Mad Gertie Paul Shapera

No one could really say how long Mad Gertie had been roaming the city streets, but no one could remember a time before she had been there. She never slept in shelters; only in the park or a cardboard box. If there was any reasoning for where and why she shuffled about all day, no one knew. She never went hungry, though. All the Idenese restaurants and convenience stores would always give her food when she came by, without fail

Years and years ago, the palace had afternoon garden parties, three times a week like clockwork. Little Princess Genevieve loved these garden parties more than anything else in the entire world. The tea, the flowers, the people in their colourful clothes, the hedge maze, Grandmother Jocelyn tutting over her, and the wonderful cakes and delicious music

(sung)

I went walking through the fields of Iden
I went walking through Babylon
I went walking through the fields of Iden
I went walking through Babylon

(spoken)

Even among the homeless, there are turf wars, and one can easily lose one's cardboard box to one or two men with no qualms about violence. Mad Gertie runs across this as often as anybody else – however, for her, it's never a problem. Mad Gertie carries a knife. She seldom pulls it out, but when she does, there are only a handful of people on the planet who could hope to disarm her. She was, after all, trained personally by the captain of the imperial guard

Sometimes, at the garden party, the princess would be asked to show off her ballet skills, sometimes her knife skills, sometimes both at the same time

(sung)

I went walking through the fields of Iden
I went walking through Babylon
I went walking through the fields of Iden
I went walking through Babylon

(spoken)