Walks Away Woman

Ki Longfellow, acclaimed author of Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria, The Secret Magdalene, and Houdini Heart has penned Walks Away Woman, a remarkable story of an ordinary woman driven to an extraordinary decision. Overwhelmed, overwrought, and overweight, an everyday housewife walks into the Sonoran Desert to die.But theres more to a desert than sand or death. Theres thorns, venom, claws, heat, thirst, other people—and unexpected adventure.As she says, Its because your gums are receding and your hair is thinning and your neckline is sagging. Its because all you ever had was your youth, and you spent that so long ago now its hard to remember what you bought with it. Mrs. Warner shuddered in her loosening skin, was almost running now. Its because youre scared. Lately youre so scared and so aimless and so useless you sleep half the day and panic half the night. In between, you watch TV to ward off the evil of watching yourself. So—if not death, then what?When she tripped over a rock—and in tripping, plunged over the edge of a cliff—Mrs. Warner had forgotten the desert, the cacti, the heat, the hunger, the thirst. All that was left was an ever increasing panic and an ever deepening desperation. And then there was the shock of falling and the screaming inside: Here we go, here we go—but dont hurt, dont hurt. Oh god, please! Dont hurt!After that, there was nothing.Until she woke up at the bottom of an arroyo with a lot of surviving to do. And all she had was her purse. It wasnt much to face a desert with, but Mrs. Warner, born Molly Brock, was in a fight for her life, the life she didnt want until she was just about to lose it.Whats an everyday housewife to do? In Mollys case, a lot. And every bit of it changing her from ordinary to extraordinary.