“...and that’s everything I learned about the dairy cows, moo!”

  The big meeting auditorium was filled with silence.

  A little girl stood in the center of the stage, looking into the stage lights, unable to see the audience in their seats.

  It wasn’t just the Chamber of Commerce.

  It was the Zoning Commission!

  It was all the regulatory boards!

  It was the city council!

  It was even the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin General Assembly!

  Brenda had gathered them all with just a memo, and hours later, here they were!

  Then, after a brief introduction of the meeting’s agenda, Brenda had let Lily get up on stage and explain what she had found in her own words!

  A little girl in a dairy cow kigurumi had gotten up on stage and explained everything, punctuated with moos!

  Brenda stood behind her, her glasses reflecting the stage lights!

  Everyone paid very serious attention.

  The Dairy Cow Strike was a big problem for everyone!

  “Thank you, Miss Lily of Appalashia, Friend of the Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas, for your consultation on the matter.”

  “You’re welcome, moo!” Lily beamed and then walked off the stage.

  Brenda got up, and Lily’s report was projected onto a big screen so everyone could see the whole thing for themselves!

  The General Secretary, who was on all the commissions and councils and boards, started making suggestions for everyone to start working on fixing the problem!

  A Dairy Cow Welfare Oversight Committee was created in the General Assembly!

  The Zoning Commission decided all on their own that there should be a limit to how many cows could be in a cow pen, based on its size!

  That meant some of the dairy farms would have to move just outside the borders of Bessie’s Landing, which nobody wanted to do!

  That would hurt their branding!

  So the City Council annexed more unincorporated land for the city, right then and there!

  All of Lily’s Ghosts stared in shock!

  “I ain’t never seen bureaucracy move so fast!” Mac said.

  “It’s incredible…” Rich murmured.

  “If only it worked like that back in our lifetimes… the free market is great, too, but sometimes people get hung up on little things…”

  There were, of course, a few people here and there in the meetings who would start arguing about details.

  But as soon as they did, there was Brenda!

  She would either settle the dispute immediately, or set up a meeting for them to handle it later.

  She was multi-meeting secretarying!

  Ghostly Duke was still gagged!

  He had too many opinions about how things were being done.

  Lily still thanked him, of course.

  “Thanks Duke! With your help with the method acting, I was able to understand the cows better, and now the problem is getting solved!”

  Duke sighed through the gag.

  “Hm mrph mhm mhrfm.”

  “And thanks to all the Gods and Goddesses who helped!”

  Up in heaven, the God of Animals, the God of Ranching, the Goddess of Shopping, and lots of other Gods and Goddesses all wore big proud smiles!”

  Justitia, the Goddess of Justice, frowned at them all.

  “Hey, we weren’t supposed to help Lily with this one!”

  And all the other Gods and Goddesses booed at her!

  “Boo! Lily’s too cute!”

  “Did you see that kigurumi?!” cried the Goddess of Costumes. “How could I not!”

  And as she said that, she blessed Lily even more!

  Justitia sighed, and the Hades, the God of Death, a skeleton wearing a black robe, chuckled.

  “Heh, can’t beat cuteness.”

  Justitia gave him a look.

  “Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t even send the ghosts down there any ghostly ice cream this time! Lily did that on her own!”

  “I saw Duke helped quite a bit.” Justitia narrowed her eyes. “Did you plan that all along?”

  “Er, no, I thought he was a real cowboy… I didn’t realize he was just a movie actor…”

  Hades could be kind of a goof sometimes!

  “But it all worked out! Wahahahaha!”

  The God of Death cackled.

  Back down in the mortal realm, the meeting ran long into the night, and Brenda suggested they all go to bed since they had had such a busy day.

  Lily, still full of energy, started working on her business permits paperwork…

  Zzz…

  And fell asleep at the table!

  Sally and Granny Pomum shared a laugh, and then tucked her into bed.

  The next morning, Lily slept in!

  There was no yelling outside.

  Mr. Cat was snoozing peacefully.

  The cows were being taken care of.

  She snoozed and snoozed!

  It was mid-morning when she finally woke up.

  She yawned real big, and stretched!

  For a minute, she sat there.

  It had been a really busy week!

  On Monday she drove to the Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas.

  By Wednesday night she had made it to the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin.

  Thursday and Friday she had helped the dairy cows…

  And now it was Saturday.

  She hoped her Papa was alright…

  She said a prayer for him!

  She prayed that he was eating well, and not too bored without Lily and Mama there to brighten his day!

  She couldn’t wait to see him again!

  That done, Lily turned to her most hyper ghost this morning.

  The Ghostly Ray Croc!

  “Lilyyy…” he whined. “You gotta finish your business permits! This is the perfect chance to set up your franchises in another state!”

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  “Okay!”

  Lily was gonna do it!

  Her Mama had already gotten up, so she got herself dressed and went downstairs for a late breakfast.

  The meal halfway between breakfast and lunch…

  Brunch!

  Eggs and sausage and bacon!

  Apples and cherries and blueberries!

  …

  That was it!

  Granny Pomum had a terribly sad look on her face.

  “You see, Lily, back in my day, I was a chef in a restaurant before I came home to work the apple orchard, and we’re just plum out of ingredients! No milk, and no flour!

  “That’s okay!” Lily said with a smile. She took another big bite of eggs. “The eggs and bacon are really yummy!”

  Sally smiled.

  Her daughter was so polite!

  “I told you, Granny, that Lily wouldn’t mind.”

  “But I mind. Professionally speaking…”

  “Don’t worry!” Lily said. “The Dairy Cow Strike should be solved soon! Then there’ll be milk for everyone again! And Wisconsin can make cheese again! And they can sell me cheese at a good price!”

  Lily was working on finishing her paperwork as she ate, and she was in a business mindset!

  The front door slammed open.

  “Granny nyaa~! I sold out seventy apples today! Everyone in town loves our apples!”

  Flo ran inside, wearing her cat kigurumi.

  “Good job, dear.”

  “Wow, good job, Flo!” Lily said.

  She smiled real big. She was happy for her business friend!

  Flo did a cute catgirl pose.

  “Meow!”

  And then, she pulled a letter out of her pocket!

  “Oh yeah, Brenda stopped by the apple stall this morning! She said to give you this!”

  A letter!

  Lily had never gotten a letter before!

  Excited, she tore open the envelope and spread it out on the table.

  It was a request for her to come to a meeting with Brenda that afternoon!

  Brenda wanted to talk about her consultant fee, and her business permit!

  There was also a list of rules and regulations about employment…

  Lily wasn’t worried!

  Treating her employees right was only right!

  Lily was a nice boss!

  “Wow, a real business meeting…” Flo said.

  She was jealous!

  Her rival Lily was still ahead of her in business!

  “Do you wanna come?” Lily asked.

  “Yeah!” Flo replied instantly.

  After brunch, Lily showed Flo and Granny Pomum how to make Lilyburgers!

  “I did it! I did it!” Flo yelled as she put together her first Lilyburger that she made all by herself!

  Granny Pomum chuckled as she sliced up another potato to make fries.

  Flo had never been interested when Granny wanted to teach her to cook!

  But that was just how kids were sometimes.

  They liked to do things with their friends!

  More than the cooking, Flo was interested in Lily’s explanation of all the business aspects: the ingredient costs, how the restaurants were organized, and so on.

  Granny was shocked!

  A restaurant where the food was already made, there was only one thing on the menu, and guests were served as soon as they ordered?

  It was revolutionary!

  And franchising…

  Making lots of copies of the same restaurant, to serve even more customers…

  If Granny didn’t already have the bed and breakfast, she was tempted to buy a franchise, herself!

  In fact, she was so curious, she closed down the bed and breakfast for a few hours to join Lily and Flo at the business meeting with Brenda.

  At the appointed hour, Lily, her Mama, Mr. Cat, Flo, and Granny Pomum all joined Brenda in her big office for the business meeting.

  Brenda poured them all glasses of apple juice, and then they sat down at the round conference table.

  “Well, Lily, we worked all night, and this morning we got the first steps in the Dairy Cow Welfare Revitalization Plan accomplished. The water systems and cow pens were all thoroughly cleaned, and temporary shade structures put in place, and temporary scratching posts were installed, and several kinds of cow toys were field tested…”

  Brenda went on and on, explaining what had happened so far.

  And…

  “And already, some of the cows gave milk! We had to conscrip—I mean, emergency hire some workers to milk the cows by hand in the traditional way, but we got the milk! We’ve ordered more of the gentle, quiet milking machines that Old Man Sam is using, and we should get them delivered next week, by which point all the other relocations and revitalizations should be done as well…”

  So fast!

  The Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin was moving super fast!

  They cared a lot about their dairy cows!

  All the farmers had been super happy to figure out why the cows were sad, and even though some of them had to move, as long as they could keep ‘Bessie’s Landing’ on their labels, they were okay with it!

  “Yay!” Lily cheered.

  Brenda adjusted her glasses.

  “So, as thanks for your help in resolving the Dairy Cow Strike in a Friendly Wisconsin way, we’d like to pay you a fair consultancy fee…”

  “Aw, gee, thanks!” Lily smiled.

  Another super chore done!

  Brenda slid a stack of cash over to Lily.

  “Please count it, the total amount should be three thousand dollars.”

  “Wow!” Lily said.

  “Wow!” Flo said.

  “Oh my,” Lily’s Mama said.

  Granny Pomum simply smiled.

  Wisconsinites always repaid their helpers!

  That was part of being Friendly!

  Lily counted the money with fast, practiced hands!

  “Yep, it’s all there! Thanks!”

  “No, thank you, Miss Lily. Now we can get the five year plan back on track…”

  Brenda adjusted her glasses again.

  “By the way, did you finish your business permit application?”

  “Oh, yeah! Here ya go!”

  Brenda skimmed it, and then pulled out a big stamp.

  APPROVED

  So fast!

  “We agreed last night to approve your application when submitted as long as there were no big problems,” Brenda explained.

  It was totally legit and above-board!

  You could count on that, because Brenda was the one who decided if something was legit and above-board!

  “So, would you be willing to sell me a franchise?” Brenda asked.

  “Yeah! Oh, but I need a regional manager…”

  “A regional manager? Do you want me to set up a committee?”

  All Lily’s ghosts shook their heads!

  “No, I just need one person to be a super manager to watch over all the franchises and help solve problems while I’m not here…”

  Lily turned to Flo.

  “Flo, would you be my regional manager for Wisconsin?”

  “Huh?!”

  Flo gasped.

  Where had this come from, all of a sudden?!

  “Why me?” Flo asked.

  “Because you know how to make a good Lilyburger, and you’re really good at selling! And you’re my business friend!”

  Za-kyun!

  Lily gave Flo a big friendly smile!

  But, Granny Pomum frowned.

  “Lily, Flo still has school after summer vacation ends…”

  Lily explained the job in more detail.

  How it was more of an oversight and planning role, that could be done after school hours!

  Mainly it would be the franchise owners managing things on a day to day basis…

  “Granny, I wanna do it! This is my chance to get closer to Lily’s level!”

  “But what about the orchard?”

  Flo shrugged.

  “I still wanna take over the orchard, but my Mommy and Daddy said they want to keep working for a long time, until they have their own grandkids… They won’t gimme it! So I need something to do until then!”

  There was nothing Granny Pomum could say to that!

  She had said the same thing to her daughter, Flo’s mother!

  “But, Granny, if I need help, will you help me?”

  Flo looked up at her Granny with a cute expression!

  Mr. Cat nodded in approval!

  Ancient Cat Technique!

  “Well, how could I say no to my adorable granddaughter…”

  Yay!

  Ghostly Ray Croc did a fist pump!

  That made three!

  Three regional managers, for three regions!

  The Kingdom of Appalashia, The Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas, and now The Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin!

  Brenda had them fill out more forms, and then Lilyburgers was allowed to set up shop in Wisconsin!

  Brenda paid Lily the franchise fee, and Flo got her cut, too, and her eyes got really big!

  “Wow, this is so much money…”

  Five hundred dollars was more than Flo had ever made before!

  By, like, a lot!

  “You still have to work hard, Flo,” her grandmother chided her.

  Brenda had everything mostly planned out, at least as far as the location and hiring people, so Lily and Mr. Cat spent the rest of the day helping Brenda and Flo set up the first Lilyburgers of Bessie’s Landing!

  Beef and cheese prices were still high, but Brenda was getting in early!

  She knew the prices would come down soon, and the restaurant would be profitable!

  That night, they all ate the first batch of training Lilyburgers the new employees had made!

  They were super yummy!

  But soon enough…

  Brenda had been away from work for several hours!

  An undersecretary found her, and the undersecretary was all in a tizzy!

  “General Secretary, we’ve received two messengers from the Glorious Sun Kingdom of France…”