Back over the mountain to Seyðisfjörður (I know where the kayak is located and where I
can borrow a helmet). When we walk into the maintenance building a rescue team
member that I know greets me, he is so nice but also so tired, really exhausted and he tells
me that the coast guard is on its way to meet me, but they are in a meeting right now. I
tell myself that the meeting is about how boring I am and hold on to the hope that they
will sort this out and just take me sailing to fetch the stupid cat. Yes! That turns out to be
right, I am to report at the coast guard ship and they will take me home! Everything
happens so fast; we walk on board this rubber raft and speed up towards Strandvegur. On
my right there are ruins: Smiðjan, the Technical Museum, newly renovated houses just
packed up and some of them just gone into the ocean. Building cranes and big machines
lie in the mud squished together and the sea that splashes on us has a brown colour. Before
I know it, we are docked at the pier at home, the house looks whole and it is go-time like
they say in Hollywood, 5 minutes in and out! We run up the stairs, I before my sister
because I am going to be the one to find the cat if it’s dead, but as soon as we open up the
door, she mews at us. Kitty lives! But we don’t have much time so I have to inject the
poor thing right away and put it in a cage.
There’s still some time so I grab the hard drive from the computer, why not salvage my
lifework no matter how unimportant it is…coffee maker unplugged, check the stove and
GOGOGOGO yells the coast guard. Out to the boat, we speed up and float at a 100 km/h
before the mountain wakes up again. I take a few photographs of the scene and tell them
that this is something that I don’t ever want to forget and they tell me that it will never be
forgotten. Home to the hotel room in Seyðisfjörður, buy cat food, buy sand and a plane
ticket. While my sister nurses the cat I drive to Egilsstaðir to fetch the rest of our stuff.
The trip goes well until I drive into Egilsstaðir and my car stops dead. As it turns out it
has a broken axle. Old Terrano is tired and is done with its service. There’s nothing else
to do than to park the car, hook a lift to the airport and rent a car so I can drive my sister
and the cat to the airport tomorrow. I get a new Skoda, up to the hotel, pack and drive to
Seyðisfjörður. In the evening I meet with good friends and we discuss the events of that
past week and I decide to follow my friend into the catastrophe area tomorrow morning
before my flight, to fetch another cat and feed some hens.
Kristjan Torr. (2020, December 27 th). A narrative and photographs from Seyðisfjörður, posted in order not to forget [status update] (is. Frásögn og myndir frá Seyðisfirði, birt til að gleyma ekki [stöðuuppfærsla]). Facebook. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/KristjanTorr/posts/10158811460578540.