Embarrassed, Joey frowned and looked appropriately uncomfortable at his question in concern. "I think I busted my pride, but other than that..." she replied quietly, more to herself than to him. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"You can eat the stalk, anyway," she replied, seizing another low on its stem and dragging it up by the root. Joey looked up again when he offered her something. "...what is it?" she asked. The tone there was merely curious rather than accusatory, as she pulled another cattail. Her face went red all over again when he apologized for scaring her. "It's okay, I just didn't hear anyone coming, is all," she replied.
He seemed to hesitate before giving his name and once he gave it, she realized why. Everyone was making such a big deal of this guy, she remembered, on the journal. She had no idea why. "I'm Joey," she said. Then, she paused for a moment. "1981, right?" she asked. "We talked sort of, I mean, we wrote...to each...other...that sounds so stupid when I say it out loud," she added awkwardly. Pulling one last cattail from the patch, Joey waded back to the edge of the river and climbed out, carefully avoiding her shoes and socks to keep them from getting wet right along with the rest of her. "It's nice to put a face to the name."
Joey dropped the cattails onto the ground and reached up to start wringing out her thick, dark hair.