Growing up, whenever young Dana looked in a mirror, she became depressed. Too short, too thin, too flat. Every other girl was awesomely beautiful. It was some kind of California law. I'm an ugly duckling in a land of swans, she thought. She made it a point to avoid looking in mirrors. If Dana had looked, she would have realized that at the age of fourteen, her body was beginning to blossom. At the age of sixteen, she had become very attractive. When she was seventeen, boys began seriously to pursue her. There was something about her eager, heart-shaped face, large inquisitive eyes, and husky laugh that was both adorable and a challenge.
Dana had known since she was twelve how she wanted to lose her virginity. It would be on a beautiful, moon-lit night on some faraway tropical island, with the waves gently lapping against the shore. There would be soft music playing in the background. A handsome, sophisticated stranger would approach her and look deeply into her eyes, into her soul, and he would take her in his arms without a word and suavely carry her to a nearby palm tree. They would get undressed and make love and the music in the background would swell to a climax.
She actually lost her virginity in the back of an old Chevrolet, after a school dance, to a skinny eighteen-year-old redhead named Richard Dobbins, who worked on the Forum with her. He gave Dana his ring and a month later, moved to Milwaukee with his parents. Dana never heard from him again.
The month before she was graduated from college with a B.A. in journalism, Dana went down to the local newspaper, the Claremont Examiner, to see about a job as a reporter.
A man in the personnel office looked over her resume. "So you were the editor of the Forum, eh?"
Dana smiled modestly. "That's right."
"Okay. You're in luck. We're a little shorthanded right now. We'll give you a try."
Dana was thrilled. She had already made a list of the countries she wanted to cover: Russia...China...Africa...
"I know I can't start as a foreign correspondent," Dana said, "but as soon as - "
"Right. You'll be working here as a gofer. You'll see that the editors have coffee in the morning. They like it strong, by the way. And you'll run copy down to the printing presses."
Dana stared at him in shock. "I can't - "
He leaned forward, frowning. "You can't what?"
"I can't tell you how glad I am to have this job."
The reporters all complimented Dana on her coffee, and she became the best runner the paper had ever had. She was at work early every day and made friends with everyone. She was always eager to help out. She knew that was the way to get ahead.
The problem was that at the end of six months, Dana was still a gofer. She went to see Bill Crowell, the managing editor.
"I really think I'm ready," Dana said earnestly. "If you give me an assignment, I'll - "
He did not even look up. "There's no opening yet. My coffee's cold."
It isn't fair, Dana thought. They won't even give me a chance. Dana had heard a line that she firmly believed in. "If something can stop you, you might as well let it." Well, nothing's going to stop me, Dana thought. Nothing. But how am I going to get started?
One morning, as Dana was walking through the deserted Teletype room, carrying cups of hot coffee, a police scanner printout was coming over the wires. Curious, Dana walked over and read it:
ASSOCIATED PRESS - CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA. IN CLAREMONT THIS MORNING, THERE WAS AN ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING. A SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY WAS PICKED UP BY A STRANGER AND...
Dana read the rest of the story, wide-eyed. She took a deep breath, ripped the story from the Teletype, and put it in her pocket. No one else had seen it.
Dana hurried into Bill Crowell's office, breathless. "Mr. Crowell, someone tried to kidnap a little boy in Claremont this morning. He offered to take him on a pony ride. The boy wanted some candy first, and the kidnapper took him to a candy store, where the owner recognized the boy. The owner called the police and the kidnapper fled."
Bill Crowell was excited. "There was nothing on the wires. How did you hear about this?"
"I - I happened to be in the store, and they were talking about it and - "
"I'll get a reporter over there right away."
"Why don't you let me cover it?" Dana said quickly. "The owner of the candy store knows me. He'll talk to me."
He studied Dana a moment and said reluctantly, "All right."
Dana interviewed the owner of the candy store, and her story appeared on the front page of the Claremont Examiner the next day and was well received.
"That wasn't a bad job," Bill Crowell told her. "Not bad at all."
"Thank you."
It was almost a week before Dana found herself alone again in the Teletype room. There was a story coming in on the wire from the Associated Press:
POMONA, CALIFORNIA: FEMALE JUDO INSTRUCTOR CAPTURES WOULD-BE RAPIST.
Perfect, Dana decided. She tore off the printout, crumpled it, stuffed it in her pocket, and hurried in to see Bill Crowell.
"My old roommate just called me," Dana said excitedly. "She was looking out the window and saw a woman attack a would-be rapist. I'd like to cover it."
Crowell looked at her a moment. "Go ahead."
Dana drove to Pomona to get an interview with the judo instructor, and again her story made the front page.
Bill Crowell asked Dana to come into his office. "How would you like to have a regular beat?"
Dana was thrilled. "Great!" It's begun, she thought. My career has finally begun.
The following day, the Claremont Examiner was sold to the Washington Tribune in Washington, D.C.
When the news of the sale came out, most of the Claremont Examiner employees were dismayed. It was inevitable that there would be downsizing and that some of them would lose their jobs. Dana did not think of it that way. I work for the Washington Tribune now, she thought, and the next logical thought was, Why don't I go to work at its headquarters?