Bounce's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

Bounce clung to the eighth branch and stared at the gap. The fruit hung above open air. No branch, no leaf, no vine bridged the space. Bounce's sides still heaved from the climb. One wrong jump would burn every drop of spring they had left and drop them all the way down. The fairy hovered near Bounce's shoulder. "I taught you how to climb," she said. "I don't know how to cross that. You need someone who has." "Who?" Bounce asked. "The yellow monkeys. They've touched the highest branches in the grove. Ask their leader." Bounce hopped back down, branch to branch, softer now, saving spring. At the base of the oaks the grove opened into blossoms taller than Bounce. Yellow shapes moved in the high leaves. One dropped down the trunk in three quick swings and landed in front of Bounce. She was small and yellow, with a crown of leaves and pink flowers pressed into her fur. A worn green tunic hung to her knees. She looked Bounce over the way a builder looks at a crooked beam. "You're the purple one everyone's watching," she said. "I'm Sunshine. What do you want?" "There's a gap," Bounce said. "Between the eighth branch and the golden fruit. Nothing to land on. The fairy said you'd know." Sunshine's tail flicked. "I know the gap. My climbers stop at the seventh. We don't cross it either." Bounce sagged. Light dimmed inside their body. "But," Sunshine said, "we've watched something cross. A tall wooden ladder rests against the far side of the grove. Sometimes a keeper carries it out and props it in the gap for the birds. When it's there, the rungs give you landings all the way up." "Where is it now?" "Laid flat in the brush. Too heavy for us. Too heavy for you." Bounce thought. "Show me." Sunshine led Bounce through the blossoms to a long wooden ladder resting in the grass. The side rails were thicker than Bounce's whole body. Bounce pushed. It didn't move. "My climbers can drag one end," Sunshine said. "If you bounce under the middle, we lift together." Three yellow monkeys dropped from the trees at her whistle. They gripped the top rail. Bounce squished flat beneath the middle and sprang. The ladder lurched up. The monkeys hauled. Bounce sprang again. Rung by rung, they walked it to the base of the oaks and leaned it against the trunk. It reached the fourth branch. Not the eighth. Not the gap. Sunshine wiped her palms on her tunic. "That's as far as we go. You'll have to carry the rest up yourself, one rung at a time. And the keeper comes back at dusk for it." Bounce looked up the trunk. The fruit still hung far above, hidden now behind leaves. Bounce had a ladder, a deadline, and no idea how to lift wood higher than they could jump.