Stereotypes of sexual predators were pimpled, bleary-eyed men with jagged teeth. Hector had intelligence and charm. I didn’t see how him being a monster in one regard stopped him from being a hero in another.

Stereotypes of sexual predators were pimpled, bleary-eyed men with jagged teeth. Hector had intelligence and charm. I didn’t see how him being a monster in one regard stopped him from being a hero in another.
“Student Raped by U.C. Santa Cruz Professor,” I read in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
I pulled back from my computer screen. Moments before, my college friend Luke called to supply a long stream of curse words and a recommendation: read the Santa Cruz newspaper, which I hadn’t in years. Though the headline didn’t include that name, it didn’t have to: Hector Perla. I knew him from lecture and sat close to him in the front rows.