The owners of Cold Clay Orchards took their work seriously, and the orchards produced choice fruits from spring through the first snowfall. Early in the year, berries were plentiful and plump. In high summer, the stone fruits like peaches and pears ripened, turning to sweet delight in the oven. But in fall…well, that was when the apples were in season. Glorious apples. Red, green, yellow! Sweet and tart, crispy and juicy.
Fall was the busiest time at Cold Clay Orchards.
That day, when the breeze turned crisp and cool, and the air was scented with apples, the crew of about twenty apple pickers gathered for work. This was pleasant work if you could get it—outside all day in the bright sunshine instead of being cooped up inside. Most of the rabbits looked forward to the time when they could make extra money for something they already enjoyed doing.
Timothy Leveritt was in charge of the harvest this year, just as he’d been for years before. He made most of the day-to-day decisions regarding staffing, planting, and delivering products to customers. However, the orchard was a collective, owned equally by all of the rabbits who worked there. There were only a few lucky enough to work at Cold Clay year-round, as fruit was most definitely a seasonal business. Extra help was hired on at every harvest time.
“All right, let’s get to work!” Timothy pointed to the pile of wooden baskets used for the apple harvest, then to the particular rows of trees “I want half of you lot on the row with the Newton Reds, and the other half harvesting the Sunsets. Whichever team fills the most baskets by noon gets a bonus!”
As the crew began to grab for the baskets, Timothy said to a couple of the rabbits standing closest to him, “Peter and Ralph, you’re on special duty. That one tree at the end of the Sunset row needs to be dug up and replaced. It’s never thrived like the rest, and this year was worse than ever. I want it out of the ground and replaced so we can start fresh next season. Shovels and picks are by the trunk.”
Peter and Ralph nodded smartly and headed to the far end of the long row of trees, where most of the limbs were heavy with apples. The skin of each fruit was a remarkable blend of red and rosy orange, giving the Sunsets their name.
“Can’t wait for the first pie made with these,” Ralph commented as they went. “I remember when Tim brought these saplings in. What, ten, eleven years ago now? No one heard heard of a Sunset apple. Now they’re the top variety.”
Peter nodded in agreement. He was a quiet creature by nature, and had nothing to add to Ralph’s statement. It was pleasant under the dappled shade of the trees, and that was enough for him.
Sadly, that particular day would end less pleasantly than it began. The two rabbits each took a shovel and began to dig around the roots of the ailing apple tree. The ground here was hard to work, the end of the row being less attended to than other parts of the orchard.
A half hour or so brought progress, as the rabbits had dug themselves into a pit of sorts, surrounding the large root ball of the apple tree. They took a break, feeling the heat of the sun on their fur.
“What I wouldn’t give for a cool cider right now,” Ralph said.
Peter nodded in wholehearted agreement, then sighed and picked up his shovel once more.
He stopped working abruptly when his shovel struck something hard. He looked down and saw something white at his feet. Bending down, he brushed dirt away from the object. This wasn’t a tree root or a stone. It was…
“Is that a bone?” Ralph asked, having noticed Peter’s work.
“Think so,” Peter said, brushing yet more dirt away. “Quite a big one too.” He popped his head up out of the hole and looked around. All of the other coworkers were still down at the other end of the row, climbing ladders and tossing apples into baskets, happily going about the day’s work.
Ralph had followed the line of the bones and started digging at one end. His shovel struck something too, and he shortly uncovered a bit of pale bone. He said, in a troubled tone, “We’d better get Leveritt over here to see. And then send someone to fetch the police.”