Kisa (short story) by Leanne Dyck

An Icelandic-Canadian--my mom--holding a kitten. Circa the 1930s or maybe 40s.

In my early twenties, I left my hometown of Eriksdale, Manitoba, and got a job at the daycare centre in Arborg, Manitoba--Arborg Playschool. Arborg is a couple of hours east of my hometown of Eriksdale. Arborg means river town in Icelandic. The area was settled by Icelandic immigrants. Many of the descendants still live there. Walking the streets of Arborg, I heard words my amma and afi (my mom's parents) used like Tak (thank you) and Ja (yes). In the Arborg Co-op, I found Icelandic food like Skyr. 

One day, while working at Arborg Playschool, a white-blond-haired boy pulled me to the library corner and shoved a book into my hands. On the cover was a kitten batting a ball of yarn. "Kiss-a," is what I heard him say. So I brought the book to his lips. 

"Leanne," my co-worker sounded annoyed, "what are you doing?"

"It's so cute. He's saying kiss-a, kiss-a. He wants to kiss the kitten."

"He's not saying kiss-a. He's saying Kisa." 

I pretended I understood and made a mental note not to encourage that white-blond-haired boy to kiss books.

Years later, in 2007, I traveled to Iceland and purchased an English to Icelandic dictionary. I flipped to kitten expecting to see-- but I found kettingur. 

So, just before I wrote this story, I typed Kisa into a search engine. This is what I found... Kisa the Cat

And so, I wonder, could it have been that the white-blond-haired boy was asking me to read him the Icelandic folktale about Kisa?

Icelandic Independence Day will be celebrated on Friday, June 17

Icelandic Language Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, November 16

Listen to: Trying to get Iceland's Cats Under Control

a story covered by CBC radio's The Current 

by host Matt Galloway

Yesterday, I was thoroughly entertained and informed by Cree memoirist Darrel McLeod--as was a room full of Mayne Islanders

My ears perked up--even more--when Mr. McLeod mentioned that he had to learn to weave fiction techniques into his memoir--creating scenes and dialogue. (I feel like I'm on the right track with my memoir.) I was blown over by Mr. McLeod's ability to talk for approximately an hour and a half with barely any notes. Wow!

So glad I attended this event. Much thanks to Mayne Island Library for hosting it.