Sutherland Family Orchard

Sutherland Family Orchard

Excerpt from Rediscovered

By Denise Cooper

This orchard was once one of the Sutherland family's most important properties and the most "legitimate" part of their business. Anne Sutherland - the woman who ran the place - was an elegant lady, widely admired by those who knew her. She had been widowed not long into her marriage, leaving her with two young children to raise alone. She managed the orchard and all the surrounding farmland herself. I was a teenager when I first came to the orchard with some of my older relatives. In between all the wine drinking, I paid a visit to Ms. Anne and negotiated a few mutually beneficial business deals. I didn't really get to know her well though. So much time has passed that I can't even really remember her face too clearly. But I do remember how much I admired her at that time. The Sutherland Family Orchard is just as quiet as I remember it. In the moonlight, the outline of the ruined buildings makes me think of a pale woman lying on a couch. There is no doubt that a large number of Deviants still lurk among those walls. The urge to revisit the site and go deeper into the orchard to find out what happened to Ms. Anne and her family was almost overwhelming. I ordered the expedition to camp as far away from that sad, dangerous site as possible. We would plot a route around it the next morning.