Fat Woman Walking

"The Beginning" A Shadow Selfie of the Author Summer 2016 _____________________________________ I began walking as a fat woman. A year later, I would be a thin woman walking, but I will always see that haughty fat woman in the pink, straw hat walking through the KFC Drive Thru, snapping shadow selfies and photos of arrows and Exit signs painted on the pavement. I have become an expert walker; I walk three miles nearly every day, in all kinds of weather and circumstances. I walked on Thanksgiving. I walked on Christmas Day. I walked on New Year’s Eve and Day. I walked on Easter. I walked on Memorial Day. I walked on the Fourth of July. I walked on Labor Day. I have calluses on my feet and the worn-out shoes to prove my endurance. I do not have superpowers, nor am I anyone special – I am just afraid, afraid not to walk – that if I don’t keep on walking my body will grow inert and, yet again, logy, soft, fat. Perhaps die before my time. In most t...