The rain tapped on the windowsill: kap, kap, kap. Drops danced on the window, and Lena and Olek's room was warm and cosy. A soft carpet with blue stars lay on the floor. A rocket of blocks stood on the bookcase, and a scarf with yellow dots hung on a chair. Caraway the cat stretched like a long scarf and purred. "Boring!" - sighed Olek, turning a paper airplane in his fingers. Lena unfolded a world map, one with a big ocean and small islands, and suddenly squinted. Something glinted under the bed. "Do you see it?" - she whispered. Olek looked along with her. Under the bed, on the edge of the carpet, a button was shining. Not just any button. It was star-shaped and had a tiny hole in the middle. Around it, the threads of the carpet were arranged like rays of sunshine. "Where did this button come from? It wasn't there yesterday, was it?" - puzzled Olek. Caraway slid his muzzle under the bed and made a "mrauu?" as if asking the same thing. Lena touched the button with the tip of her finger. It was cool and smooth. She tried to twist it. Nothing. Olek pressed it lightly, the way one presses a doorbell. Silence. The rain continued to play its kap, kap. "Maybe we need to blow?" - Lena suggested. She made her mouth into a circle. She blew. Olek blew too, just in case. Caraway blew in the cat's way, meaning he sneezed: "apciu!" Something quietly buzzed: ding. The button flicked. A thin, silver thread of light appeared at its edges. First one, then another, and then a whole web that began to spin like a wheel. "Ooo..." - Lena shook her eyes. "Look!" The light grew. The strands knotted and unknotted until there was a round window in the middle of the carpet. It smelled of raspberries and wind. A gust slipped out of the window. It moved the map, lifted the corner of the yellow dotted handkerchief and set Caraway's ears upright. "That's the gate," Olek said in a half-hearted voice. The word hung between them like a soap bubble. Lena reached out and touched the edge of the window. It wasn't steaming. It was like warm water in a bowl, just glowing. Caraway put out a paw. The paw disappeared for a second on that side and came back whole, only sprinkled with tiny pollen that glittered like glitter in the sunlight. The cat's eyes turned round like buttons. On the other side something rustled. Lena and Olek knelt down. Through the gate they could see a piece of a path made of soft feathers and tall grasses that shone inside like lamps. Above the path hung kites without strings. They floated by themselves and winked their tails at each other. The sky was the colour of evening, although it was only afternoon in the room. Out of nowhere, a paper aeroplane fell out of the gate. It was the same one that Olek was holding a moment ago, only it seemed to have grown bigger and had a zirconia star attached to it. It flapped its wings and landed right on Lena's map. On the wing were mangled letters: "For Lena and Olek". Underneath, someone had drawn an arrow to the centre of the gate and written: "Please." "Who wrote that?" - wondered Lena. A whisper came from the gate, as soft as a slide across a piece of paper: "Lena... Olek..." Caraway murmured louder. He squatted by the edge and curled his tail like a seat belt. Olek opened a drawer and took out a torch, although there was enough light in the gate. Lena threw a yellow dotted kerchief over her shoulders like a coat. "If we go in, we'll remember the way," said Olek, sure as a ship's captain. He unrolled the skipping rope and tied one end to the foot of the bed. The other was held by Lena. "Just in case." "And we'll leave a note," she added. She took a marker and wrote on a scrap of paper: "We're in the room. We're going back for afternoon tea." She put the note on the desk, next to the bead bowl. The star button twinkled again: ding. The gate got bigger, almost like a door. The wind smelled of raspberries more strongly. The kites on that side waved their tails faster and faster, as if they couldn't wait. Somewhere further away a bell sounded, then a second, and after a while a third, a little louder. "Do you hear?" - Lena asked. "Like the start of a show." "Or like a train," replied Olek, leaning over to look into the depths. There were footprints in the feathery path, tiny, as if they had been left by shoes the size of chestnuts. They stopped just at the edge of the gate. "Hello?" - Olek said inwardly. "We're here." Something stirred the grasses. For a moment, just for a blink of an eye, the silhouette of someone with a leaf-shaped hat flashed in the light. Someone nodded cheerfully and disappeared again among the lights. Caraway couldn't stand it. He made a "mrrau!" and with one leap jumped onto the feathered path. He did not disappear. He crouched on the other side and turned as if to say: "Come on!" His moustache sparkled with speckles and his eyes glittered with reflected kites. Lena squeezed Olek's hand. Her heart leapt into her throat, but not from fear. More like she was jumping up on a trampoline. Olek smiled broadly. "Once..." - he began in a whisper, as if he were counting down to jump into the pool. Button blinked once more. The wind dispersed the raindrops on the glass so that a whole, small sun appeared in the glass for a moment. The kites on that side made a quiet "shhh" sound, like leaves. "Two..." - Lena replied, putting her foot right next to the glowing edge, where the warm light tickled her toes. A clear, cheerful voice came from the depths of the gate: "Lena! Olek! Quickly!" The air in the room trembled, the skipping rope strained slightly, and the star button flared so brightly that, for a split second, everything around looked as if enchanted by an aurora And all it took was one more tiny step.