Neighbourhood Watch

Archive, #15 Suburbia, #15 Art & Comics / By
Lee Lai
Lee Lai is from Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, and currently makes comics and illustrations in Tio’tia:ke (known as Montreal, Quebec). Her work is part memoir, part fiction— stories about intimacy, families, and food. Her work has been featured in The New Yorker, The Lifted Brow, Room Magazine, and Everyday Feminism.
COMIC: Neighbourhood Watch by Lee Lai Panel 1: A city streetcorner. A shopfront in the sun, the shade falling on its other side. The top level is a dentist, the ground level a storefront. Text: "There's this old lady who lives about a twenty-minute walk north from my place, where the rent is still on the cheaper side." Panel 2: The ground level store front shows childrens dress clothes displayed on headless mannequins. Text: "Actually, I haven't fact-checked that at all, that's just what I heard." Panel 3: On street-level, there is a break between two buildings. One is paler brick, only one story. The other is a dark brick. A set of stairs ascends the side of the second brick building. There is a shuttered window on the side and a small bush in the corner of the small stairwell. The text reads, "I heard she lives alone in a second-story apartment." Panel 4: A woman in a small grocery store holds a laden bag and walks out the door. The door is next to the banana display, and some crates full of miscellaneous fruit. Text: "I see her on the main shopping strip sometimes, when the fruit store is doing a seven-for-a-buck deal on lemons."
Panel 5: The woman in the grocery store has dark hair and is wearing glasses. She stands in front of a bin of fruit and chooses three of them, they look like lemons. An older woman with white hair stands in front of a different fruit bin, in the background. Text: "So many times, I've wanted to approach her and be like, 'Hi, you're notorious in a great way, and I appreciate you', but I'm always too fricking shy." Panel 6: The older woman pushes a small trolley on the sidewalk past a different store. She carries a big black handbag and is wearing glasses. Text: "I've heard she's a total demon at cards and backgammon, and mahjong, and chess, and probably every other game that's played at the local bars. I heard that the old dudes don't want to play with her anymore." Panel 7: The older woman pushes her trolley down a residential street, past small buildings of apartments. Text: "I've heard she speaks sixteen languages." Panel 8: The top corner of a small, brick apartment building is visible, the background is a clear sky. There is a slightly ornate balcony railing. Some powerlines and birds can be seen in the distance. Text: "I've heard that she watches sitcoms at night, and that everyone in a stone-throw's radius can hear her cackling at the TV."
Panel 9: A person sits in a shaded bus stop. It is a sunny day. Residential buildings can be seen in the background. Text: "I've heard she visits people in their homes, and chats with them about the changes that are happening in the neighbourhood." Panel 10: People walk by on the street. One person sits on the kerb, a skateboard held in their lap. There is a bench, but it is unoccupied. Text: "She's got no patience for emails or mobile phones, but apparently she'll sit with people while they write appeals to the tenants board, or do the paperwork to oppose their rent-hikes." Panel 11: The grocery store on the corner. The awning is drawn low over bins full of melons. Text: "My roommate is pretty convinced that she's a witch." Panel 12: Another, more miscellaneous store front. The window display shows vases full of flowers, some lamps, some images of clothing. There is a sign that reads, "Dry clean is available." Text: "I don't know what I think, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was true."
Panel 13: Some more apartment buildings are seen against the sky. Their windows are empty, but some clouds can be seen in the sky. Text: "I've heard she knows how to visit condo-developers in their dreams at night, and scare them senseless with torturous nightmares." Panel 14: A construction site. A lone tree,and one streetlamp stand sentry. Birds fly past in the sky. There is some grass growing on the ground, on what looks like mounds of earth. Safety cones, safety barriers, and some big fences obstruct movement. Text: "I've heard she knows how to make a bulldozer malfunction with a single glance." Panel 15: Another streetcorner, another store front. A woman with a shawl over her hair sits alone on a bench on the street. Text: "She's been living in the neighbourhood for as long as anyone can remember, but I heard her landlord's looking to sell the building." Panel 16: At a quiet intersection of streets, some trees and the corner of a small fenced garden can be seen. Across the street is a two-storey brick building. Text: "I don't know where she'll go, then."

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