The harsh cry continued as the sun peeked over the horizon!

  “Buy some apples! Buy some apples!”

  Lily sat up, rubbed her eyes, and looked to the foot of her bed.

  “One, two, three, four… huh?”

  Four ghosts.

  And Mr. Cat still sleeping next to her…

  Or, trying to sleep.

  He was covering his ears with his paws!

  Lily’s Mama was waking up in the bed on the other side of their little room in the bed and breakfast inn.

  Lily tilted her head.

  “No new ghost?”

  Up in heaven…

  Lord Hades, the God of Death, was panicking!

  He flipped through his rolodex!

  Front to back!

  Back to front!

  “I, I could have sworn… I had the perfect person picked out…”

  The Goddess of Life walked up to Lord Hades, and put a hand on his shoulder.

  Of course, being a skeleton, that was just his bones, under his black cloak!

  The Goddess of Life smiled sweetly…

  And then…

  A vein bulged in her forehead!

  And she gripped his shoulder really tightly!

  She was mad!

  She was really angry!

  “Lord Hades… You’ve been hogging all the blessings for our little devotee…”

  “No, you see, I have the perfect person picked out, she knows all about cows…”

  “And she is under my jurisdiction! She hasn’t died yet!”

  Hades’ mouth fell open!

  Justitia, the Goddess of Justice, walked up, literally glowing with satisfaction after Lily’s capture of the no-good, rotten varmints who had been committing all those crimes in the Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas.

  “Gaia is right, Hades,” she said. “You won second place in the dice tournament, but you’ve been giving Lily too many blessings!”

  “Not as many as Homer!” Hades protested, pointing at the God of Literature.

  He had been doing his ceremony non-stop!

  Homer stopped, and walked over as well.

  Even the Gods of Golf, Middle Management, and Business came over!

  And then even more Gods and Goddesses showed up!

  “Hades,” Homer said, “it’s time to take a break. If you keep sending ghosts to tell Lily what to do, how is she going to have any character development?”

  Hades would have been sweating, if he wasn’t just a skeleton!

  “D-does she really need character development, though? She’s so cute, and her Piety Points are already so high…”

  Gaia interrupted him. “She’s an eight-year-old girl! She’s supposed to be growing up still!”

  All the gathered Gods and Goddesses agreed!

  “And you’ve already sent her four ghosts! Really, you should have stopped at one, and then let another God or Goddess have a turn!” Justitia added.

  Once again, all the gathered Gods and Goddesses agreed!

  And then, Justitia continued.

  “Lily has had too many blessings!” she declared. “Lily should solve this problem on her own, this time!”

  And then…

  All the gathered Gods and Goddesses strongly disagreed!

  “What?”

  “No!”

  “You’re just saying that because you got to help her deliver justice already!”

  The heavens descended into petty bickering!

  And so, Lily would not receive a new ghost to help her with the Dairy Cow Strike…

  Back down in the mortal realm…

  “Buy some apples! Buy some apples!”

  A little girl’s cry echoed through the early morning city of Bessie’s Landing.

  It was really grating!

  Lily’s Mama got up, still half asleep, and fully closed the window of their room, dampening the sound.

  “Good morning, Mama!”

  “Good morning…” Sally mumbled sleepily.

  Sally was tuckered out, too!

  Riding side saddle used a lot of muscles she didn’t normally use, and she was pretty sore!

  “Mrowwwww.”

  Mr. Cat stretched, and then sat up.

  The ghosts were enjoying ghost coffee, and talking about their favorite movies!

  Lily didn’t know what those were, so she just ignored it.

  Must be some heaven thing.

  The girl, her cat, and her Mama went downstairs to the breakfast nook, where Granny Pomum was already at work, setting out cheese danishes, apple juice, and eggs and bacon.

  A hearty breakfast!

  Lily was wearing her normal blue dress again, having put away her cowgirl outfit.

  Sally was still wearing the dress she had bought, since it was really stylish and looked good on her!

  Mr. Cat had decided he was too free to wear a collar, even if it was a bandanna, and the hat had fallen off. So he was wearing his beautiful blue-grey fur coat, like always!

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Sally yawned deeply, but woke up as she ate breakfast.

  “Miss Granny, where is the Chamber of Commerce at?” Lily asked.

  “Oh dearie, you can just call me Granny. Let me get you a map…”

  Granny Pomum pulled out a tourist map!

  It had the main streets on it, and drawings of all the big tourist attractions!

  Granny Pomum drew an X on the map, near the city center.

  “The Chamber of Commerce is right here, next to the public library, and the community center.”

  “Community center?” Lily asked.

  “It’s where anyone in the community who’s down on their luck can go get assistance, or even just hang out if they want. They do classes there, and community plays, and so on…”

  The Ghostly Duke was grumbling something political, but he was interrupted by the door flying open!

  “Gramma! Gramma! I told you it worked! I sold sixteen more apples today by yelling! That’s an eighty percent increase over not yelling!”

  A little red-head girl with freckles burst into the room!

  She was wearing blue denim overalls over a pink shirt, and wore a straw hat, and her hair was braided into pig tails!

  Granny Pomum sighed.

  “Lil Flo, we have guests. Please don’t yell so early in the morning…”

  “Meow!” Mr. Cat agreed.

  “Oh, a kitty!”

  The girl, about the same height as Lily, slowed her roll and carefully walked up to the cat, who was lapping up cream from a saucer on the table.

  “Hi Mr. Kitty!” she whispered. “My name is Flo! Can I pet you?”

  “His name is Mr. Cat!” Lily said.

  Flo looked at Lily and her Mama for the first time. “Oh, are you staying at Gramma’s bed and breakfast? I’m Flo! I’m gonna inherit the apple orchards!”

  She puffed her chest out proudly, and smiled proudly!

  “Sit down and eat your breakfast, dear.”

  Granny Pomum set a place for Flo, and gave her a plate of breakfast as well.

  “Thanks Gramma, thanks Gods and Goddesses for the bounty-full blessings you give us!”

  Flo…

  Was a pious little girl as well!

  Not as much as Lily, of course.

  But she said her prayers at meals, at least!

  Lily pouted a bit, and Mr. Cat looked up from his saucer of cream.

  “Actually, my name is Felix Novem Vita Impostor Pulcher Gustus Epicurus, but you may call me ‘Mr. Cat.’ And you may not pet me with sticky hands.”

  “What if I wash my hands first?” Flo asked.

  “Only if they’re dry.”

  Lily was shocked!

  Her mouth hung open!

  Mr. Cat already had a name?!

  “Mr. Cat, you already had a name?” she asked!

  “Of course, all cats have their own names,” he explained calmly. “But we also go by nicknames, for convenience, since our proper cat names tend to be very long, and not to translate well into human speech.”

  “Oh, so you let Lily nickname you? That was sweet,” Sally said, and Mr. Cat froze.

  “Uh, nuh uh, no, that is, Mr. Cat already happened to be my nickname!” Mr. Cat said. “Lily is just a good guesser, for a human, I guess!”

  He was blushing under his fur!

  “It’s not like I’m her pet or anything! I’m a free cat!”

  “Yes, yes, of course you are.” Sally pet his head, and Mr. Cat pouted!

  Lily looked down at her breakfast plate.

  This was a huge revelation, and it was so early in the morning!

  Was this how Duke, her ghost, felt every morning?

  Her whole world felt like it had been flipped upside down!

  Eventually, Flo’s chattering with her grandmother brought Lily back down to earth.

  “Yeah, this advertising thing is really working out! I yelled all morning, and sold out all the apples!”

  Advertising?

  Sold out?

  Was Flo…

  A businesslady, too?!

  Granny Pomum sighed.

  “That’s nice, dear, but if you keep raising a racket in the morning the neighbors will complain. And we don’t need to sell out our apples every morning, we have plenty of customers already…”

  “But the more we sell, the more money we make!” Flo countered.

  “We make plenty of money, already. Life isn’t just about money…”

  Granny Pomum paused, realizing she wasn’t getting through to her granddaughter, and then had an idea.

  “I know, Flo, why don’t you take Lily and her Mama to the Chamber of Commerce for the meeting this morning? Lily here is visiting to try to solve the Dairy Cow Strike.”

  Flo looked at Lily. “Solve the Dairy Cow Strike? How ya gonna do that?”

  Lily…

  Thought about it for a second!

  “Well, usually a ghost helps me, but I didn’t get a new ghost today…”

  And she said something incomprehensible!

  Flo looked at her for a second, and…

  “What would a ghost know about Dairy Cows, anyway?”

  Rolled with it!

  Flo was a roll-with-it kinda girl!

  Lily shrugged. “I dunno, but I gotta solve the strike! I need the price of cheese to go down for my Lilyburgers!”

  “Lilyburgers? What’re those?”

  Flo was intrigued by this talk of the price of cheese.

  She knew that the price of cheese had gone up, so she had been eating mainly apples and apple byproducts instead! She was simply waiting for the price of cheese to go back down, to save money!

  She liked cheese, but she liked having money more…

  “I run a restaurant business called Lilyburgers! That’s also the name of our product! It’s a burger made from a ground beef patty between two buns, with ketchup, a slice of pickle, and an optional slice of cheese on top!”

  “Oh, you put cheese on top? That’s good cooking,” Granny Pomum praised the little out-of-towner!

  She could always respect someone who understood the appeal of adding cheese to things!

  “You already run your own business?! How old are you?” Flo asked.

  “I’m eight years old! I’m gonna pay for my parents’ retirement!” Lily proudly answered.

  Sally put a hand on her cheek.

  Mr. Cat said “Mew.”

  Granny Pomum’s eyes went wide, and she said “oh my!”

  And Flo…

  Bit her handkerchief in frustration!

  “That’s not fair!” she cried. “I’m not allowed to run my own business until I’m fourteen! That’s five years away!”

  How come Lily got to be a business owner already?!

  “I’m emastipated!” Lily answered.

  “It’s ‘emancipated,’ dear,” her Mama corrected.

  “Emancipated!” Lily repeated.

  “Gramma, I wanna be emancipated, too!”

  “Not a chance, Flo. You have to finish your schooling, first.”

  “But Grammaaaa…”

  “No buts, you have to get an education.”

  Granny Pomum put her foot down!

  Flo looked at Lily with a bitter expression and tears in her eyes.

  But Lily tilted her head.

  “But, Flo, weren’t you selling apples this morning?”

  Her yelling had woken Lily up, in fact!

  Flo nodded.

  “Yeah, I can work for a business, but I can’t own one… and I can’t work during school hours, neither…”

  Flo sighed, sadly.

  But then, she got fired up again.

  “Just you wait, Lily! I’m gonna have a better business than you someday!”

  Lily…

  Didn’t care much!

  It wasn’t a competition!

  “Uh huh, okay,” she said, finishing her breakfast.

  And Flo…

  Thought Lily was looking down on her!

  From her perch as an emancipated business owner!

  “No, I really am, Lily! In fact, you’re my rival now!”

  “Uh huh.”

  Flo bit her handkerchief and squealed in frustration!

  Sally and Granny Pomum both sighed at the little girls’ antics.

  Flo tried to brag about her accounting, but then Lily showed her her own ledgerbook!

  In the end, Flo had to temporarily retreat.

  But she wasn’t giving up!

  And, because she was a good girl who did what her Gramma said, she took Lily, Lily’s Mama, and Mr. Cat to the Chamber of Commerce meeting.

  Now, Lily got serious.

  She had her four ghosts, but none of them were cow experts!

  And she hadn’t gotten a new ghost, either!

  All she had gotten was a rival…

  But, she pushed the big doors open, and strode into the meeting room with the confidence of a big business lady!

  It was time to fix the price of cheese, and solve the Dairy Cow Strike!