That morning the sky was pink like a strawberry candy. Dash, Ziggy, Lily and Skye had climbed up into Grandma Pina's attic, the one everybody called "the Bouncing Attic." Do you know why it bounced? Because inside there was a magic golden dust, and whenever that dust touched something... boom! It made it bounce like a little ball.

"Look!" laughed Dash, tossing an old hat into the air. The hat bounced on the trunk, then on the chair, then on Ziggy's nose.

"Hey!" sneezed Ziggy. "You got dust all over me!"

Lily opened a trunk full of silly sports gear: crooked rackets, flat balls, shoes as big as boats. Skye, calm as always, found a sparkly sock all covered in colorful stripes.

"What a strange sock," said Skye softly. "It shines like a star."

Just then a mischievous little breeze slipped in through the little window. It was the playful wind, the kind that ruffles your hair and makes the leaves fly. It blew on the sparkly sock and... whoosh! The sock flew out of Skye's hands and landed right on two golden train tracks that had appeared out of nowhere.

"CHOO CHOO!"

It was him! Toby the Magic Train, with his colorful smoke and his shiny iron smile. The children clapped their hands, because they knew that whenever Toby arrived a brand-new adventure always began. And Toby, as everyone knows, only speaks in rhyme.

"CHOO CHOO, good morning, my runners, let's fly —
today you'll go faster than winds in the sky!
I'll take you where roads are all tangled, a lot,
and only together can you untie the knot!"

"A mess? What mess?" asked Dash, who was already fidgeting on the spot, because Dash loved to run and never stood still.

Toby winked and said nothing more. The four friends climbed aboard, the sparkly sock held tight in Dash's hand. The little train set off fast through the pink clouds.

After one loop, two loops and three loops, Toby stopped. The children climbed down and stood there, mouths wide open.

In front of them was a town all crooked. The roads weren't straight: they were knotted! They twisted like shoelaces, they bent, they crossed over each other. One road ended up on the roof of a house. Another curled around in a circle like a little pig's tail.

"Welcome to Tangletown," said a sly little voice. "Watch where you put your feet, because here everything is one big tangle."

From behind a vase popped a cat. He had ruffled fur and smelled of cookies, as if he'd just stolen them from a windowsill.

"What is a tangle?" asked Lily, with her curious little face.

"A tangle," explained the cat, "is when things get all tangled up, that is, they knot together and you can't tell anymore where they start and where they end. Like your hair in the morning!" And he laughed.

"And who are you?" asked Ziggy.

"I am Whiskers Tumble, the cat who knows every secret corner of this town! Follow me, I'll show you the problem. Ooone, twooo, thrrr—"

And on "three" Whiskers tripped over his own tail and fell head over heels. Plop! He landed on his tail instead of his paws.

The children burst out laughing.

"Don't laugh," said Whiskers, getting up all ruffled. "It always happens on number three. I just can't help it."

Whiskers led them into the middle of town. There was an old lady crying.

"I can't find my house anymore!" she sobbed. "The roads all got mixed up during the night, and now nobody knows where they live. What a disaster!"

"That's the problem," sighed Whiskers. "The roads of Tangletown have gotten all tangled. As long as they stay knotted, nobody can find their home."

"And how do you untangle this tangle?" asked Skye, sad for the old lady.

Whiskers scratched one ear. "There's a secret. The roads unroll and go back to straight only if someone runs along them, in the right order, passing this to each other!" And he pointed at the sparkly sock in Dash's hand. "It's a magic baton. You run one stretch of road and then pass it to the next runner. It's called running a relay."

"A relay!" jumped Dash, his eyes sparkling. "It's my favorite race! A relay is when you run as a team: I run my part, then I pass the baton to you, you run your part and pass it to someone else. Like that, one at a time, but all together!"

"Exactly," said Whiskers. "But careful: it's harder than it looks."

But Dash was too happy. Running? A race? He couldn't wait.

"Let's do it right now!" he shouted. "I'll win, I'm the fastest!"

And off he shot like a rocket, without waiting for anyone.

It was a tremendous disaster.

Dash ran so hard he didn't see a road that curved upward, and he found himself running upside down on a wall! Ziggy tried to pass him, but he zigzagged so much that he knotted his own legs and rolled into a giant pot. Lily ran the wrong way and ended up in the loop of a round road, spinning and spinning like on a merry-go-round. "Heeelp, I can't stop!"

And Whiskers? Whiskers set off... backwards! "I know all the shortcuts!" he said, all proud. "Ooone, twooo, thrrr—" and plop, tumble number three, straight into a fountain.

Meanwhile the playful wind blew hard and tore the sock-baton from Dash's hands. Whoosh! The sock flew up high, bounced off a chimney, and glided onto a roof.

"The baton!" everyone shouted.

Nobody could reach it. And the roads, instead of unrolling, knotted more and more. Tangle upon tangle. The old lady cried even harder.

Dash stopped, out of breath. His heart was beating fast. He looked at his friends: Ziggy in the pot, Lily on the merry-go-round, Skye trying to help everyone, Whiskers soaking wet in the fountain.

"I understand where we went wrong," said Dash, and for the first time he spoke quietly. "We all ran at the same time but each on our own. Everyone wanted to win alone. But a relay doesn't work that way!"

"And how does it work?" asked Skye, helping Lily down from the merry-go-round.

"We have to run one at a time," explained Dash, "each our own stretch of road, and pass the baton calmly, at the right moment. You can't pass the baton all by yourself. You need someone to take it!"

Whiskers climbed out of the fountain, shaking himself off. "My little kitten always used to tell me: together you win."

So they made a plan. Skye, calm and precise, would start first. Then she would pass the baton to Lily, strong and determined. Lily to Ziggy, bouncy and nimble. And the last stretch, the final sprint, to Dash, the fastest of all.

But first they had to get the sock back from the roof. Ziggy had an idea: Whiskers, even though he was clumsy, could jump the way only cats can. "Whiskers, it's your turn!"

The cat took a running start. "Ooone, twooo..." The children held their breath. On three he would fall, like always!

"...thrrr—THREE!" And this time Whiskers made a giant leap, snatched the sock with his paws and... landed softly on the grass. On his feet. Without falling.

"I DID IT!" meowed Whiskers, amazed at himself. "I didn't fall!"

"Because this time you weren't running alone," smiled Skye. "You were doing it for us."

The relay truly began. Skye set off calm and straight as a spindle, and behind her the first road unrolled with a soft whoosh, turning straight again. She passed the baton to Lily: "Here, don't give up!" Lily gripped the sock and ran hard, jumping over a puddle, dodging a vase, and the second road straightened out. "Ziggy, your turn!"

Ziggy grabbed the baton, did a cartwheel of joy and zigzagged, but this time the right way: the third road came undone like a knot pulling open. "Daaash! Sprint!"

And then Dash's moment came. The last road, the longest and most tangled of all, was waiting just for him. Dash took the sparkly baton. The playful wind blew, but this time Dash held the sock tight with both hands.

He ran.

He ran like he had never run before. His feet pounded fast, his heart sang, his friends shouted "Go, Dash! Go!" The road in front of him unrolled, straightened, opened up step after step. One knot, two knots, three knots... all undone!

And the very last little lane, the one right at the end, was a small hidden road that stopped in front of a soft little bed with a bowl and a cushion.

"That... that's my home!" exclaimed Whiskers, his eyes glistening. "My secret little bed! I hadn't been able to find it in so long!"

Dash crossed the finish line right there. And then something wonderful happened: all the roads of Tangletown, one after another, unrolled together with a great chain of PLOPS. Straight, tidy, perfect. The houses returned to their places.

The old lady stopped crying. "My house! My house is back!" And all the townsfolk came out happy, because everyone could finally find their own door again.

Whiskers ran to his little bed and rolled around inside it, happy. For the first time, the stray cat had a home he knew how to find.

"Thank you, children," said Whiskers. "On my own I never could have done it."

"Neither could we," said Dash. "We did it together."

"CHOO CHOO!" It was Toby, back to pick them up, with his colorful smoke.

"CHOO CHOO, what a relay, what a wonderful day,
the roads are all straight, and the whole town's okay!
Alone you get tangled, as now you all know,
but together you win, and the whole world will glow!"

The children waved goodbye to Whiskers, climbed aboard the little train and headed home through the pink clouds, tired, happy and a little dusty. And as Tangletown faded into the distance, everyone knew something new: alone you get tangled, but together, passing the baton and trusting one another, every tangle comes undone. Because together you really do win.