Just Like Alice: a short story

The old Aboriginal man stirred. The scavenging dogs woke him. That and the cold. He had slept in the dry creek bed that twisted though town; in the belly of the snake.

The sand was cold and his blanket not good enough to stop it. He pulled the rag tight about his chest. He coughed and shivered. Up and down the Todd people coughed. One farted and growled at the cold and someone laughed.