Lily was in a pinch!!

  It was early morning, and she had woken up, throwing back the covers and stretching like normal, and there were two ghosts standing in her room!

  They were two men, older than Papa, but they were see through, and pale, and faintly blue. They had thinning hair, and both wore glasses, and they wore strange clothes. They had cloth jackets, without any kind of hood, and strips of cloth hanging from around their necks.

  “Aw, geez Mac, we scared her. I told ya we’d scare her,” said one.

  “You were right, D—”

  “Hey, brother, wait a second,”

  “Why, what is it?”

  The two ghosts were talking to each other! Lily looked around frantically for other ghosts but there was just the two.

  “I want to go by Rich this time around.”

  “What? But why? Richard, we’ve always called you—”

  The other ghost shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked up onto his toes before settling back down.

  “Yep, sure have, but times have changed, Mac. You know what that word means now? It ain’t just a name, Mac! It’s awful! But ‘Rich,’ doesn’t that have a swell sound to it? Who doesn’t want to be rich!”

  Lily, who had been sneaking out of her room to run to her parents, froze when she heard that.

  She…

  She wanted to be rich, too!

  “So call me Rich now, eh Mac?”

  “Well, Rich, if you say so…”

  Lily wasn’t sure what to do, and while she hesitated, the ghosts looked at her again!

  “Eep!” she squeaked.

  “Ahem, Lily, Beloved of the Gods, we’re here to help!”

  “That’s right, the God of Death sent us!”

  Mac, the younger of the two, declared this, and held out his hand to shake.

  “Th-th-th-the God of Death?! That spooky scary skeleton?!”

  Lily knew! She had seen at the Church! The God of Death was a skeleton man!

  Up in heaven, the God of Death took critical damage!

  The Goddess of Life and the Earth burst out laughing, while the rest of the gods stifled their chuckles and giggles and did their best not to guffaw.

  “Er,” Rich said, “we can’t exactly comment on our boss’ appearance…”

  “That wouldn’t be very professional, now would it…” Mac added on.

  “Ah!” Lily gasped. They were right! It wasn’t polite to say unkind things about how people look!

  “Hang on,” she told the ghosts, and setting aside her concern about them, since it looked like they weren’t going to do anything at the moment, she knelt down at her bedside and said a prayer.

  “Sorry Mr. God of Death, for talking about how you look! Thank you for everything you do for the world, and for Lily. Praise to the gods!”

  The laughing at Hades now turned to intense jealousy!

  They all wanted personal thanks from Lily, too!

  Hades clacked his teeth together proudly.

  With that she stood again, and looked at the ghosts.

  “Ahem,” Rich cleared his ghostly throat.

  “Right, where were we... oh, yeah, Hades, the God of Death, sent us here!”

  “T-to haunt me?” Lily asked.

  “Yes!” Mac said, and Rich smacked him in the arm.

  “To help you!” Rich amended.

  Lily tilted her head and looked up at the two ghostly men.

  “Uh…”

  Lily wasn’t sure what to think.

  At this point, she’d take any help she could get.

  She’d even take a cat’s help!

  She needed to make more money, so that she could help with the bills next month. She needed to make at least a thousand dollars, in thirty days…

  Basically, she needed to make thirty-three dollars a day, but even scrambling and working all day long last month, she’d only made about ten dollars a day.

  If the three of them did chores together, maybe…

  But, could ghosts do chores?

  “Uh, are you going to help me do chores?” Lily asked, and Rich shrugged.

  “Sorry Lily, but we’re ghosts. We can’t interact with the mortal realm, other than talking to you.”

  “That’s right,” Mac said. “In fact, you’re the only one who can even see or hear us.”

  “And Mr. God of Death sent you.” Lily clarified.

  “Yes, Lord Hades sent us.”

  “To help you!”

  Lily frowned, and put on her thinking cap.

  “So… what can you actually do, then?”

  Lily only knew one way to make money.

  Doing chores.

  She was eight years old, so that meant things an eight year old can do.

  Cleaning, weeding, things like that.

  And when she grew up, bigger and stronger, she’d be able to do more grown up jobs. She could sew clothes, like her Mama used to, or if she got really big and strong like Papa, she could work in the mine.

  Of course, no women actually worked in the mine in Lily’s village. But she didn’t know that.

  Still, what kind of jobs could ghosts do?

  The two ghost brothers shared a smile, and then turned to Lily, standing proudly.

  “You see, Lily, we both started one of the biggest companies in the world!”

  “That’s right! Tens of thousands of locations! In over a hundred countries!”

  “Billions and billions served, that was our motto!”

  “Uh… a company? Billions?”

  The ghostly brothers’ faces fell.

  “Ah, right.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “She’s only eight, after all.”

  “Is this even Earth, anyway?”

  The ghosts started peering around Lily’s room, curiously. But they were all interrupted by a growling sound from Lily’s tummy.

  “Ah!” Lily looked out her window.

  The sun was already rising!

  “I have to go eat breakfast!”

  Lily ran out of her room and down to the dining table, where her Mama had already set out her breakfast. It was just plain porridge, but Lily made sure to thank her Mama all the same.

  “Thank you, Mama!” she smiled and dug in.

  She needed to eat a lot to keep her energy up, and grow big and strong!

  She had a feeling she’d need a lot of energy today, if she had to deal with Mr. Lord Hades’ ghosts, too…

  “Good morning, Lily,” her Mama said. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  Sally was a little worried about her daughter, still. Was she going out to do more chores today…?

  But Lily smiled at her like always. “I’m fine, Mama.”

  “Are you going to do more chores today?”

  Lily looked up at her Mama’s face, and she looked worried. She gulped down the bite of porridge and gave her a big bright smile.

  “Don’t worry, Mama! I’m going to pay for you to retire, so you can relax and take care of Papa!”

  Mama, however, sighed.

  “I don’t want you to work too hard, okay? You deserve to have a normal childhood…”

  “Mama, I’m already eight! Besides, the Gods and Goddesses will help me!”

  Lily wasn’t sure yet exactly how the two ghosts would help her yet, but she had faith!

  Besides, there were other Gods and Goddesses besides the God of Death!

  Up in heaven, Hades’ shoulders slumped.

  “Lily…”

  But Lily couldn’t hear him.

  The other gods and goddesses, feeling bad, encouraged him.

  “Don’t worry, Hades, give it some more time.”

  “Yeah, I thought it was a bonehead idea at first, but I think it’ll work! Those brothers know what they’re doing!”

  Back in the mortal realm, Sally smiled at her daughter.

  “Okay, but if you get tired, you can come home and rest,” she said.

  “Yes, Mama!”

  Lily finished her porridge, washed her bowl and spoon, and then put on her shoes.

  “See you later, Mama!”

  “I love you, Lily.”

  “I love you, too, Mama!”

  And with that, Lily ran out the door, where she found the ghosts waiting.

  “Oh yeah, I forgot about you guys!”

  Lily had been thinking about what chores to do this morning. If she was going weeding, she should do it before it got too hot…

  “Ahem, well…”

  The brothers looked a little crestfallen, but perked themselves back up.

  Persistence was important!

  “Anyway, yes, Lord Hades sent us to help you.”

  “Just to be clear, he sent us to help you make more money,” Rich clarified.

  Lily gasped. “Really?!” Her eyes sparkled.

  “Yes, really,” Mac confirmed.

  “How? How? Do you know a really good chore?”

  “Well, it’s not a chore…”

  “It’s better than a chore!”

  “Better than a chore?”

  “That’s right, it’s business!”

  Lily tilted her head. “Business?”

  “Do you know what a business is?”

  “I’m not sure…” Lily answered.

  “Well you know what a store is, right?”

  “Yeah!”

  “How about a restaurant?”

  Lily’s face fell, and she looked down.

  “I’ve never been to a restaurant…” Lily admitted, feeling bad.

  “Eh? Really?” Mac said.

  But Rich’s eyes gleamed, his glasses catching the light and flashing with big protagonist energy!

  “Yeah…” Lily continued, “restaurants are super fancy, and only really rich people can afford to eat at them…”

  “I see, that’s too bad…” Mac consoled the poor little girl. “But, you know, someday soon, you’ll be able to afford to eat in a restaurant if you want!”

  Lily wasn’t sure if she could believe that.

  You had to be, like, super duper rich to eat in a restaurant.

  “Can you show us one of these restaurants?” Rich asked, but Lily shook her head.

  “We don’t have any in our village,” she admitted.

  “Really? Hmmm… Well, we should start with basic market research, then.”

  “Right, and we can look into suppliers, too,” Mac added.

  “Huh?”

  The ghostly brothers grinned.

  “You see, Lily, back when we were alive, we started a restaurant where anybody could eat!”

  “Yep, it was a place where anybody could afford a yummy meal, and it was fast, too!”

  “Really…?” Lily asked incredulously. “That sounds too good to be true.”

  “Well, we didn’t start out that way.”

  “Right, we started out with one little restaurant.”

  “But we listened to what the customers wanted, and gave it to them as best we could, and we grew from there!”

  “And,” Rich emphasized, “we made money doing it. More and more the better we did.”

  Lily thought about it. Her Mama had taught her how to cook, at least a little bit.

  “It’s better than doing chores,” Mac said, and that tipped Lily over the edge.

  Chores wore her out!

  And…

  She simply wasn’t making enough money doing chores.

  “Okay…” she said, and the ghosts grinned again.

  “Great! So we need to do market research.”

  “And look into suppliers!”

  So Lily showed them around her village. First they walked to the mine, where most of the papas in the village worked, and the ghosts made a bunch of humming noises and asked questions like how many men worked there (a bunch) and what they usually ate (packed lunches) and how much money they made (Lily wasn’t sure).

  So she asked the supervisor who was working in the office shack just outside the mine, near a clearing with a bunch of picnic tables.

  “Well, a miner usually makes forty to fifty dollars a day, depending on how productive they are,” the man wearing a hard hat said. “And we’ve got a hundred or so miners working any given day.”

  “Fifty dollars a day!” Lily exclaimed.

  She should just be a miner!

  The supervisor knew what she was thinking, however.

  “You can’t be a miner, Lily. You’re too young.”

  “Oh…”

  “And anyway, girls usually don’t want to be miners. Miners get all dirty and sweaty, and it’s hard work.”

  “But, fifty dollars…”

  The supervisor chuckled. “Well, you’ll understand when you’re older.”

  “Okay… thanks, gods bless!” Lily made sure to thank the man with a smile, and walked away with the ghost brothers.

  “Well, let’s check out the market next,” Mac said.

  Rich nodded. “Yes, let’s check out the market. We’ll need a few things…”

  So Lily showed them the bakery, and the butcher’s shop, and the market where they sold milk and cheese and fruits and big bags of sugar.

  She even explored the areas she didn’t usually go to, like the store that sold cooking utensils, and the smithy.

  It was almost lunchtime when Lily sat down on the edge of the fountain, having shown the ghosts everything they wanted to see, and asked the questions they wanted answered.

  “Yep, it’s looking good!” Rich declared.

  “I haven’t made any money all day…” Lily groaned.

  “Don’t worry, you can make a lot of money starting tomorrow,” Mac assured her.

  “The only problem is…” Rich said.

  “Right, the capital costs…”

  “Capital costs?”

  “Yeah,” Mac said, “like if you wanted to run a bakery, you’d need a store, and an oven, right?”

  “Uh huh.” Lily nodded.

  “Well, for our restaurant idea, the capital costs are about two hundred dollars…”

  “Normally, you’d go to a bank to get a loan, but…”

  The ghostly brothers sighed.

  “You’re only eight years old…”

  “Children can’t get loans…”

  “Lily’s not a child!” she declared. “Mama and I went to the town hall and filled out a form!”

  “Really?” Rich asked.

  “Still…” Mac said.

  “And I have that much money!”

  “Really? Wow…” Mac said, impressed.

  “Still, you’d also need to buy ingredients and other supplies…

  “Yeah, three hundred dollars would be better…”

  “That’s how much I have!” Lily declared. “But is that really enough to start a restaurant…?”

  “It sure is!” Mac answered.

  “Right, and you’ll be the only restaurant in town.”

  “I dunno…” Lily said.

  “Well, how about we try cooking up some lunch?”

  “Right, once you see how yummy the food is, you’ll understand.”

  And so, after some shopping, Lily headed home to cook her parents lunch following the recipe the ghosts gave her!