An awkward hello-

"
... As soon as I reached, I saw a flat cloud, iron-grey and blue across the place. The closer I got to the shoreline, the more clearly it was defined. I walked along and saw it was a series of undulating sand dunes. And there, a young lady, down a dune four hundred feet away and some minutes later, on those undulating dunes, we walked toward each other under the grey sky. I silently looking at her ; she was a real walker - arms swinging, flat shoes, no cap, no map. It was lovely, too, grey sky above, the sun in the southwest, and a cloudburst falling like a broken bag in the east. I watched this lady, this fairly young lady, in her warm scarf and a bunch of flowers in her hand. I watched her come on. She did not look at me. She drew level and did not notice me. There was no other human being in sight on the beach, deserted for once, only for a lone fishing boat. She walked past me and still with stony-faced.

"Em, hello!" I said.
"Oh," she turned her head to me. "Hello-"

She gave me a good smile - because I am the one who had spoken first. But if I hadn't, 
we would have passed each other on that lonely beach, 
not another soul around, 
five feet apart without a word.

"