The Madcap Laughs (Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett)

Octopus

Author's Note: I apologise for the wait. It's been busy here and I had no Internet connection over the weekend (the horror!) Anyways, this chapter was difficult to write and it's very different from anything I've done before. I hope you like it!

Chapter 7: Octopus 

All the crap with Andrew made me upset. I wanted to get the girl and I didn’t want to lie to the public like a bureaucrat. I put several acid squares on my tongue and had the most amazing dream.

            Jen was locked away in a pale luminous tower. It emitted a radiant fog from its pores. A giant dragon guarded its doors. I was going to be her knight in shining armor. But I didn’t have a sword. Only needles and plates. I tossed the needles at the dragon and he seemed to crack and disintegrate. What a pathetic dragon, I thought, defeated by sewing needles! What a thought! I lunged at the door. A strange looking man in the strangest of garb met me at the door. He banged a tiny gong, coughed and cleared his throat. Jen descended down the stairs in flowing white robes that appeared luminous in the dim light of the cold, dank tower.

“Madam you see before you stand…” he looked at me, expectantly.

“Pardon?” I asked.

“You’re name, boy.”

“But she knows my name!”

“The queen does not know of you. Now, if you please, your name!”

“Syd.” I said. She whispers to the man.

“Won’t you join us for dinner?” he asked. The tower immediately becomes a castle. We are seated on pillows on the floor. A band of grasshoppers play tunes on tiny instruments.

            And then she isn’t there. Neither are the grasshoppers or the strange little man and I am in the forest. I wander, looking aimlessly for the castle and my queen but I cannot find them.

“Are you lost?” Jenny asked me. She’s cover head to toe in a gown made of leaves and vines. She looks like a goddess.

“Yes.” I say, staring deep into her eyes.

“Isn’t it good to be lost in the woods?” she asked me.

“I suppose. But it would get rather quiet. Isn’t that bad?” I replied. She shrugged.

“I suppose. Follow me,” she said, taking my hand. “I know of someone who may be able to help you.” So I followed her. She led me to a luscious beach touching and ocean. “Close your eyes.”

Something grabbed at my legs and I was being thrown around high in the sky. I opened them and saw an octopus had taken me hostage. Jen was being held in another great, blue arm.

“Keep your eyes closed.” She yelled.  “You can open now.”

We were in an underwater land, which was underwater, but not really. There was honey pots decorated in clovers sitting out in a field warmed by the rays of summer. A plough with giant mechanical arms shook bees’ nests and the honey drooled into large attached pots.

            “That’s the madcap.” Jenny pointed to a man high in the trees. He was laughing wildly and pointing sinisterly at another man way off in the distance. We were once again in the woods. The wind shook the trees and Jen melted away.

            I woke in my empty flat cold and alone.