Front Matter - Part 02

Everything seemed repulsive to him. Soon afterwards he left. What really threw him off is how his sister and brother-in-law reacted to the news of you purchasing the house. If that hadn't happened he would have been okay. But the way his sister reacted brought him back to the time when he experienced his traumas during his teenage years. His sister's words made him feel that you saw him as unworthy. He felt like you intentionally devalued him and humiliated him..."

"It's idiocy on their part," I yelled out loud angrily, "they will die of envy, of jealousy, especially her, my sister-in-law. You said it yourself; Mitko had suffered a lot from her and from his father.

They created this condition in him!" At this point Violeta was trying to make sense of all those things the doctor had told her. But it didn't make things easier. On the contrary, something even more terrible was pressing against her chest. She was overcome by some new, unknown fear of what would happen next. Would Mitko manage to overcome his condition, which he'd obviously carried with him from a young age? And now, without knowing, had she hurt him badly? And what if his condition was irreversible? Would it destroy their marriage permanently?! She was afraid of the thought that she would have to continue her life alone, without him. She would have to raise their children and handle all of life's problems all on her own!

I kept quiet for a while, sighed, and then said:

"So, this is how far we have come! That's why one shouldn't want too many things and after they get them, it's not good to be overjoyed... Thank God no one in our family knows about this... I can still cover things up for him... on account that he travels a lot for his job..

The doctor advised me to be patient and hope that his therapy would help him. He also advised me not rush to see him. Wait until he sorts himself out. He told me to tell our children that their father had left because he was angry at me for buying the house in Ohrid. He didn't want me to buy it but I'd bought it anyway.

Vacation time was approaching. The children didn't want to go anywhere, least of all to Ohrid. They already knew their father wasn't coming home because of the house I'd bought in Ohrid, and they were tired of vacationing there every year anyway. I didn't dare ask them where they wanted to go this summer...

Before going on our vacation I decided to go to Ohrid alone. This was my first time since I'd bought the house. I always handled things on my own even before my relationship with my husband was strained... But this time it was different.

.1 needed to sort out some documents relating to the sale and purchase of the house in Ohrid. Fortunately for me a colleague of mine from my generation, a lawyer who lived there, was helping me even before I left for Ohrid.

After we filled out some of the paperwork and drew up a document that put me in possession of the house, my lawyer friend said:

"We will go to the office where your next door neighbour works. He is also a lawyer and Court secretary. Hopefully, if nothing else, we'll have a coffee together. Maybe you know him. I was pleasantly surprised that your next door neighbour is also a colleague." When we went to his office we found a tall, thin man sitting behind his desk, looking at me curiously.

"Trajan, I came to introduce you to our colleague and now your next door neighbour," my lawyer friend said to the man sitting behind the desk.

The man was a stranger to me, and obviously Ito him. But the man still didn't understand what kind of colleague I was to him or which neighbour. My lawyer friend then explained that we had gone to school together, and that I had just bought the small house that was almost glued to one of the walls of his house.

Suddenly the man behind the desk jumped up like a snake had bitten him. And, even though the light in the office was dim, you could see his face changing colours from yellow, to red, to yellow. Obviously he was very angry. I instinctively retreated towards the door as he yelled through his gritted teeth:

"That cannot be! No one is allowed to live in that house! No one is allowed to buy it!" My lawyer friend found himself in a difficult situation. He was shocked by the man's rude and unfriendly reaction. He was speechless. When he pulled himself together he said:

"But why?! Why do you care?! Let's be honest about it. The previous owner begged you for an entire year to buy the house! She waited for you to make up your mind! The woman came all the way from Belgrade twice to see you. She had to book a hotel room in the middle of the winter. I even tried to convince her to lower the price to one third of the selling price but you stubbornly refused to buy it!

You said you didn't need it. You said you already had a big house for your small family... And... now, why do you care who buy's it?!

There was silence.

"Now that the house has been sold, money paid and a contract signed, the only thing you can do is spoil your relationship with your new neighbour," added my lawyer friend angrily.

"There'll be no neighbour!" the man behind the desk yelled and began to walk towards us, as if wanting to tell us to leave his office immediately.

We looked at each other and quickly left. This was the first time that my lawyer friend had witnessed such behaviour from this man. He was embarrassed and didn't know what to say.

"He'll calm down," he said, "but what puzzles me is why he didn't buy the house when he had a chance, when Milena offered it to him at a reduced price? I don't believe he himself knows. He must have thought the house would never sell. And with its gradual deterioration, which began a long time ago, he figured it would be declared uninhabitable and would be condemned. At that point the authorities would have to demolish it for safety reasons. That way, he wouldn't have to pay anything for it and his house would be in the first row, overlooking the lake." Then, after a short pause he continued:

"So it's true then that, even though the house was for sale, he intimidated the prospective buyers and dissuaded them from buying it. I didn't want to believe that but it seems to be the truth. I am very disappointed, really disappointed! From this moment on I want to forget him." I couldn't believe that an educated adult, a lawyer even, could act this way in front of a person he had never met before.

Ultimately, everyone has their own yard and their own gate! With such an unfair attitude this man would lose everyone's respect. One never knew when they would need another person's help so it was important not to burn bridges. To say "good morning" or "good afternoon" to people is enough to maintain good relations. But how it started out with this guy, there was no promise that there would be anything good in the outcome.

"We are in a mess again with the house in front of us! We got rid of one, but new buyers have surfaced, the situation will become worse.

A husband, a wife and a son-in-law, three educated people, "said Trajan to his wife as soon as he came home from work, even before taking off his coat and shoes.

"And on top of all that, my colleague Jovan, my dear friend, brought the lady to the office. You know the woman who bought the house from the previous owner. He brought her there to introduce her to me. I wanted to grab him by the neck and choke him!

"Jovan? I don't believe it. I didn't expect that from him, "replied his wife.

"And then in front of her he said. 'Who should we blame for you not buying the house... Milena waited for you for a whole year, and even reduced the pricefor you by a third of what she was selling it for to other buyers. Like a next door neighbour she gave you first choice.

And you kept saying that you didn't need it, that yourfamily wasn't big, and for the three of us, you said, the house we have is too big already. 'These are the words he used!" said Trajan.

"I can't believe it! He said all that in front of her?!" replied his wife, shook her head and began to swear.

"For as long as I'm alive they will not set foot in that house! Never!

Never! "yelled Trajan with eyes wide open.

"Sooner or later that house will be ours... it can only be ours," replied his wife while circling around him.

Moments later their son came home. After his father told him what had happened; that another person had bought the house from the previous owner, the son began to argue with him and his mother.

"Who is to blame for that? Everyone was trying to persuade you to buy it, but you thought you were smart. You were lying to yourself when you thought that you could get the house for nothing, without spending anything. Now you're whining. It's too late!" said the son.

All three went silent...

"Dad you missed the train, " the son continued after a short pause.

"And now what, are we going to fight with everyone who knocks on the door of that house? We already have a big house, thank God! I want you to give up on that house. I've had enough...!" After angrily uttering those words the son went upstairs. He continued to feel anxious and nervous. What his mother and father had not realized was that all their friends and relatives had condemned them for their dishonest dealings with regards to the house. Even the son 'sfriends from the neighbourhood, with whom he'd grown up as a child, looked down on him. He liked the neighbourhood. He didn't like what his parents were doing and he didn't want to move away on account oftheirfixation with the house.

The son came down again and joined his parents. At this point his father told him about his meeting with the new owner and her lawyer, who had brought her to his office.

Trajan said, "All the paperwork regarding the sale and purchase of the house has been completed. The house is paid for and she now owns it.

"Thank God, now you can all calm down and end this nonsense," replied the son sounding relieved.

"On the contrary, " they both said in a single voice. "Now they will truly find out who we really are... who are the bigger lawyers!" said Trajan.

"Do what you want, just don't get me involved... Clearly you are out ofyour minds! All our neighbours are disgusted with you; even our relatives and friends are appalled at your actions. Since you are a lawyer, let me ask you this - can someone forcefully appropriate something that is not theirs? Can you appropriate the house while its owner is still alive? It's their right to do what they want; when and to whom they can sell it!" said the son.

"Look at him! Did you hear what he said? He is trying to teaching me what is right and what is wrong! Doesn't he see that we are doing this for him? Who else would we be doing this for?!" said Trajan to his wife.

"Please don't do this for me. I don't want it. Ifyou are doing this for me, please stop immediately!" replied the son.

After saying that he left the house.

"Ungrateful! Everything we've done is for him, and what does he say? I don't want it!" said Trajan.

When I unlocked the padlock on the house with help from my neighbour Nikola and opened the front door, I was amazed by what I saw! The place was damp and had a heavy odour of a worn out, rotting tarpaulin, which was spread over the floorboards. There were holes on all sides of the roof. The hundred year-old roof tiles had been displaced. Torn out electrical wires hung down everywhere.

There was no running water and no drain pipes anywhere. Part of the back wall, towards the backyard, had collapsed as much as a metre. A door leading to the backyard hung on it but it was stuck. I managed to open it but with great difficulty. Behind it was a heap of garbage. The backyards, mine and my neighbour's, had no dividing walls or fences. That surprised me and also worried me a little.

The inside of the house was very simple but at the same time very practical. From the entrance one could go into a not so small hallway and from there into the two rooms, one to the left and the other to the right. The room to the left was much bigger and I figured it would accommodate the kitchen and bathroom. But where had they been before?

It wasn't possible for a house not to have a kitchen or a bathroom.

Many years later I found out that the original kitchen and bathroom were located in an extension, behind the house, which had an entrance through a back door. My neighbour had demolished it with help from the authorities, allegedly because it was unhygienic.

Was I wrong in paying so much money for this dilapidated house? I could have purchased a good two-room apartment for the same price! That thought crossed my mind but only for a secons. The next moment, when I looked out the window at the lake only a few metres away, I knew that I had taken a significant step in my life.

After I left the house and locked the front door with the old padlock, the first thought that crossed my mind was, thank God Mitko wasn't here with me! He would have thrown me into the lake or he would have thrown himself in! But for me, in my vision, it was the most beautiful house in Ohrid because I believed that one day it would become that beautiful...

When I crossed the street, after taking only ten steps, I was at the shore of the lake. I was filled with happiness, like someone had gifted me with the most wonderful palace in the most wonderful corner of the Earth!

"Did you see our new neighbour, the lady who bought the house, when she was here? She was doing this and doing that all day long looking like she had bought a palace or something. Is she looking forward to this chicken coop?! This jinxed place?! Isaw her when she was having coffee. She doesn't seem that educated to me! I also know her husband. She went here and there hustling around, looking for connections to get the house fixed up. She will get permission when I see the back of my head, "said the wife.

"Be careful what you say. She willfind someone, she will bribe them, she willfix the house, "said the husband nervously, "and before you know it she will make the place suitable for living." "Do you think it could be that easy? Just spit and paste? It will take her more than a month just to clean out all that garbage that's inside. The whole electrical installation has to be replaced. Didn't we tear that down? And water... wherefrom is she going to get water? Even if she sends the devil to dig she will never find the water pipe. She will never find it. Not to mention the sewer pipe.

They are both under the ruins of the extension, which used to house the kitchen, bathroom and toilet, which we demolished, thanks to a friend who condemned it because it was a hazard. Well, at least we got rid of the extension. Let see how she is going to live without a kitchen or a bathroom!" said the wife.

"Oh my dear wife, don 'tyou know that these people from Skopje are connected with everyone? They have bought ha If the city, " replied the husband.

"And you? Do you think you have fewer connections than her? How many people have you done favours for? How many properties have you saved? How many times have you allowed the law to slip through your fingers? How many times did you whisper in people's ears to bribe the judge when they were sued in court so that the case would resolve in their favour? Not to mention the bribes in the municipality. You have helped many people who owe you favours.

You have even helped people who didn't need help. There was even something for the porters and couriers. I'm not worried, there is plenty left for us, thank God, otherwise how could we have afforded this house with a single, small paycheque, "said the wife.

"Why don 'tyou yell a bit louder so everyone passing by can hear you? Today you don't need to say much before someone nails you, so shut your mouth. We need to figure out whom to convince so that she doesn't get permission to do anything in that house, not even replace a single roof tile. Since we uncovered parts of the roof, water has been dripping inside. The hundred year-old tiles we removed have been stacked on the rooffor decades. I'm sure water has been dripping inside from all sides. Not to mention the wall in the back which half-collapsed when we tore down the extension.

When it rains, a torrent flows inside. Everything is rotten. The house is uninhabitable, not even for a horse, never mind for people. Does she know what she bought?! She is throwing away good money for nothing!" replied the husband.

"She will never live in that house... Just a little longer and the house will rot completely from the inside and it will be condemned. We need to be on guard. As soon as workers appear in the yard we must immediately report them to the construction inspector. Mile, that short guy who rides a bike, will be here in afew minutes. He would have still been lingering in the village if it wasn 'tfor you. He worships you... He will do anything for you. Every time he passes by here he brings a bottle of homemade rakia (brandy). Also, you're well connected with the Secretary of the Municipality. When her paperwork reaches him he can delay it for as long as possible. You also need to ask the archivist who receives requests for house repairs to hide it somewhere, ifanything comes by her, and let you know you that such a request has arrived, "said the wife.

I figured that the most important thing to do was make the house liveable as soon as possible. If my neighbour, in the last few years when no one lived in the house, had the intention of ruining it to such an extent that it wouldn't be liveable, he had achieved his goal.

It was obvious that many things had been deliberately damaged.

First, the entire floor had rotted because roof tiles had been purposely taken off, allowing rainwater and snow to leak inside.

Water had dripped inside for months if not years. Also part of the wall towards the backyard had been demolished on purpose. The water and drainage pipes had been removed and no longer existed.

The electrical system had been destroyed and there was no electricity.

In order to start the repairs on the house I had sent a written request to the construction services at the Assembly. I had to do that because nothing could be done without their approval. I couldn't even repair the half-fallen wall without their permission. I wasn't allowed to repair the roof or remove the broken roof tiles, even though it was raining inside the house and rotting the floors. I wasn't allowed to replace or remove anything without permission. All these rules bordered on absurdity.

I had to wait a long time before I got a response to my written request. Unfortunately the answer I received was negative. I couldn't believe it. They said I wasn't allowed to do anything, not even the smallest of repairs.

Being left without any options I decided to go and visit the authorities in person. I was received by a young official. After listening to me patiently, he told me exactly what was written in the letter, which he probably wrote himself. His tone of voice was serious and unfriendly.

I wasn't happy with his response so, given that he was young and probably inexperienced, I raised my voice and said:

"Do you realize that rain and snow are falling inside the house?! The roof is damaged on all sides and needs repair! Even cats and dogs come inside and do their business on the floor! You do understand, right?!"

"You also must understand that, as I wrote to you in the letter, nothing can be done until the Urban Plan is adopted. You can't even move a tile," he replied in the most unfriendly manner.

His voice sounded like it was playing back from a pre-recorded tape.

"How long do I have to wait for this Urban Plan to be adopted? I understand years have passed and still it hasn't been adopted. The authorities have been mulling over it for almost six years and nothing... All I'm concerned about is this small stretch of land in this part of the city, along the lakeshore..." I said but it was all in vain because the official wouldn't budge.

I also spoke to many other officials, but all I got were negative results. I did this for months only to get the same answer.

My chances of getting a work permit were slowly diminishing so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I found two construction workers who were willing to work on the house on weekends when I was there and little by little I began to fix some things inside, behind closed doors. Over time, as I gained their trust, I hired the workers to work part-time even when I wasn't there.

Of course, the main obstacles still came from my next door neighbour... He and his wife, as well as part of his extended family, were still hostile towards me. Our bordering walls ran parallel to each other at a distance of only ten centimetres. So they kept an eye on what was going on in my house and, in every possible way, tried to prevent my workers from working. My neighbour was doing all this, hoping to force me to give up on the house. And what was even more amazing, my neighbour believed that he would succeed. That's why my workers and I had to make sure the neighbours weren't at home when they came to do the repairs.

But the job was laborious. The workers had to sneak in and work quietly, mostly inside the house. All the rotten floorboards were replaced and the floor was covered with new sheets of linoleum.

When my neighbours were not around the workers worked on the roof, replacing the old ceramic roof tiles. It was important to fix the roof in order to stop the water from dripping inside.

After the roof was repaired I had a place to stay in Ohrid.

Every time I went to Ohrid from Skopje and found the neighbours weren't home, I called the workers to come and work. Unhindered they were able, piece by piece, to rebuild most of the house including the old, half-demolished walls. Unhindered by the neighbours, many times they continued to work even after I left for Skopje.

Twice the workers called me in Skopje to tell me that someone had demolished parts of the house that they had renovated. Surely this must have been done by my next door neighbour (who shamefully was a lawyer) and his wife.

Both times after I received the calls I came to Ohrid on the weekend and both times I called the police. The police officers looked over the damage and wrote something down in their notebooks, supposedly documenting the damage. Both times they looked around searching for evidence and both times they asked:

"Are there any eyewitnesses...?" When I said "no", they said, "Then how do you know it was your neighbours?!" I tried to explain to the police that there could be no witnesses because our backyards were undivided and connected. Those parts of the house that were deliberately damaged were accessible only to my neighbours and were hidden from the eyes of passers-by. The parts that were damaged weren't visible from the street. They were behind Milena's big white house. In fact, that part of my house could only be accessed from the shared backyard. I repeatedly explained to the police that, in order to enter the backyard of my house, a person would have to pass through my neighbour's yard.

Such a person would not be able to enter from the front of my house because it was connected to Milena's big house. And why would a stranger come and damage my house? What would be this person's motive? Why would a person do that?

It was obvious that my neighbour had used his connections, even with the police, to prevent me from renovating my house. His actions were especially influenced by his wife who behaved unruly towards me, threatening and cursing me at every opportunity. At that time I didn't know anything about her. It seemed to me that sometimes she did these things out of boredom, having nothing else to do. She walked around all day gossiping about people. She only had one child, a son who was studying in the capital and, while her husband was at work, needed something to do to fill her time.

But despite what had happened, I didn't give up on the house.

A little later I decided to hire an electrician who lived nearby, and together with his colleague they fixed all the wiring and connected the electricity to my house through an old electricity meter that was still functioning. The electricians also added several sockets for connecting electrical appliances, including my stove. This was a major breakthrough.

I had some old friends who lived in Ohrid, who were wonderful people. Not only were they happy about every new repair I made to the house, but they also helped me make it happen. One day my friends pleasantly surprised me with a door. It was old and used but very well preserved. They said they no longer needed it. This was a perfect match for my old front door which I had replaced, along with the rusty old padlock. The windows were old too but well preserved, they even had iron bars for greater security.

Both Marga and Ivan, the friends who gave Violeta the door, had lost their jobs almost at the same time. Ivan, a lawyer by profession, working for a branch of a trade organization, had lost his job more recently. The organization's director and a group of his people declared bankruptcy over night and put the company, with a large amount of debt, into receivership. The property was sold at rock bottom prices. The workers were forced out of their jobs. Ivan was also included in the list of those people who were let go, probably because he knew too much. They were afraid that he might reveal to the public, facts about malpractice and the condition of the company, as well as about the money stolen by the management team with help from government officials.

Almost simultaneously, two months later, Marga, a planner in the city's Planning Bureau, was made redundant. Ivan and Marga had two children. They were both in high school in the upper grades. Ivan and Marga didn't have much savings.

After both of her friends lost their jobs, Violeta went to see them. Marga met her at the front door of her home and asked her to go inside the garage. Violeta had no idea why Marga was leading her there. The garage looked like it had been recently renovated and inside it were shelves and racks with clothing arranged on them. It looked like an improvised clothing store with pieces of underwear arranged on two racks and socks on several shelves. There were also men's, women's and children's clothing hanging from racks.

"We have to live somehow...," said Marga angrily and in tears while hugging Violeta.

Violeta didn't dare say anything. There was nothing that could be said, not even reassurances, or anything else that might bring optimism.

After their visit in the garage the two women went inside the house and upstairs where Ivan was waiting for them. As usual, Marga served everyone sweets. Ivan asked the women if they wanted to join him and have a drink with him. He obviously wanted Violeta to stay a bit longer. Ivan usually had long discussions with Violeta on a variety of subjects and often introduced a bit of humour, with a note of criticism for government policy but not in a sarcastic way.

Now, after what had happened to Ivan and Marga, Violeta didn't know what to say and was unable to relax in this painful situation. But from the very first sentences Ivan uttered she realized that he had already found a way to objectify their new state of affairs.

"Well, my dear friend," he said to Violeta, "we are neither the first nor the last to be struck by fate in this day and age. What is happening now has been in the making for a long time. People from both inside and outside have worked on this scenario. You see large companies, huge trade organizations, factories, agricultural combines, etc., have being deliberately devalued for a long time by their unscrupulous management in conjunction with crooked figures from the government. After putting them under forced administration, their aim was to immediately appropriate them for themselves for small amounts of money while kicking the workers to the street and leaving many without work." Ivan then got up, went into the kitchen and brought some sliced cheese, several forks and plates and continued his conversation, that is, he followed up on his previous thought.

"All those factories, trade organizations, agricultural combines, various industrial facilities, with hundreds of thousands of employees, who painstakingly created these industries after the war, precisely by those same employees, at enormous cost, effort and self-sacrifice, in the name of a better future, a future with a better life for everyone, and above all, for future generations, were now being expropriated by crooks. That same working class that created these organizations is now left without work, without a means to make a living. People from the working class, as well as intellectuals, are literally being thrown out onto the street. Many have to resort to driving taxis and working in stalls in the market selling fruits, vegetables and trinkets to survive. This also applies to those people at the top who refuse to be dishonest." Marga tried to stop Ivan from talking. She was afraid that he was getting too stressed out by what he was saying, but Ivan didn't listen and continued.

"Workers were supposed to be their own managers... People were promised that. But those promises turned out to be just pitiful, empty slogans.

The only rights workers have now are to strike and roam the streets. All those promises made to compensate them for the loss of their jobs with new jobs turned out to be empty promises.

Most of the industrial facilities are damaged and have been looted and production is reduced to a minimum. The state continues to borrow money and has even increased its borrowing... and all this on the backs of the taxpayers, forcing them into poverty. As a result, some people are impoverished to extremes. At the same time people who abandoned their villages to create the working class now have nowhere to go. No conditions are created for them to return to their villages...

after many decades of absence.

In this turbulence people tend to become depressed, their health suffers and their lives are turned upside down. Some become so desperate that they will do anything to survive. As a result, they can easily be manipulated and used to achieve the personal goals of those in power." By now Ivan had realized that he had been talking for a long time. After he apologized he said:

"I've been talking like a speaker at a conference; I shouldn't have had that second glass of rakia (brandy). I hope there was no one eavesdropping. There are all kinds of informers around you know!" Violeta stayed a little longer. Before leaving she said that she believed they would find a way out of this unfortunate situation.

That's what she really thought.

Hardworking and strong people never give up on anything.

Thanks to their tireless hands and help from their two children, Ivan and Marga's small improvised shop in their garage grew into a big store in the city centre, where you could buy all kinds of clothing in fashion, for men, women and children; domestic and imported clothing. People of all ages eagerly waited for the latest shipments of contemporary fashion clothing to arrive.

Their children eventually graduated from university, found good jobs and started their own families.

After I bought the house, Ljubica and Nikola were the first of our friends to notice that my husband Mitko didn't come with us to Ohrid. I had already thought of what to say to explain why Mitko wasn't there. On my way to their house I bought a package of freshly ground coffee and went to see them.

No sooner had I arrived than Nikola asked "Where is my friend Mitko? Since when did he miss an opportunity to come here?" "You know how Mitko is. He's never in favour of practical things.

He didn't want to come because the house hasn't been made livable yet. He will come when the house is completely renovated..." I replied.

"There are all kinds of rooms for rent in this area! You could have rented one," said Ljubica.

"He figured the repairs shouldn't take too long and was willing to wait them out," I replied.

"He is mistaken! He'll have to wait a long time..." added Nikola.

From the tone of Nikola's voice, I gathered they didn't believe me.

They refused to believe that Mitko would rather wait than come right away. Nikola knew that Mitko was addicted to fishing and that it was impossible for him to give it up, unless of course he went fishing somewhere else. One time Mitko had told Nikola that when he wasn't in Ohrid fishing he would be at some river or at another lake... But since they'd bought a house here it made no sense that he would go fishing somewhere else. My friends found my explanation a little hard to believe!

"Nikola, let me ask you something. Doesn't it seem a bit strange that Mitko isn't coming at all this summer? I can't believe that he can do without Ohrid. There must be something else going on...

said Ljubica.

"I will say something, even though I might be wrong... Mitko is angry because Violeta bought the house without his consent! I think that first of all he didn't like the house and secondly it was very strange that Violeta didn't even ask him if they should buy the house. She suddenly decided on her own... She said 'I'm buying the house just like that, do you remember that? She committed herself to buying it as soon as she found out it was for sale. She did that immediately before she had a chance to see the house. Mitko, as you remember, then grabbed his fishing rod and quietly went to the lake.

He didn't say a word. He didn't agree or disagree. Violeta didn't even care. I hope we're not responsible for what happened!" replied Nikola.

"What are you thinking, Nikola? How are we responsible?! She asked us if there were any houses for sale near the coast and we answered her. That's all we did! Who would have guessed how she would react? On top of that, we didn't know that she would have the money to pay for it... so much money. We know they lived a modest life, with good salaries, like us. The fact that she didn't discuss the purchase with Mitko, and that she decided on her own, has nothing to do with us. I wouldn't even think about it!" said Ljubica "She was so determined and tried so hard to buy that particular house, and lo and behold, after three years of waiting, she succeeded!" replied Nikola.

"I believe that in those three years Mitko and Violeta would have had the opportunity to talk about it and come to a mutual agreement on whether to buy the house or not. But it would seem they each stood their ground and she decided to buy the house anyway, without his consent! We willfind out what happened when Mitko comes to Ohrid. One time I thought of calling him on the phone and asking him to come. I wanted to say that fishing wasn't the same without him' but I said to myself it better to stay out of his business and so Igave up, "said Ljubica.

"To tell you the truth, you did the right thing! Don't get him all riled up even more. They have been married for many years, they will eventually find a solution!" replied Nikolci.

The obstacles to moving into the little house were many. Before the house had been abandoned a family of six had lived in it for over thirty years. They had a bathroom, of course, and other rooms.

Where did they go? Where did the pipe delivering water from the outside go? Not to mention the drainage system? Where did all they disappear? Who destroyed them? The neighbours on my block claimed they didn't know. I was convinced that they knew but didn't want to tell me... Not only that, they refused to tell me who had brought down the extension. I was a stranger to them of course, and they didn't want to run the risk of spoiling their relations with my next door neighbour. They must have known because the extension had been demolished only a few years ago and I was sure it hadn't fallen on its own. But it was clear to everyone, that without water and drainage the house would be uninhabitable.

That summer Milena, who lived in Belgrade, didn't come to Ohrid.

She had given me the keys to her big house before and allowed me to use it as long as I looked after it. Most of the responsibility for looking after her house fell on Nikola. I had looked after it occasionally, when I was in Ohrid.

To this day I still don't know why Nikola didn't help me with the renovations... He made every excuse possible to avoid helping me in any way. He also wouldn't tell me where I could find the connections to the water and drain pipes. Maybe he too was afraid of my next door neighbour. Perhaps he didn't want to offend him.

Nikola and he had been next door neighbours for many years.

Having no other option, I decided to call on the water company to help me. I sent them a written request asking them to connect my house to the water network. They never answered. The same thing happened with my request to the drainage company. I suspect that my next door neighbour was responsible for their silence as well...

There was also something else. Some of the people from Ohrid didn't like strangers coming to their city and resisted people going there from other cities. It was probably envy. They didn't like outsiders buying up their houses, especially the houses along the lakeshore! For illogical reasons the local people didn't like people from the capital, even though most of the tourists in Ohrid were from Skopje. Most citizens of the former Yugoslav republics vacationed around the Adriatic Sea. Foreign tourists from distant countries were few in number. Most tourists from foreign countries spent only a short time passing through Ohrid while heading for or returning from the beaches in Greece.

Despite being a tourist destination, Ohrid, with all its beauty and right conditions for vacationing, wasn't yet well known, and a large number of people who rented out apartments for tourists invested very little to make them more attractive and affordable to stay in.

Besides me, my sister's husband was the second happiest person regarding the house I'd purchased in Ohrid. My sister was also happy, of course, but not as much as him My brother-in-law was born in these parts of the city and his life's aspiration was to own a house in Ohrid. That's why he was overjoyed when I bought the house... that someone from the family now owned a house in Ohrid.

He didn't understand why my husband reacted the way he did...

getting angry at me for buying the house in this wonderful city...

especially on the lakeshore. My brother-in-law went to see my husband several times, to discuss the matter, but my husband refused to talk about it.

My brother-in-law lived and owned a house in Skopje. He had made additions to it and was somewhat experienced with construction work. He wasn't as experienced as the construction workers but he was a good helper. He also supervised the work and managed to finish it very quickly. Despite being a doctor, he had a special gift for technical details.

One day, while we were struggling to solve the issue of bringing water to my house, he spotted a hole in the adjoining wall of Milena's bathroom. He fitted a pipe through the wall hoping to connect the water pipes from my house to those of Milena's house.

But in order to do that we needed to turn off the water. There was no valve inside Milena's house so we asked our neighbours how to turn it off from the outside; more specifically, we asked our neighbours to tell us where the main shutoff valve was on the street. Amazingly no one seemed to know.

We then contacted the Waterworks but they too couldn't help us.

They told us that the water for the entire region had to be turned off and it wasn't possible to do that. The valve to turn off the water, they told us, was located in the city square. But as we later found out, there was a shutoff valve located in the immediate vicinity of my house. Unfortunately it was deliberately covered up and we were unable to find it. I guess they didn't want us to bring water to my house. But my brother-in-law solved the problem by connecting the pipes from my house to the pipe in front of Milena's water meter, and the water we used was measured by a separate water meter we installed.

The next issue was connecting the sewer pipe. We solved that problem in a similar way. In doing so, we had to dig through the entire backyard until we found the drain pipe from Milena's house.

We connected our sewer pipe to hers.

Our next door neighbour tried several times to stop us from digging in the yard, arguing that we had no right to do that. He even physically threatened the workers but he failed.

We later rebuild the torn down wall which bordered our next door neighbour. Later we asked our friends to help us rebuild the roof and lay roof tiles. Eight of them showed up. Their numbers intimidated our next door neighbour who caused us no problems. Eventually the house was rebuilt and made inhabitable It was the middle of summer when we finished.

I just returned from Ohrid. I was pleased that my house was progressively being renovated. I was happy to tell my children that.

And it was true; the house was completely different in appearance.

People passing by stopped to look, wondering if it was the same house. Some even asked me questions and rejoiced with me as I answered them.

Late in the evening before we went to bed my son, with a bit of worry on his face, said:

"Mom, Dad suggested that my sister and Ito go on vacation with him to Greece. It will be for fifteen days. Are you going to allow us to go?" I was about to scream but I restrained myself. I don't know how many times I had begged Mitko to take us on vacation to Greece or somewhere else on the sea, instead of Ohrid, but he didn't even want to hear about it. Why is he doing this now? To spite me?! But the moment I realized it wasn't the child's fault I refrained from screaming! I realized that we were in a new situation now and my children were asking me for permission to let them go on vacation with their father. And of course I felt they should, so I asked:

"When are you expected to go?" "This Friday," he replied.

At that moment my daughter came out of her room looking a little guilty. She asked:

"Mom, are you going to be angry if we go?" "No, of course not, why should I be angry? I know you're tired of vacationing in Ohrid every year, you should go to Greece. I will go to Ohrid, I still have a lot of things to do there. You should come to Ohrid when you return. The renovations on the house should be done by then," I replied.

Both of my children ran over to me and happily started hugging me.

They were probably relieved that I hadn't gotten angry with them and also because they would have a chance to go to the sea for the first time. And let's not forget the fact that I had allowed them go on vacation with their father.

I was well aware that I had no right to keep them with me. At the same time, I was happy that they had made contact with their father and that they were seeing him from time to time; that they weren't estranged from their father. He also gave them money, as much as he could afford, which they always brought home and gave to me knowing that I would spend it on our common needs.

That Friday my children took a taxi to the railway station where they met their father and the three went on vacation to Greece.