Amos shook his head urgently. He couldn’t imagine the punishment he would earn if he came back with an almost naked outsider woman, one who didn’t even wear a cross.
“It’s lonely back home,” said Tangerine. “I mean, no one lives here, and Dad works. There’s just me and my grandmother most of the time.”
The fog was shrouding the tops of the tallest trees across the road. Amos watched it, and even as he spoke, he wondered why he wasn’t already running back up the road to home.
“What about your mother?”
“She’s dead,” said Tangerine. “She died a long while back.”
Amos could smell the fog now, could almost taste the wetness on his tongue. There could be vampires right there, hidden in that vanguard of cloud, close enough to spring out and be on him in seconds. But he still found it difficult to tear himself away.
“I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said, and bolted, calling over his shoulder. “Same time.”
“See you then!” said Tangerine. She waved, and that image stayed in Amos’s head, her standing like that, her raised arm lifting her breasts, that smile on her face, and her bright hair shining, with the cold white fog behind, like a painted background, to make sure she stood out even more.
Amos wasn’t home by five, or even half past, and he just barely beat the main body of the fog that came straight down the mountainside. The home door was shut and barred by the time he got there, so he had to knock on the lesser door, and he got a cracking slap from his mother when she let him in, and when his father finished his bath, he ordered an hour-long penance that left Amos with his knees sore from kneeling and made the words he’d been repeating over and over so meaningless that he felt like they were some other language that he’d once known but had somehow forgotten.
Through it all, he kept thinking of Tangerine, seeing Tangerine, imagining what might happen when he next saw her. and then he’d try to pray harder, to concentrate on those meaningless words, but whatever he did, he couldn’t direct his mind away from those bare arms and legs, the way her unbound hair fell.
Amos slept very badly and earned more punishments before breakfast than he’d had in the past month. Even his father, who favored prayer and penance over any other form of correction, was moved to take off his leather belt, though he only held it as an unspoken threat, while he delivered a homily on attention and obedience.
Finally it was time to get the mail. Amos took no chances that this plum job might be taken from him. If anyone else saw Tangerine, he’d never be allowed to go to the mailbox again. So he put on his bracers, coat, and hat without being asked and went to tell his mother he was going.
She looked at him over her loom but didn’t stop her work, the shuttle clacking backward and forward as she trod the board.
“You be back by five,” she warned. “Theodore says the fog today will be even thicker. It is a shocking month for vampire weather.”
“Yes, Mother,” said Amos. He planned to run to the mailbox as soon as he was out of sight of the village. That would give him a little extra time with Tangerine. If she came. He was already starting to wonder if he might have imagined her.
He also made sure to wave and nod to Young Franz, who was working on the roof of his father’s house again. But as soon as he was around the bend, Amos broke into a run, pounding along the road as if there was a vampire after him. He didn’t notice Young Franz standing on the chimney, watching him run.
Tangerine was at the mailbox, but so was the post truck and a postal worker, a man. He was chatting to Tangerine while he put the letters in the slot, and they were both smiling. Amos scowled and slowed down, but he kept going. Since he’d already talked to a girl, talking to a postman wasn’t going to be any bigger transgression.
They both turned around as he approached. Amos had seen this same postman before, in the distance, but up close he saw details he’d never noticed before. Like the fact that the postman didn’t wear crosses either, and there were no wrist bracers under his uniform coat. It also looked too light to be sewn with silver wire or set with coins.
“Hi,” said Tangerine. She had a different dress on, but it was just as revealing as the one the day before. Amos couldn’t take his eyes off her, and he didn’t notice the postman winking at him.
“Howdy, son,” called the postman. “Good to see you.”
“Brother,” replied Amos stiffly. “We don’t call each other ‘son.’”
“Fair enough, brother,” said the postman. “I guess I’m old enough to be your dad, is why I said son. But I’d better be on my way. Plenty of mail to deliver.”
“And the fog is coming down,” said Amos. He was trying to be friendly, because he didn’t want to look bad in front of Tangerine. But it was difficult.
“Oh, the fog’s no problem,” said the postman. “I’ll drive down out of it soon enough, and the road is good.”
“I meant it is vampire weather,” said Amos.
“Vampire weather?” asked the postman. “I haven’t heard that said since. well, since I was no older than you are now. I doubt there’s a wild vampire left in these parts. With nothing to drink, they just wither away.”
“My great-uncle’s wife and daughter were killed by vampires, not eight years ago,” said Amos hotly.
“But that’s. ” The postman’s voice trailed off, and he looked at Amos more intently, tilting his head as he took in the necklace of crosses and the bracers. “I knew you folk were old-fashioned, but you can’t tell me you’re not vaccinated? That’s against the law!”
“There is no law but the word of the Lord,” said Amos automatically.
“I gotta get going,” said the postman. He wasn’t smiling now. “Miss. uh. Tangerine, you want a lift down to your dad’s?”
“No, thanks, Fred,” said Tangerine. “My grandma’s coming past a bit later, I’ll go back with her.”
“Well, say hello to your dad from me,” said the postman. “Good-bye. brother.”
Amos nodded, just a slight incline that if he’d done it to an older man back home would have gotten him into serious trouble.
“I’ve been waiting for a while,” said Tangerine. She leaned back against the mailbox and tilted her head, so that her hair fell across one of her eyes. “I thought maybe you’d come early.”
“Everything’s got its time,” said Amos gruffly. He took out his key and held it nervously, his mouth weirdly dry. “Uh, I have to. to get the mail. ”
“Oh, sure,” laughed Tangerine. She moved aside, just enough that Amos could lean forward and open the lid. She was so close he almost touched her arm with the back of his hand. He reached past and quickly took out the mail. Just two buff-colored envelopes today.
Tangerine moved behind him as he locked the mailbox, so that just like the day before, she was blocking his way.
“I have to get back,” said Amos. He jerked his thumb at the fog that was once again eddying down the hillside.
“Can’t we just. talk awhile?” asked Tangerine. “I mean, I’m curious about you. I’ve never met anyone like you before.”
“What do you mean, like me?” asked Amos.
“Nothing bad!” exclaimed Tangerine. She came closer to him and gave a little tug at the lapel of his coat. Amos took half a step back and almost didn’t hear what she said next, the blood was rushing so in his ears. “I mean, you’re a really good-looking guy, but it was kind of hard to tell at first, with the big hat and the coat and everything. And I never saw so many crosses — ”
“I told you, it’s for. to protect us. against the vampires,” said Amos.
“But you don’t need them,” said Tangerine. “Like Fred said, there’s no wild vampires left. When most everyone got vaccinated, they just died out.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Amos. “People see them, in the fog, through the windows.”