Article: Still Haunted by What Could Have Happened; Our kids are too savvy for the stranger-with-candy routine. But I know danger isn't always so obvious.

Byline: Kathy Sena (SENA lives in Manhattan Beach, Calif.)

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, ...

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