Lily woke up, and there were now three ghosts in her room!

  Also, Mr. Cat was there too! He was curled up on top of her dresser, sleeping!

  He was so cute!

  A big ball of beautiful blue-grey fur!

  Meanwhile…

  The ghosts were glaring at each other!

  On one side, there was Mac and Rich, the WcDonald brothers!

  Inventors of the WcDonalds restaurant in another world!

  On the other side was the new ghost!

  He was another middle-aged man, but he had his hair slicked back, and he was wearing an alligator-skin jacket, and slacks, and he was wearing sunglasses even though it was early in the morning and they were in Lily’s room!

  He looked like a slick customer, metaphorically speaking!

  Rich and Mac were good old boys, but this newcomer had drive.

  He had gumption!

  He had ambition!

  Lily could tell!

  This was a ghost who could get things done!

  “Mac, Rich,” he said.

  He spoke!

  “Ray,” Rich said, evenly.

  “Ray Croc… with a C…” Mac said a little bitterly, and adding in some information about the proper spelling of the new ghost’s name!

  That was kind of unnecessary, but good for clarity!

  The God of Literature’s words of power were still in effect!

  “This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”

  That was something everyone needed to keep in mind!

  It was important!

  The ghosts were glaring at each other!

  Lily watched with wide eyes, sitting up in her bed.

  And…

  Then…

  Rich stuck out his hand!

  For a handshake!

  “Bury the hatchet?” he said!

  Mac nodded!

  So did Ray!

  “Yeah, bury the hatchet.”

  Ray shook hands with Rich, and then Mac.

  Lily…

  Had no idea what any of that meant!

  There was some past history, there!

  “Lord Hades sent me down to help Lily!” Ray declared, and he turned to the little girl sitting up in her bed. His sunglasses flashed in the dawn light streaming through her window, and he grinned dashingly!

  “I heard you’re looking to expand, little lady.”

  Mr. Cat’s ear flicked, and Lily nodded.

  She had collected another ghost!

  “Yeah!” she said. “I need to expand, and fast! I—”

  “I heard, I heard, don’t worry. We don’t need to repeat the exposition over and over. Lord Hades filled me in before he sent me down.”

  Thanks, Lord Hades!

  “I only have three weeks…” Lily said, glumly.

  “Plenty of time!” Ray’s bravado was strong!

  But Rich and Mac were a bit more grounded.

  “Ray…”

  But Ray waved his hand. “It’ll be fine! What’s the market situation down here?”

  “Basically no competition, but…”

  “None?!”

  “They didn’t have any concept of fast food until we got Lily set up, and there aren’t even any other restaurants in this village…”

  Ray dramatically whipped his sunglasses off!

  This was a dream come true for him!

  “And… other towns…?” he asked, hesitantly.

  He was trembling with anticipation!

  “Probably the same, but we haven’t checked.”

  “Yahoo!” Ray shouted, startling Mr. Cat!

  “Meow!” he said, jumping to his feet. He looked around and saw that Lily was awake now.

  “Oh, good, you’re awake. Open the door! Also, I’m starving! It’s breakfast time! Make me some french fries!”

  He jumped down to the floor by the door and mewed!

  He even tolerated Lily petting him until she opened the door, and then he dashed out!

  Meanwhile, Ray and the WcDonald brothers had been putting together a plan of action for the day.

  “Lily, we’re going to the bank today! What a world, where the banks are open every day, even on Sundays…!”

  Lily’s Mama and Papa were sleeping in today, so Lily quietly made herself some porridge, and gave Mr. Cat her leftovers from the night before.

  Then, she set off!

  The air was cool, but the sun was warm!

  It was going to be a warm summer day!

  They headed to the bank, which was in the same building as the town hall, where Lily was going to meet with a clerk.

  Ray explained that there was two things they needed to do at the bank.

  First, they had to find a location for another Lilyburgers restaurant.

  It would be the first restaurant in the village!

  Second, they would need to find a couple good employees. They needed two managers!

  Mr. Cat spoke up.

  He was following Lily and the ghosts to the bank!

  “That Hazel girl would make a good manager,” he said.

  “Oh?” Ray looked down at the cat. “How would a cat know that?”

  Mr. Cat looked up at the ghost smugly. “I’ll have you know I’m an excellent judge of character!”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Lily thought about it.

  “I dunno… Sometimes Hazel says things that Lily just doesn’t understand…”

  Mr. Cat…

  Stuck up for Hazel!

  “She’s got passion! And she actually cares about the quality of the food.”

  Rich and Mac immediately got on board.

  “That’s true, the quality of the food is super important.”

  “You can’t have someone who will cut corners with the food.”

  If the food was bad, nobody would buy it!

  It had to be yummy!

  “Wait,” Lily said, “why do we need two managers? Can’t I be one?”

  Ray shook his head. “No, kid, if you’re working as a manager, you can’t expand your business!”

  Ray made a point of sticking his ghostly hands through a wooden fence they were walking alongside. “See? I’m a ghost, I can’t just do the work myself this time around. You’re gonna have to be the one hustling, and you can’t do that if you’re stuck managing a restaurant all day.”

  “Oohhh…” Lily said.

  She understood!

  Kinda!

  Lily’s job was to expand the business, not just run it now!

  Before, she had been doing all the work herself.

  Then, starting the other day, she was doing some of the work, and managing Hazel who did most of the cooking.

  Now, she was going to be a boss of bosses!

  Promotions!

  Anyway, in this world, banks handled a lot of things.

  People stored their money in banks, and they borrowed money from banks.

  But the Royal Bank of Appalashia also managed real estate.

  Land was owned by the Kingdom, and so rents were paid directly to the bank. That included the townhouse Lily and her Papa and Mama lived in!

  But it also included commercial real estate!

  If Lily wanted to open a restaurant, she had to rent the shop from the bank.

  And on top of all that…

  The bank recommended people for jobs!

  It was a one stop shop!

  Workers could directly ask for jobs from employers, too, like Hazel had done, but most workers went to the bank and asked for a recommendation to a good job. The bank was like a matchmaker!

  They entered the bank, and the clerk behind the desk was Gertrude!

  She was the woman who had processed Lily’s emancipation form last week!

  She looked up from her work and saw an eight year old little girl walk into the bank followed by a cat!

  Gertrude adjusted her glasses.

  At first, she had been about to tell the girl that this was a bank, and she couldn’t bring her pet inside.

  But then she recognized Lily, the little girl who had had to be emancipated because her parents were about to go to debtor’s prison.

  She had fudged the paperwork, and gotten it through… Although she hadn’t had to do much…

  Her boss didn’t pay much attention to things!

  He was only a few years from retirement!

  He just wanted to play golf all day!

  It meant a lot more work for Gertrude, to be honest!

  But it also meant she could get away with little things like this.

  “Ahem,” she cleared her throat. “Welcome to the Royal Bank, Miss Lily.”

  Lily was a real adult!

  The paperwork said so.

  Lily puffed up her chest.

  That’s right, she was eight years old now!

  Practically a grown up!

  “I’m here to expand my business!” she said, as maturely as she could.

  “Mrow!” said the cat.

  Gertrude blinked, and then adjusted her glasses.

  “Er, your business…?”

  “Yeah, Lilyburgers!”

  “...Lilyburgers?”

  Lily proudly explained!

  How she made Lilyburgers and fries for the miners every day except for Sundays!

  How she even had an employee!

  “You hired Hazel as an employee…?”

  Lily and her family lived in a small village!

  Everyone who lives in a small village knows all about everybody else!

  “And… is she doing alright, as an employee?”

  Gertrude was a little worried about Hazel!

  “Yeah, she’s really passionate about cooking,” Lily said, and Gertrude breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Ahem, well, that’s good. So you want to buy another cart, is that it?”

  Gertrude was hopeful!

  She had never imagined that Sally’s daughter was such a culinary and business genius!

  It was only a small hope, because Bill and Sally were in a lot of medical debt, but just maybe, with some tricks…

  “No, not another cart. I want to put a restaurant in the village!”

  “Near the city square!” Ray added.

  “Ahem, near the city square!” Lily amended.

  “Hmm… well we do have some options…”

  Gertrude got into work mode!

  She pulled out some big sheets of paper with diagrams of the all the buildings in the city square. She spread it out over the desk, and all the ghosts leaned over to peer at it, and even Mr. Cat jumped up to see it.

  But, Lily…

  Couldn’t see it!

  She was too short!

  The desk was too tall!

  “Oh!” said Gertrude.

  Lily was starting to tear up!

  She sniffled!

  “Oh, let’s move to a sitting table, that’s more appropriate for grown up business,” Gertrude quickly said, and they moved to the kind of table where women would take tea, or where men would sit in waistcoats and top hats and discuss business stuff!

  Now Lily could see the map!

  The biggest building in the city square was the townhall, which was also where the Royal Bank was, as well as a few other organizations, like the chartered mining company.

  In the center of the city square there was a fountain, and then along the edges were the stores. There was the bakery, and the butcher, and there was a section that was all the market stalls where farmers brought their produce to sell. That was where Lily bought her potatoes, pickles, ketchup, and cheese!

  It was all artisanal!

  It was all organic!

  This was the kind of world that didn’t really have those concepts, though…

  Who would make food in a factory?

  Farm to table, that was the norm!

  In a flash, the little business genius pointed out three good locations she wanted to check out.

  “Here, here, and here!” Lily said, dramatically.

  She was pointing at the locations that Mr. Ghost Ray was interested in, but Gertrude didn’t know that!

  Gertrude was simply and honestly impressed.

  The locations were good ones, but…

  Not really for a restaurant.

  Restaurants were fancy things, where you’d go and sit down at a table with a fancy table cloth, in your finest clothes, and order fancy foods!

  None of these locations had room for tables and a kitchen.

  “How much are the rents?” Lily asked.

  Gertrude started with the biggest one.

  “This one here, the one with space for a proper dining room, is three thousand dollars per month.”

  Lily made a face, and Gertrude moved on.

  “This one, with only a little dining room, is two thousand dollars per month.”

  “Hnggg…” Lily groaned.

  “This one is only nine hundred dollars a month. It used to be a cobbler’s shop.”

  Lily looked closer at the diagram.

  It was just a single room, the size of her living room at home.

  “Hmmm, let’s go look at this one!” Lily said, the ghosts behind her nodding.

  And so Gertrude led the little girl, her cat, and her three invisible ghost associates to the old cobbler’s shop.

  The location was really good, in the city square, but it was too small for most businesses.

  It had a small sink, and a big table along the wall where she could put a griddle and oil fryers, and some room where she could store ingredients. Then there was a door, of course, but there was a standing window where the cobbler used to sit and do his work in the sunlight. Customers would bring their shoes to him to be repaired, hand them to him through the service window, and then come get them later.

  Lily looked at it, and…

  Her eyes sparkled!

  “How many people live in this village, anyway? There’s a hundred people working at the mine, right?” Ghost Ray asked.

  Lily repeated the question, and Gertrude answered.

  She knew all about the village!

  She adjusted her glasses, making them flash in the light.

  She looked really smart!

  “The population of the village is nine hundred and fifty-four people, not counting children below the age of ten years old.”

  The ghosts conferred amongst themselves.

  They were talking about market sizes! Making projections! Doing business planning!

  Lily tried to follow along, but got bored.

  Mr. Cat yawned.

  Lily looked around.

  The old cobbler’s shop was directly across from the town hall in the city square, with the big fountain between them. There was a statue in the middle! And there was a big stone ring around it, that was like a bench, where people could sit. Dozens of people could sit there all at the same time! And there was even more regular benches around the fountain, where people could sit and look at it.

  Mr. Cat got a drink of water and then came back. Then he curled up on the counter of the service window, in a sunny spot, and took a nap.

  The ghosts finished their discussion and gave Lily the thumbs up!

  “I’ll take this one!” Lily said.

  “Okay, I’ll have it cleaned and opened for you today, and it’ll be ready for you to move in tomorrow.”

  Lilyburgers was expanding!

  “Also, I need three new employees!” Lily said.

  They headed back to the town hall to see who had applied for a job recommendation!