Neighbourhood Watch - Greg Egan

Short Story

Number of words : 5900
Percent of complex words : 6.1
Average syllables per word : 1.4
Average words per sentence : 10.1


READABILITY INDICES

Fog : 6.5
Flesch : 79.1
Flesch-Kincaid : 4.7


PEOPLE

Monster

Has a contract to protect the local neighbourhood, in return for certain killing ground rights.

David

Leader of the local kids.

Andrew

17, bored and prey out after curfew.

Mrs Bold

Chairman of the local Citizens Against Crime.

Mr Simmons

The local butcher.

Linda

A graffiti vandal.

Bruno

A young lawbreaker.

Pete

A bad boy, too.

Colin

Another bad boy.

Ned Kelly

A famous bushranger.


PLACES

Fall-out shelter

Where the monster resides.


PLOT

A local city area has done a deal with a monster. It is allowed to kill within certain guidelines of place and time if it keeps the area free of crime. It does so for awhile, but decides not to continue with the current contract. It takes care of three young punks out after curfew as part of this deal. It likes killing too much. It kills Mrs Bold, arranger of the contract.

One young boy David is not afraid of the monster like the others, even though he knows it wants to kill. He tells the monster that he dreamed that after he died the monster would die too. After the contract expires and the monster begins to consume him, the boy tells him one last thing - no-one else dreamed of your death, did they?


4 out of 5