Having thrown a bag of garbage into one of the bins not far from my house, I turned around and started walking back. A man about ten years my junior was walking toward me down Borgo. I had seen him around town the last few days, but this was the first time I saw him in my street. “Are you Ranko Bon?” he stopped and asked me in an American accent. When I nodded, he shook my hand: “I am Jack Bell.” And then he told me that he and his family were staying in Istra Toner’s house next to mine. “I learned a great deal about Motovun from your website,” he grinned. I was quite flustered, of course. That was yesterday afternoon. We talked once again in the evening, when I met him and his family at Benjamin’s. Judging by his many questions about Motovun, he had learned a lot from my website, indeed. They left this morning, though. He works in Boston, and they live in Swansea nearby. It just crossed my mind that I failed to ask Jack whether he had learned about Motovun from reading my writings, or the other way around.

Addendum (February 22, 2008)

Jack just wrote to me in response to my message about the new Residua website. Having congratulated me on a job well done, he also answered the question I posed at the end of this piece. Alas, he did not start with my writings. Searching the World Wide Web for a place where to spend his summer vacation, he chose Croatia. The search than narrowed to Istria. Searching for accommodation, he came up with the house next to mine. Only once he had the name of the town, the search led him to my site. But one fine day someone will end up in the house next to mine because he or she had stumbled upon my Residua beforehand. The only question is where I will be at that time.