Nomos — One
Lead author: Mike Hughes, Co-author: Chiayu Hsu
The first of the Nomos*
83-year-old Fang Han was scared.
He wandered around the tiny room talking to his dead wife whom he missed more and more each day. ‘Where can she be?’ he muttered. ‘ I suppose she might have stayed behind to talk to her professor about something. I really must remember that she is not a little girl any more. How old is she? She must be twenty-three now.’
His wife would have reassured him: ‘Don’t worry so Granddad. She will be home very soon. I feel it in my bones.’
But now her bones were just ashes in an urn, so that did not help him very much.
His granddaughter was Fang Yu, who was staying with him for a few weeks in his one-room apartment in a poor quarter of Xangzhai.
‘Granddad,’ she had asked one day, ‘can I stay on your sofa for a bit? I am going on a course in Xangzhai and it would be cheaper than staying in a hostel.’ Fang Yu was studying to become a doctor and she had always been his favorite. When Yu’s parents had had to work long hours in the clothing factory, the little girl lived most of the time at her grandparents, unofficially of course. In those days however, there was still a feeling of community among the people of the neighbourhood. They would never have betrayed the lovely young girl who spent so much time at her grandparents.
But this sense of loyalty and taking care of each that had existed in the neighbourhood seemed to be rapidly disappearing. Han felt in need of someone to talk to about the situation, and his fear for his beloved Fang Yu. He would go and visit one of his good neighbours, Deng Jing. She was an old woman these days and had lived in the area as long as Han himself had.
He was not worried about going outside into the street. He just went down into his cellar, went through some interconnecting doors and came up outside the back door of old Deng Jing.
He knocked on her door. ‘Who is it?’ said a timid, high-pitched voice.
‘It’s only me, Fang Han,’ he replied quietly.
He heard the sound of the bolts being thrown and the door opened. ‘Fang Han,’ said Jing with a smile, ‘How lovely to see you. Come in, come in. ’
‘Thank you, Jing. You’re so kind’ Han said to the lady. ‘I hate to bother you but I’m just a bit worried about my granddaughter Yu, she should be home by now. Have you seen her in our neighborhood?’
‘Oh, poor old man’ chuckled the lady, ‘You’re just scaring yourself. She’s probably just late back from college. She’s a big girl now, she can take care of herself.’
‘I think so, too, I just…’
‘Okay, okay, I know something might help you.’ The lady smiled and pulled her device out of the pocket. ‘I was lost on my way back the other day and my phone was dead. My son couldn’t reach me and was very worried.’ She pointed at a program shown on the device.
‘He told me he could use this if he needed someone to do a small favour. It’s part of the state’s social improvement plan, I suppose. You can report missing family or loved ones, so people around can help you locate them. All you need to do is upload a photo of the person, and offer a reasonable number of your social credits as a reward to whoever helps you. My son used this to find me. It could probably help you to find your granddaughter.’
‘Oh look, I have it on my phone too, I just didn’t know what it does. Thanks, Jing. This is very helpful.’ Han said while fetching his phone and launching the app.
‘I happened to have a photo of my granddaughter. I took it while she was sleeping on my sofa. Let me just upload it now.’ The old man uploaded the photo and showed it to his old friend Jing. ‘You will hear from her in no time,’ said the old lady.’Trust me.’
‘Thank you so much. Now I feel so relieved. ‘ll just go home and wait..’ Han replied with a smile on his face.
‘I’ll just come and lock up behind you’ said Deng Jing, ‘you hear terrible stories about young hooligans breaking into old people’s homes. They seem to know exactly how old we are, where we live and say that there is no place for us. It’s very scary. Get home safely old friend.’
Han scurried through the cellars to the back door of his little room. He was so glad he didn’t have to go out onto the street, especially now Jing had told him about these young hooligans. He was sure his granddaughter would be safely home by now. He reached his door through the tunnel, took the key out of his pocket, put it into the lock and turned the handle. It turned ok but he could not open the door. He pushed harder and it became clear to him that someone had thrown the bolts to lock the door from the inside.
‘Who’s there, who’s in my room. Let me in, are you there Fang Yu?’ He heard someone sobbing. ‘Are you all right Granddaughter, are you all right?’
‘Oh Granddad, Granddad. Is it you? Oh thank goodness. Just a minute and I’ll unbolt the door.’ The old man heard the sounds of the bolts being pulled back, rushed inside and was horrified to see his favourite Granddaughter collapsing in tears on the sofa. Her clothes were torn and there were scratches on her face. Tears were running down the dust and muck on her cheeks.
Han sat on the sofa next to her, put his arms around her and made the same sorts of soothing sounds he remembered his wife making when Fang Yu was a little girl and had fallen over and hurt herself.
‘It was so awful Granddad, so awful, although I did manage to get away in the end before the very worst happened,’ sobbed Yu.
‘But what happened, what happened?’ asked the old man. ‘What do you mean ‘the very worst’?’
‘I had stayed behind after my lectures to talk a bit with Chang, my lecturer’ explained Yu. ‘He’s a bit weird and gets a bit too close to me sometimes, but he does have some very interesting ideas about pancreatic functioning. I do so want to do well in my exams so he’s giving me some sort of unofficial coaching. I buy him a cup of coffee in the canteen and I let him sit on the same side of the desk as he gives me this extra help. Actually, he was more creepy than usual this evening, asking about my dating life and what was my thought about the declining birth rate. “You are to be a doctor, and you should know better how a low birth rate could hurt a nation in general”, he told me. At the time I just thought he was being extra weird but looking back I can see it wasn’t only that. Anyway, it was a bit later than usual when we left the building and most other students must have gone home because the streets were almost empty. Chang was very keen to walk me home. He kept telling me that there were groups of youth, who the State had entrusted with very important missions, something to do with increasing the birth rate by tracking young women. I got the sense that he too was a member of one of these groups. He seemed rather proud of this. I kept saying I would be all right on my own and ended up by ditching him away and running into the maze of alleys around the university. I know the area quite well so I decided to take a short cut to get home here more quickly. I thought you might be here alone, worrying about me.’
‘Well I do worry, was worrying, but all old men worry about their granddaughters, especially ones who are as pretty as you,’ replied Han.
‘I’d just gone into that maze of alleys opposite the university when I felt I was being followed. There were three shadowy figures of young men in hoodies on the other side of the road. They all had their devices open; I could see the light. They were looking down at them and then up at me, as if they were trying to recognize me. They also seemed to be talking to someone on their devices. I thought I heard one of them mention Chang. I started to walk more quickly. One had run ahead of me and the other two came up from behind. I was surrounded.
“You’re Fang Yu, right?” said one of the young men, he came right up to me and put his face a few centimeters from mine. I tried to back away but one of the others had come right up behind me. “No need to be afraid, we’re Nomo Hunters.” he leered at me. He was as repulsive as Chang. I didn’t reply,’ continued Yu to Han, ‘I was so scared and could not figure out how they knew my name. “We know who you are, see,” continued the repulsive one. “Look at this.” He thrust his device into my face. I tried to back away but the one behind me stood right up against me and pushed my head forward so I had to look at my own picture on his device. I don’t remember when this photo was taken but I’m sure it was not from myself. And it’s with a ridiculous title of a 26-yr-old Nomo needs help to get a baby!’ As she was explaining these events to her grandfather, Yu had calmed down quite a bit although she still sobbed from time to time. She continued her harrowing account of the evening.
‘The man with smelly breath went on talking, “We haven’t really introduced ourselves. I’m Yang Long, leader of the City Brigade district 3MnX. City Brigades were formed round about the same time as Social Credits were introduced, which as you know, allowed citizens such as ourselves a chance to improve our social status and wealth. Having been given this chance both to better ourselves and to serve the city, we are of course loyal and dedicated to increasing our Social Credits through the various activities we pursue. This is one of the greatest policies our state has built for a better society.”
Then one of the other louts broke in: “You haven’t heard the best bit yet sweetheart. You see there just aren’t enough babies being born at the moment. Our population is getting less. What can be done about that? Big problem, yes? The authorities are going to insist on women like you having babies, women who are of child-bearing age but didn’t have any. And guess who is going to make the babies with you? Millions of pics have been sent out to young Brigade guys like us, who would love to give you babies and also score big on their social credit. When our devices detect a Nomo in the area, we can immediately track her and point out to her that we would be only too willing to help her have a baby soon, very soon, now maybe.”
Then this horrible man forced me up against the wall, thrust his face into mine and started to try to kiss me. I fought him off as well as I could. He backed off after a bit but it didn’t end there. One of his friends started pawing me, touching my body all over. I screamed or at least opened my mouth to do so but straightaway the one who was still standing behind me clamped his hand over my mouth. I bit him but immediately he thumped me so hard on my back that I fell to the ground.
“HEY!” The smelly breath stood up for me and talked down to his gang “Show respect to the lady! We’re not villains, we are ALL here to dedicate ourselves to the state! To do the greater good!”
Yang Long apologized to me and they all let me go. I ran and heard Yang Long saying, “the state will thank you for your complying” “See you around then,” said one wave me with his device showing my photo and location “whenever you’re ready!”
So I walked home here as quickly as I could. I was very careful to make sure I was not followed: I know all the alleys between here and the university. I came in through several cellars where not many know the way and finally got back here only to find you were out. So, I doubled bolted the doors and waited until you came.’
‘Oh, my poor little girl.’ Granddad opened his arms and cuddled his terrified little granddaughter.
As Fang comforted his granddaughter she looked over his shoulder and saw a picture of herself on grandfather’s phone screen. It was the same photo shown on the Nomo Hunter’s device.
‘Oh, granddad, what are we going to do?’ sighed Fang Yu.
- a Nomo is a non-mother: a young woman who is of child-bearing age, from sixteen up, but who has not yet had a baby.
Next episode: A Nomo’s Grandad
