will go back to normal!"

"Wait," said a cloud guardian who watched over the entrance to the field. "To enter the field you need dream-athlete passes. And no one can play without a champion's uniform."

"A uniform?" said Lily. "But we don't have one!"

"Then we'll make one up!" shouted Dash, who loved a challenge.

And here's where the fun began. The children rummaged through a big trunk full of things from home that Whirly the Window had, of course, dropped there by mistake.

Dash put on a sheet as a cape, a colander on his head as a helmet, socks on his hands as wristbands, and a pillow tied around his waist as a belly-guard. He looked at himself and said, dead serious: "Now I really look like a true champion!"

Instead he looked like a soft, squishy monster, and everyone burst out laughing.

Ziggy slipped on two enormous slippers, three times bigger than his feet. Lily put a pot on her head as a helmet. Skye, ever so sweet, wrapped herself in a towel like a brave princess.

"Ready for the Mini-Olympics!" shouted Dash.

And so began the most mixed-up race in history.

The first event was the giant-slipper race. Dash, super fast, shot off like a rocket... but the slippers were so big that they got stuck together, and he did three somersaults in a row, ending up upside-down in a pool of cream.

"SPLOOSH!"

He came out of the cream all white, licking his lips. "Mmm! The track tastes great!"

Everyone laughed their heads off, even Snoozy and Rumble, who immediately went back to sulking.

The second event was the jump on the trampoline-clouds. Ziggy jumped and bounced so high that he got stuck hanging on a cloud, dangling his legs. Lily had to pull him down by one foot, and when she let go, Ziggy flew straight into a heap of whipped cream, disappearing completely. Only his nose stuck out.

"I'm here!" said a little voice from the white heap, and everyone laughed even harder.

The third event was the pillow throw. Dash grabbed the pillow, swung it over his head, took aim... and threw it right at Whirly the Window, who sneezed from the surprise and showed a landscape of elephants blowing soap bubbles.

But the more the children played, the more Dash noticed something. The real athletes were not getting fixed. Even though the race was fun, the dreams stayed upside-down. The champion kept swimming on the ground. The swimmer kept running in circles.

Dash stopped, panting, with cream on his nose. And in that moment, he, who was fast with his legs, was also fast with his head.

"Wait a minute," said Dash. "The race isn't the problem. The problem is those two."

He pointed at Snoozy and Rumble, still sulking, each in a corner of the stadium.

"The dreams turned upside-down when you had your fight," said Dash, walking up to the two brothers. "And they'll only be fixed when you make peace."

"I don't want to be the first to make peace," said Snoozy, crossing his arms.

"Neither do I," said Rumble, turning the other way.

So Skye came closer again, with eyes shining just a little. "You know what? In a family we love each other even when we fight. Fighting doesn't mean you stop being brothers. It just means you have to hug each other even tighter."

Snoozy looked at Rumble. Rumble looked at Snoozy. And their lips stopped trembling.

"I'm sorry," said Snoozy in a low voice.

"I'm sorry too," said Rumble.

"Then come on!" shouted Dash. "Let's push the button all together!"

The two brothers took each other by the hand, and together, hand in hand, they pushed the big magic button.

POOF!

From all over the stadium a golden light rose up. And as if by magic, the dreams went back to their right places. The high-jump champion made a sky-high leap. The swimmer dove into a pool of cream with a perfect dive. The one who was snoring woke up and threw the ball straight into the basket.

"Hooray!" everyone shouted.

Snoozy and Rumble hugged each other tight, tight, in fact they hugged super tight, and neither of them wanted to let go first.

Right at that moment, from far away, came a sweet sound: RING RING. It was the world's alarm clock about to ring. The dreams had arrived just in time, a moment before morning.

"CHOO CHOO!" Toby the Magic Train had come back to pick them up.

"It's time to go home now, my brave little crew,
you've won the best prize, and I'll whisper it to you:
sometimes we squabble with brothers and friends,
but giving a hug is how every heart mends!"

The children climbed on laughing, still a little covered in cream. They said goodbye to Snoozy, Rumble and Whirly the Window, who sneezed one last time, finally showing their bedroom with the snow outside.

"CHOO CHOO!"

And in a breath, Dash, Ziggy, Lily and Skye found themselves back in their warm little beds. Outside it was still snowing, and the branches were white with cream. As they closed their eyes, they were smiling. That night they would surely have the most right and most beautiful dream of all.

And maybe, in that dream, there was still a little scent of whipped cream.