diff --git a/src/allegro/src/x/xkeyboard.c b/src/allegro/src/x/xkeyboard.c
index f121e62..86fa4f7 100644
--- a/src/allegro/src/x/xkeyboard.c
+++ b/src/allegro/src/x/xkeyboard.c
@@ -356,6 +356,14 @@ static int find_unknown_key_assignment (int i)
    return _xwin.keycode_to_scancode[i];
 }

+/* unicode_getc:
+ * Reads a character from a Unicode string.
+ */
+static int unicode_getc(AL_CONST char *s)
+{
+   return *((unsigned short *)s);
+}
+


 /* _xwin_keyboard_handler:
@@ -412,7 +420,7 @@ void _xwin_keyboard_handler(XKeyEvent *event, int dga2_hack)
       }
       buffer[len] = '\0';
       uconvert(buffer, U_UTF8, buffer2, U_UNICODE, sizeof buffer2);
-      unicode = *(unsigned short *)buffer2;
+      unicode = unicode_getc(buffer2);

 #ifdef ALLEGRO_XWINDOWS_WITH_XIM
       r = XFilterEvent((XEvent *)event, _xwin.window);