Still Haunted by What Could Have Happened

Newsweek, February, 2006 by Kathy Sena

I was hanging out at the bookstore at the mall, snooping through the teen magazines, when he sidled up next to me. "You're very pretty. You could be a model, you know," he said, pointing at the young girls sporting the latest bikinis in a magazine I'd picked up.

My heart fluttered a bit. At the age of 12, I'd never heard anyone suggest such a fabulous possibility. And for that flattering moment, the fact that I was anything but tall and leggy, not exactly model-skinny and not about to win a Brooke Shields look-alike contest didn't raise any red flags.

"I'm a photographer," he said, adding that he was always on the lookout for new modeling talent. "Do you want to go have a bite at the coffee shop and we can talk?"

I ordered the small salad--dressing on the...