Mika the monkey came racing down from the treetops, furious. His fort — the wonderful branch fort he'd spent all morning building with his friend Tumble — lay in a scattered heap on the ground.
And he'd seen it happen. He'd seen Tumble standing right there as it fell.
"He wrecked it!" Mika fumed. "On purpose! I SAW him!" Without asking a single question, without waiting one second, Mika stormed off to tell every animal in the jungle what a terrible friend Tumble was.
"Tumble ruined our fort on purpose!" he told the toucans. "Tumble is mean!" he told the tree frogs. The more he said it, the angrier and surer he became.
Still fuming, Mika stomped down to the Mirror Pool to cool off — the strange, still pond the old monkeys said showed more than just reflections. He glared down at the water, expecting to see his own angry face.
But the water rippled, and instead of his reflection, Mika saw the fort again. The whole moment, playing out on the surface of the pool — but this time, from Tumble's side.
He watched Tumble climbing up to add one last branch to the top of the fort. He watched Tumble's foot slip on the wet bark. He watched Tumble grab wildly for a falling branch, trying to save it — and miss. He watched the whole fort tumble down by accident as Tumble tried desperately to catch it.
And then Mika saw something that made his stomach drop.
He saw Tumble's face. Not smug. Not mean. Just crumpling — horrified, sorry, reaching out to explain — as Mika turned and ran away without letting him say a single word.
Mika stared at the pool, the anger draining out of him, replaced by something heavier.
"It was an accident," he whispered. "He slipped. He was trying to save it. And I... I didn't even ask. I just decided, and ran, and told everyone."
The Mirror Pool showed him one more thing: Tumble, right now, sitting alone by the ruined fort, waiting, hoping his friend would come back and let him explain.
Mika didn't wait another second. He raced back through the jungle, past the toucans and the tree frogs, all the way to the fort — where Tumble sat, small and sad in the wreckage.
"Tumble," Mika said, out of breath. "I'm sorry. I saw it fall and I decided you did it on purpose, and I never even asked." He took a breath. "Can you tell me what happened?"
And Tumble's face lit up with relief. "I slipped," he said. "I tried to catch it. I'm so sorry, Mika. I would never wreck it on purpose."
"I know," said Mika. "I know that now." And he sat down beside his friend, and together — as friends again — they began to rebuild.
From then on, whenever Mika felt sure he knew exactly what had happened, he remembered the Mirror Pool, and he asked one small question first: "Can you tell me what happened?" Because he'd learned there is always another side of the pool — and the only way to see it is to ask.
