We Ate the Road Like Vultures

by Lynnette Lounsbury

  I read it and laughed and when I raised my head they were getting into the car and driving away, and there were waves but they faded quickly, and soon I was standing back at the bus stop I had been at just under two weeks before like nothing had ever happened. Except I heard the soft humming of a Hebrew song beside me and I looked up into the face of my very own beautiful stupid.

  ‘Come on, disciples, the road smells lonely.’

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This story has had a wild ride of its own. It was a short story, then a blog, then a longer story and now this book. And there were many mad, good people who read it and loved it and told me how to make it better. Thanks to all of them, though I really do need to name a few: Michael Alt, Rozie Kadareanu, Helen Roberts, Michelle Able, Darin Roberts, Ebony Reynaud, Kimberley Duband, Jess Lawrence and especially the brilliantly incisive Fran Lebowitz.

  There are people who make my writing life possible, some who have taught me to write and some who simply cheer me on with perfect wisdom—Glenda and Peter Roberts, Althea Halliday, Carolyn Rickett and Eliza Muldoon.

  Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown found this story its home at Inkerman & Blunt, and Donna Ward and Irma Gold have been both brave and gentle.

  My family inspire me daily with fresh insanity and truth—Tenzin Adair and Finnian James—one day you will own the world. My widest, longest thanks to Jim—for telling me to shut up and write. For reading it. Liking it. Fixing it. And everything else.

  And of course, Jack Kerouac—I travel differently, write differently and think differently because of you.

  ‘I promise that I shall never give up and that I’ll die yelling and laughing.’

  LYNNETTE LOUNSBURY is a writer, lecturer, martial artist, traveller, and occasional poet. She grew up in Papua New Guinea and on the NSW North Coast. She now lives in Sydney. She currently teaches writing and ancient history at Avondale College and is Senior Editor of the student travel blog, Ytravel. Her first book, Afterworld (Allen & Unwin 2014), was released for the young adult market in 2014. We Ate the Road like Vultures is her first novel for adults.