49 8 Changa felt elated when he left our house late at night, some times just be fore dawn, books tucked under his arm. Happy, he rushed to his goats, played with them, milked them, and got them ready for pas ture. While they grazed, he read to the goat herds from Father’s books. The goat herds lis tened at ten tively, though from time to time they would tilt their heads, doubt ful and sim ply un able to be lieve what was in the books. After all, how was it pos sible for these goats, now peace fully graz ing, to be so mixed up in the his tory of man kind and the planet? They doubted even more some thing Changa swore was true: goats nursed lion cubs. The news spread quickly through the city that Changa read to the goat herds while graz ing his goats. Changa was not just any body. His move ments were fol lowed vig i lantly by the po lice, his words by the party, and his goats by the govern ment. Changa in flicted un imag in able tor ment on the party ca dres as signed to the con fi den tial goat file. Within the party, it was the ac quain tance and friend ship between Changa and my father that caused the most sur prise and worry. It was a 50 thorn in the party’s side. What could pos sibly bring these two non party mem bers to gether, new com ers to the city, one a university-educated in tel lec tual, the other an il lit er ate goat herd? But no body re al ized that it was the goats that had brought my father and Changa to gether. This friend ship was a sore point to every one in power—the party and the po lice. The party ca dres re spon sible were afraid even to con sider this friend ship, be cause what was hap pen ing between my father and Changa was pre cisely what they were fight ing against: a bond forged by the goats between the de feated class and the vic to ri ous one. In the near fu ture, the goat herds must be come the work ing class! That is what the su preme lead ers had im a gined, it is what they had or dered. First, the party must pre pare the peo ple for the peace ful de struc tion of the goats and block any plans to the contrary. But who could stop Changa’s love for the goats, for peo ple, and for life? Every one feared Changa’s power and in flu ence. While they did in fact want to stop him and his goats due to the “high est inter ests of the party,” se cretly, they wanted in equal meas ure for Changa and his goats to stay, be cause they were ex tremely use ful to the party and to the rul ing pow ers as well. As they tried to under stand, they asked them selves, What con nected my father and Changa? What sort of con spir acy were they hatch ing? The party func tion ar ies spe cial iz ing in the goat ques tion well knew what the il lit er ate Changa could do with the goats, but they had not con sid ered what he could do if he be came lit er ate, armed with new knowl edge about the goats. They wrote strictly con fi den tial re ports based on the in for ma tion they often re ceived through se cret chan nels about the anti class al li ance between my father and Changa, the in tel lec tual and the goat herd. The young party mem bers, hun gry for rapid ad vance ment in their ca reers, went fur thest in their spec u la tions. They knew even the ti tles of Father’s books in Changa’s pos ses sion. Had they wished, they could have rid them selves once and for all of my father and his friend ship with Changa solely on the basis of a list of his books. [54.210.126.232] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:39 GMT) 51 He could eas ily have been charged with pos sess ing pro-Western prop a ganda and spread ing cap i tal ist...