Bounce squinted up through the leaves and counted seven bounces to the lowest branch. The golden fruit grew somewhere far above that, past the tangled oaks and maples of the flowering grove. Bounce was a small purple blob, translucent as jelly, and every hop sent light rippling through their body. They had been trying to reach the top of the Canopy Upstairs for three days. They still had no idea how high the top actually was. The problem was simple and awful. Bounce could jump hard or jump smart, but not both forever. Guess too low and they'd stall in open air. Guess too high and they'd burn out halfway and drop like a wet stone. Yesterday's crash had left a purple smear on a root. Bounce did not want a second smear. A flicker of green light darted between two blossoms. A small fairy landed on a pink petal, folding her sparkling wings. Her leaf dress rustled as she crossed her arms and studied Bounce like a puzzle she'd already solved. "You keep aiming at nothing," she said. "That's why you keep falling." Bounce wobbled. "I can't see the top. The branches hide it." "Then stop guessing the top." She pointed at a knot high on the oak. "Aim there. Grab it. Look up. Aim again." Bounce had been trying to solve the whole climb in one leap. The fairy was offering a ladder made of guesses they could actually check. Bounce squished low, gathered every ounce of spring, and fired straight up. Leaves whipped past. The knot rushed at them. Bounce slapped against the bark and stuck, quivering, halfway up the trunk. From here the grove opened. Bounce could see the next branch, and the one above that, and a slice of sky through the canopy. No gold yet. But now Bounce could measure. Trunk to branch, one hard bounce. Branch to branch, one soft bounce. The tree gave them a ruler. "Again," the fairy called from below. Bounce peeled off the bark and bounced. Branch. Bounce. Branch. Each landing told them how much spring the next jump needed. Bounce's body glowed brighter with every hop, warming from the work. At the eighth branch Bounce stopped. Their sides heaved like a bellows. Above, the leaves thinned. Bounce could finally see it: a single gold fruit hanging from a thin twig, higher than any branch they'd touched. Between here and there was a long, empty gap with nothing to land on. The fairy caught up, hovering level with Bounce's eyes. Her grin was small and sharp. "Now you know how high," she said. "Do you know how you're crossing that?" Bounce looked at the gap. Bounce looked at the fruit. The guessing was over. The real problem had just shown its face.

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.