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A Saucerful of Pompeii

Chapter 6

October 7th 1971

It had happened.

As much as she tried to resist, it had happened.

She had woken just before dawn; the sun hadn't yet risen, but its rays were already beginning to illuminate the sky.

David was sleeping peacefully on his side, angelic, and Sofia took a few minutes to observe him: his full lips, slightly parted, were clearly visible despite the lock of long hair that covered his face, his chest following the regular rhythm of his breathing, which, deep, cut through the silence of the room. She lingered on the muscles of his arms, now relaxed, which a few hours earlier had held her with a vigour and passion she had never felt before.

Silently, she got dressed, doing everything she could not to wake him, took her shoes in her hands, and tiptoed out of the room.

When she entered the house, she breathed a sigh of relief to see that no one but herself was awake yet. It seemed deserted, but it wouldn't be for long. Soon, her mother would wake up, and the last thing she wanted was to be caught red-handed.

She ran to her room and stepped into the shower, letting the jet of hot water wash away the last vestiges of lust that had lingered within her, while she thought over and over again of David's hands and lips, slowly but surely touching her neck, her stomach, her breasts, and his tongue tracing every remote corner of her body.

She pushed all images of the previous night from her mind and turned the water off.

It must have been much longer than she thought, because when she went down to the kitchen, after getting dressed, everyone was already up.

Including the band, who, urged by Adrian to get up very early because time was running out, were already ready to go to the amphitheater.

Sofia watched them from the window: David was looking for her, but when he didn't see her, he got into the car, resigned. He had asked her several times the day before if she wanted to go hear him play, and even though Sofia was dying for it, he had dodged the question.

She made herself a strong coffee and put the milk on to boil when Carlo entered the kitchen, his school bag on his back, ready for his breakfast before school.

Sofia thought back to when he hadn't returned home two days earlier to go hear the band play at the amphitheater; she remembered the excitement in his body at having witnessed what he said was the most exciting show he'd ever seen, and which, despite his ten years, seemed to have shaken him so much that he named them his new favorite band.

"I'll give you five hundred lire if you tell me how you got into the arena."

Carlo licked the residue of the latte from his upper lip. He wouldn't waste another opportunity to skip school.

“Make it a thousand. And you're letting me come with you."

“Where are you going?" Adele entered just then, also ready for a new school day.

Great! The last thing Sofia wanted was to bring her siblings along.

"Nowhere, and anyway, it's out of the question!"

"Sofia wants to go see them at the arena, but she owes me a thousand lire if she wants me to go with her."

"I'll give you a thousand lire if you take me," said Adele, rummaging through her schoolbag for her purse, but Sofia interrupted, her hands now tied.

"All right. All right! We'll go together. But you mustn't disturb, I don't want to hear a thing, and above all, Mum must never find out. Do we understand each other?"

The kids nodded and, extremely excited, left the kitchen, followed closely by Sofia.

They didn't have time to cross the threshold when Maria caught them by surprise.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?"

Sofia faltered.

"I'll take them to school today... I have to... run some errands."

Their mother watched them for a brief moment that seemed like an eternity, as if searching for a trace of the lie they'd just told her, but she seemed to have bought it when they saw her nod.

They hurried out before the woman could think better of it, got into the beige Fiat 126 parked near the entrance, and headed toward the Pompeii excavations.

Since the main entrance was guarded by security, they had to park far away but close enough to Carlo's secret entrance. They passed a fence that had been broken from below, and Sofia was stunned when she saw her little brother nimbly climb over a two-meter-high wall.

"Are you for real?”

In response, the boy held out his hand and helped the two sisters climb, indicating where to put their feet.

When they entered the amphitheater, the band was still rehearsing their soundcheck, and one of them noticed them and nudged David's arm to point them out.

The guitarist turned around and his mouth broke into a beaming smile when he saw her.

Sofia smiled back, waving embarrassedly.

"You came!" He exclaimed, approaching her. "I almost gave up hope."

"I would have regretted it if I hadn't."

Only later did she remember Adele and Carlo, who were with her, when David gave them a questioning look.

"I... had to bring them with me, I'm sorry, they practically blackmailed me."

"No, I'm glad you came." He was called back by the rest of the group; they would begin soon.

"I have to go. But you sit back and enjoy the concert."

Sofia noticed the director's expression, which didn't seem particularly pleased to have spectators: that wasn't the purpose of his film.

"I'll take care of him," David added, then went to ask him to make an exception for them, who had been so kind and welcoming since they'd shown up unannounced at the farmhouse.

Adrian accepted resignedly, and David returned to his spot.

The sound of the instruments began to fill the air: the tinkling of the cymbals, the deep voice of the bass, and the high-pitched voice of the organ. Sofia watched in religious silence, sitting on the large boulder near the entrance. She saw Roger approach two large cymbals and strike them forcefully in a crescendo that exploded into a culmination of mingled sounds. It took her a moment to realize that they were no longer testing the sound: they were actually playing, in a quadraphonic sound that pierced the silence.

David sat on the floor with his bare feet covered in dust and fiddled with his guitar, the same hands that had been pressing on her the night before now seemed to be doing the same to that stringed instrument, making it moan in an echo that filled the air.

The sounds, seemingly accidental, though distinct from one another, blended seamlessly together in a perfect cacophony: the primordial chaos, the creation of the universe.

Roger walked toward the enormous gong and began striking it with unprecedented violence, under the perplexed but excited gaze of the three siblings, who for the first time in their lives were hearing music in its rawest state.

“That’s so cool!" exclaimed Adele, but was quickly rebuked by Sofia, who ordered her to be quiet.

Like sea water after a storm, the music calmed down. The notes of Rick's organ floated lightly in the air, filling the surrounding space with harmony, and spread across the ruins of Pompeii, carried by a light breeze that had recently picked up.

Now there was no longer chaos, but peace: the calm after the storm.

A sublime melody, like lava flowing down an erupting volcano, like the intensity of a hurricane, and like everything that reaches its limit and leaves us lifeless before the vastness and power of nature.

This is how Sofia felt, completely lost in the depths of her own psyche, not knowing how to handle the strong emotions stirred by that music that bordered on divine perfection. A tear, in fact, left her eyes when she heard David's voice join the celestial chorus of instruments, concluding what had been the closest thing she'd ever had to ascending to heaven.

She came to her senses when the band took a break. David approached her, and she promptly wiped her still-wet eyes. 

He invited her to take a walk among the ruins, but she seemed almost absent.

"Are you alright?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice.

Sofia stammered a quick reply, unable to hide her distress. "I... yes..."

"Didn't you like the song?"

"No, I really liked it. I've never heard anything like it before."

David hesitated, but then realised the source of her uneasiness. "Is it because of what happened last night?"

Sofia sighed. "Don't get me wrong, it was the best night of my life and I'll never forget it. But it was a mistake, we knew that from the start."

David lowered his gaze. They stopped in front of the ruins of a house, where inside stood the casts of two figures locked in an embrace.

"I don't want to lie to you, Sofia, and the last thing I want is to hurt you. But I like you a lot and..."

"I like you a lot too... but you're leaving tomorrow."

The guitarist nodded. It was true, they would return to London the next day; the days had slipped away like a fistful of sand.

They stood there silently watching the two lovers' eternal embrace.

"What do you think was their last thought?"

David didn't answer for a moment; he had only one thought in mind, but it would have been a risky move. But in his heart he knew for certain that he didn't want to have any regrets.

"Come away with me!"

"What?"

"Come to London with me."

Sofia was taken aback. He couldn't have really asked her. How could she just leave like that?

She thought of her home, her sister, her brothers, her mother; of the life she'd led and the person she'd been until then.

Then she thought of David, of a possible future life together with the one who could be the greatest love of her life, in a big city: starting over.

"I... I don't know what to say..."

David placed his hands on her hips and pulled her close. Their lips pressed together, and Sofia wrapped her arms around his neck, throwing herself against him in a desperate embrace.

Hot tears began to stream down her face, and David took her face in his hands, wiping them with his thumbs.

"You don't have to answer right away," he said, seeing the terror of a difficult choice on her face.

"We'd better get back to the amphitheater, otherwise they'll give us up for lost."

At the end of the rainbow

Synopsis: My personal interpretation of Syd's homecoming Character: Syd Barrett

Hello everyone, I'm writing this fiction as today marks twenty years from Syd's passing. And in my head he didn't die... he simply went back home.

***

When he arrived in the earthly world, Syd Barrett had crossed a rainbow, leaving the forest from which he came: an ancient place, where dreams knew no sunset, populated by gnomes in scarlet tunic drinking strawberry and blueberry wine, scarecrows in barley fields conversing with the wind, Siamese cats playing jazz, and storytellers weaving stories from blades of grass.

His earthly life was as brief as the flight of a butterfly; he had walked among men disguised as one of them, carrying a piece of his world with him.

And when the forest claimed its strangest elf, the same rainbow reappeared, bending until it touched his feet. Syd crossed it slowly, a smile on his face and his pockets full of stardust and music, until he disappeared among the trees, where the gnomes toasted in his honour and the pixies chased each other among the mushrooms.

Somewhere, hidden among the willows, the storyteller had resumed the story she had interrupted.

A pipe was heard in the distance as he approached, and then everyone knew the elf had returned home.

There, at the end of the rainbow.