*      *      *

When Garbarla awakened, he was no longer trapped within the vine-like branches of the willow tree.   The squat, lethal-taloned beast was no longer leaning over him.   And Geraldine’s mutilated corpse no longer lay at his feet.   For a second he dared to hope it had all been a nightmare.   But he knew that was unlikely since it was daytime.   And since he was lying on his back on the bed of pine needles in the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus forest.   He looked around for some trace of Geraldine, the willow tree, or the mound of snow.   But there was nothing.

“Joseph!” he heard a faint voice calling.   Garbarla looked up startled.   It was rare that anyone called him Joseph.   He had been Christened Garbarla Bulilka by his Aboriginal mother Debbie in 1957.   Then, after being kidnapped in 1962 by his white grandmother, he had lived for twenty years as Joseph Hunt.   On his return from Queensland in the early 1980s he had adopted the name Joseph Garbarla.   But most of his friends called him Garbarla.

“Joseph!” the voice called again.

Garbarla clawed his way to his feet and almost fell again as his head swam for a moment.   He steadied himself by clinging to a red gum.   Then as his head cleared he began to look round the forest for the source of the voice calling him.

“Joseph!” called the voice a third time.   Looking up Garbarla saw the tall, lean white man, perhaps eight metres away.

At first Garbarla hesitated.   But, as the man raised a hand to wave, Garbarla sensed that he was a friend.   Trying to ignore the throbbing in his head, the half-breed Aborigine set off at a trot toward the waving figure.   As he got closer he saw the man was standing near a small mound of snow.

“Snow!” said the vaguely familiar man, pointing down at it for emphasis.

Garbarla almost smiled, recalling Geraldine’s childlike delight at finding the snow near the weeping willow tree.   Then he recalled what had been lurking in the willow tree.   And he realised the sight of snow incited only terror in the tall, thin white man.