The news that the mayor is suing me for slander is gradually spreading around Motovun and its surroundings. As is the news that I might leave Motovun one day. Coming in the wake of the ominous division between locals and strangers, which the mayor cunningly forged, many people who have moved here recently are considering their options, too. Or so they are telling me. Some of them are planning to spend their winters elsewhere. Out of the tourist season, Motovun is a ghost town, anyhow. Many of them are thinking aloud about selling their houses when prices come back up in a few years. As most of these people are foreigners rather than only strangers, like me, they realize that it may take many years before they will have any rights in Croatia. In the meanwhile, they will be at the mercy of the surly locals. The funny thing in all such conversations is that I always end up by doing my best to calm the good people down. Through thick and thin, our only hope is to stick together, or so I keep repeating.