In the dunes

I always ran towards the sea.

I never actually reached it, but there were more trees down that way, more tufts of wheaten beach grass and smaller dunes huddled closely together, a maze of moguls that became effective enough cover for a crouching teenaged girl.

I often wondered, while I waited with a thumping heart among the interlocking branches of a copse of casuarina trees, what would happen if...