The sandboarding trip starts well. The rental hut sits at the edge of the dunes, and the guide hands out boards and a short warning. "Stay inside the orange flags," she says. "Be back by four. And remember, the wind blows off the sea all day long."
滑沙之旅开始得很顺利。租赁小屋坐落在沙丘边缘，向导给大家发了滑板，还简短地叮嘱了几句。“别出橙色旗子的范围，”她说，“四点前回来。还有，记住，风整天都从海上吹过来。”
Antonia nods and forgets about it at once. She is far more interested in the biggest dune she has ever seen.
安东尼娅点点头，转眼就忘了。她对眼前这座她见过的最大的沙丘兴致高得多。
By half past two, she, her cousin, the tall boy and the girl with the braid have slid down it three times. Each time, the climb back up feels longer, so they keep moving to the next ridge, and then the next. Nobody notices that the last orange flag has been out of sight for an hour.
到两点半时，她、她表哥、那个高个子男孩和那个扎辫子的女孩已经从上面滑下来三次了。每一次，爬回去都觉得更远，于是他们不断转向下一道沙脊，然后再下一道。没有人注意到，最后一面橙色旗子已经有一个小时不在视线里了。
At the top of a high ridge, the girl with the braid turns in a slow circle. "Which way is the hut?" she asks.
在一道高高的沙脊顶上，扎辫子的女孩慢慢转了一圈。“小屋在哪个方向？”她问。
Every direction shows the same pale waves of sand. The tall boy holds his phone above his head like a trophy. "No signal," he announces. "None."
每个方向看上去都是同样苍白的沙浪。高个子男孩把手机举过头顶，像举着一座奖杯。“没信号，”他宣布，“一格都没有。”
"Our footprints," her cousin says. "We just follow our footprints back."
“我们的脚印，”她表哥说，“我们顺着脚印走回去就行。”
They try it, but the wind has been smoothing the sand all afternoon, and the prints fade after ten steps. Twenty minutes later, they reach a spot where the tall boy stops short. In front of him lies a long scratch left by a board, and beside it, a trail of footprints that all four of them recognize.
他们试了，可风一下午都在抚平沙子，脚印走出十步就淡掉了。二十分钟后，他们来到一个地方，高个子男孩猛地停住脚。他面前躺着一道长长的板痕，旁边是一串脚印，四个人都认得出来。
"We walked in a circle," the girl with the braid says quietly. Their water bottle is half empty.
“我们走了个圈，”扎辫子的女孩轻声说。他们的水瓶只剩一半了。
Antonia sits down and makes herself think. The guide's words come back to her, slowly, like a song she had been trying to remember. The wind blows off the sea. Wind ripples are gentle on the side that faces the wind and steep on the other side.
安东尼娅坐下来，逼着自己思考。向导的话慢慢回到她脑子里，像一首她一直想不起来的歌。风从海上吹来。风纹在迎风的一面是缓坡，在另一面是陡坡。
She runs a hand over the sand beside her. The gentle slopes face one way, and the steep ones face the other.
她用手摸过身旁的沙面。缓坡朝着一个方向，陡坡朝着另一个方向。
"The gentle side points toward the sea," she says. "And the hut is by the sea."
“缓坡的一面朝着海，”她说，“而小屋就在海边。”
"Unless you have it backward," the tall boy says.
“除非你弄反了，”高个子男孩说。
"Then check it." She opens the compass on her phone. It does not need a signal, only a sensor, and the needle swings steadily toward west. The sun is already sinking in that direction. The ripples, the compass and the sun all agree.
“那就验证一下。”她打开手机上的指南针。它不需要信号，只需要传感器，指针稳稳地转向西边。太阳也正向那个方向沉下去。风纹、指南针和太阳，三者说的是同一个方向。
She leads. Every hundred steps, they push a board upright into a ridge, so that they can keep walking in a straight line toward it.
她走在最前面。每走一百步，他们就把一块滑板竖直插进一道沙脊里，这样就能朝着它笔直地一直走下去。
An hour later, a flash of orange appears between two dunes. Then a second flag, and then the roof of the hut, with the guide standing in front of it, shading her eyes.
一小时后，两座沙丘之间闪出一抹橙色。接着是第二面旗子，然后是小屋的屋顶，向导正站在屋前，手搭凉棚张望。
In Antonia's pocket, the phone buzzes once, twice, and then, without stopping, thirty more times.
安东尼娅的口袋里，手机震了一下，又震了一下，然后，不间断地又震了三十下。
