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.