Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace (26 page)

My ascendancy was set.

Until he failed.

Do you know how much I still hate him today? That’s another thing about this place. It amplifies life’s failings, makes them louder. They take up too much space in my brain.

The only way to escape is to trudge down this dingy sidewalk in this town crisscrossed by railroad ties and rusting steel and the sad remnants of what was once wealth and success. At the end of the street is a house. My house. It’s next to another building, and as I approach it, I can’t help but chuckle at the irony.

I’ve been sent back as a preacher this time.

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Table of Contents

NOT WITHOUT MY FATHER:

BOOKS BY ANDRA WATKINS

NOTE ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE MEMOIR

DEDICATION

MAP OF THE NATCHEZ TRACE

Road to Nowhere

Hit the Road Jack

King of the Road

Walk This Way

I Walk Alone

One Vision (Fried Chicken)

I’ve Been Everywhere

Walk

When the Saints Go Marching In

Roam If You Want To

Walk Right Back

Walk Like a Man

I Drove All Night

Rednecks White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer

You’ll Never Walk Alone

Holiday Road

Have Love Will Travel

Fields of Gold

Walking on Broken Glass

Walk On By

I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends

Walk Like an Egyptian

Green Onions

Walkin’ After Midnight

A Million Miles Away

Every Day Is a Winding Road

Walking on Sunshine

I’m Walkin’

Cross Road Blues

One Step Up

Follow You, Follow Me

I Walk the Line

The Golden Age

Walking to You

walk on the wild side

Fast Car

Walk and Don’t Look Back

Go Walking Down There

Personal Jesus

Love Walks In

Learning to Fly

I Would Walk 500 Miles

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SUPPORT THE TRACE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TO LIVE FOREVER:

HARD TO DIE

I AM NUMBER 13

THE THREE R’S OF 21ST CENTURY READING