“Miss Lily, perhaps I could take that role?”

  Junior pounced!

  “Huh?”

  Lily was shocked!

  The Gods and Goddesses had been really fast with that one…

  “Oh, right, you don’t know my qualifications. I graduated first in my class at Royal University, Charleston’s School of Business…”

  Junior started giving his resume verbally!

  He was talking really fast!

  Lily…

  Sipped her lemonade.

  She put on her business thinking cap!

  When Junior finished, Lily responded!

  “So, you don’t have any prior work history?”

  “No, but…”

  “And you don’t have any particular cooking experience…?”

  “No, but…”

  Lily turned to George.

  “What do you think, George?”

  Her business partner was here!

  She could ask him for advice!

  Of course, George wasn’t unbiased.

  This was his friend’s son!

  But George still took it seriously!

  He was a professional, after all.

  “I think it’s worth giving him a shot,” he said!

  And then Lily turned to her top advisor on hiring decisions.

  Mr. Cat!

  “What do you think, Mr. Cat?”

  Henry raised an eyebrow at this, but didn’t say anything.

  This was his son’s battle!

  And Miss Lily was only eight years old…

  He supposed that getting along with her pet was important to her, and stopped thinking about it beyond that!

  Mr. Cat…

  Sighed!

  “I guess he’ll do alright. He’s responsible and nice, but he stopped after giving me one french fry…”

  Sally nodded.

  That’s right!

  Sally had explained about Mr. Cat’s diet!

  And Junior had agreed!

  After one french fry, he only pet Mr. Cat, and didn’t feed him any more!

  Junior was very responsible!

  “Okay!”

  And just like that, Lily made her decision!

  Lily was a decisive girl!

  Lily wanted to get the ball rolling!

  The faster she got her restaurants set up, the faster she could pay for her parents’ retirement!

  With that, she had her employees for Stone Pit village picked out!

  “Beckyyyy!” she called.

  “Yes, Miss Lily?” Becky called back.

  “Are you busy?”

  Becky left the restaurant and came over.

  “Becky, this is Junior! He’s gonna be the supervisor for the restaurants in Stone Pit village!”

  The other grown ups all had really wide eyes.

  So fast!

  Lily was moving fast!

  But…

  Her ghostly companions were nodding!

  “Best to strike while the iron’s hot,” they said!

  Lily turned to Junior.

  “Are you free this afternoon? You can do some training with Becky and Ron, and then we can open up the restaurants next week! Maybe even on Monday, if everything’s ready!”

  Junior…

  Nodded eagerly!

  “Yeah, let’s do it, Miss Lily!”

  His schedule was wide open!

  And he was eager to put his business school knowledge to work!

  So, they made their arrangements.

  Junior would get training here in Three Creeks Village for the rest of the day.

  He was a fast learner!

  Then, tomorrow was Sunday.

  On Monday, he would drive over early in the morning, and Lily would show him how the cart at the mine worked. Then, he would drive Lily over to Stone Pit, and they would set up the restaurants together, along with the other new employees.

  First, they would get the restaurant in the village set up, and train everybody on cooking Lilyburgers right!

  Then, they would set up the cart with the best, most responsible employees the next day.

  They needed to be able to work independently!

  So, that settled, Becky took Junior back to the restaurant, and Junior’s training arc began!

  Montage time!

  He sliced potatoes!

  He fried them up, and salted them, and put them under the heating lamp!

  He molded the patties, and flipped them, and assembled the burgers!

  Becky and Ron showed him how things were organized, and after washing his hands, he took notes on everything!

  They showed him where the ingredients were kept, how much stock they typically ordered, their accounting system…

  He learned it all!

  Junior soaked it all up like a sponge!

  He was in his element, and then Hazel and Zoey showed up!

  They dropped off the money, and got paid…

  And they saw Junior!

  Hazel…

  Was impressed!

  Some hot new guy had showed up, and was working with her Mom on her level, and handling more of Miss Lily’s business…

  He was really cool!

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  Up in heaven, the God of Business and the Goddess of Love gave each other a high five!

  “Now that’s a power couple if we’ve ever seen one!” they said!

  Junior was fresh out of university!

  Hazel had just finished up with regular school!

  In a few years…

  They’d make a good match!

  Only time would tell, but the God and Goddess rained their blessings down upon them…

  Not that they noticed!

  Although Hazel was impressed, she was thinking more about going shopping with Zoey again!

  And Junior was thinking about accounting and sales data!

  Sure, he noticed the cute girl who ran the restaurant cart at the mine…

  But it wasn’t any more than that, yet!

  “Junior!”

  Lily called, and he looked up from his training.

  “I’m going home with Mama now! I’ll see you Monday morning, okay? Becky, when he’s done training for the day, can you pay him fifteen dollars?”

  Lily was going to pay him for training time, of course!

  It was the right thing to do!

  “You got it, Miss Lily,” Becky replied.

  Junior nodded.

  “You got it, Miss Lily,” he repeated what Becky had said. “I’ll be back on Monday!”

  Lily had also promised to come to Stone Pit village some time to play golf with Mayor Henry.

  Networking!

  Referrals!

  But, for now…

  Henry drove himself home, in his own car, and George returned to his regular work, a fair bit later than he should have…

  Gertrude was going to be annoyed!

  Poor Gertrude…

  Lily and her Mama first visited the market, then walked home, hand in hand.

  Today had been a big success!

  And tomorrow, there was nothing Lily needed to do!

  She didn’t need to do any chores.

  The business was going smoothly.

  She had even found a responsible supervisor for the restaurants in the other village!

  If things worked out there…

  She was all set!

  She already basically had the money she needed for the debt payments for this month.

  Because she was opening her businesses over in Stone Pit later in the month, the rent to start would be lower.

  And once they were up and running, they would bring in enough profit.

  Lily…

  Breathed a big sigh of relief!

  She had been working so hard for the last month and a half!

  Ever since summer vacation had started!

  Her Papa had been injured, and then came home and couldn’t even get out of bed…

  Both her parents had to stop working!

  So, Lily had to step up!

  She was eight years old!

  She could work, too!

  And she had worked so hard, doing all those chores…

  She had reached her limit!

  And then…

  The Gods and Goddesses up in heaven had heard her desperate prayers!

  The God of Literature had done… something! And then the God of Death had sent her advisors!

  Yeah, they were ghosts, and it was a little spooky…

  But Lily was brave!

  And she had learned about business!

  Investing!

  Accounting!

  Now she was the owner of two, soon to be four restaurants…

  Minus the mayor’s cut…

  But that was okay!

  Because now…

  Everything was going to be alright!

  “Papa! We’re home!”

  Lily yelled when they got back, and kicked off her shoes, and ran inside.

  And there she found…

  John and her Papa!

  The gamer!

  They were playing a game of chess!

  Lily’s Papa was sitting in an armchair, with the chess set on the table off to the side, by his arm, so he wouldn’t have to move his back.

  John had brought a big stack of games over!

  “Mrow,” Mr. Cat said and waddled over to Lily’s Papa, then hopped up into his lap!

  Lily’s Papa looked up from the board he had been frowning at, and smiled.

  “Lily, Sally! Welcome back!”

  “Oh, hi there Miss Sally, Miss Lily,” John said.

  “Hi John!” Lily said brightly. “Are you guys playing games?”

  “Yep,” John said, and then turned back to his game!

  His focus was incredible!

  He was completely disregarding Lily and her Mama!

  Lily’s Papa chuckled.

  “John came over to keep me company, but I think he just wanted someone to game with…”

  “Mm.” John grunted, then he moved a piece.

  Lily’s Mama chuckled as well, happy that her husband had had something to do while they were gone, and set her bag of groceries down in the kitchen.

  Tonight, she was going to cook them all a delicious meal!

  It was time to celebrate!

  She had seen that Lily knew her stuff with business, and had heard all the numbers.

  With Lily’s two new restaurants, they were going to be okay.

  They could pay off the debt!

  Bill saw the bag, and narrowed his eyes.

  “You went shopping?”

  “Yeah!” Lily answered. “We’re gonna have a feast tonight! Steak, and pasta, and pie! I’m gonna help make it!”

  Bill made a complicated expression.

  “Sally, do we…”

  “It’s alright, Bill. Lily’s done a great job. She’s worked really hard, and we deserve to celebrate! You just keep gaming and let us do our magic.”

  “Cooking magic!” Lily declared!

  Up in heaven, the God of Cooking watched carefully.

  Normally, he was an angry, high strung kind of God!

  He was famous for yelling at new chefs, and putting them under pressure.

  But…

  He was soft on kids!

  With adults, he was really tough!

  But not with Lily!

  And, he guessed he could be nice to Lily’s Mama, too.

  They both said their prayers before they started cooking, after all.

  So, he blessed them!

  First, Lily and her Mama made the pie.

  It was a delicious apple pie!

  They made the filling, and prepared the crust, and got it all ready…

  Then, while it was baking, they made the pasta!

  Long, thin noodles!

  Creamy carbonara sauce!

  Yummy little chunks of bacon!

  Pasta Carbonara!

  A delight that was surprisingly hard to find outside of its country of origin…

  They got that all ready, and Lily watched over it while her Mama prepared the ribeye steaks!

  Yes, they had splurged!

  Ribeye steaks!

  Big hunks of yummy meat, perfectly marbled with fat!

  Lily didn’t really like the fatty bits so much…

  But the steaks were really yummy!

  Sally cooked up the steaks, and then threw together a salad, and everything was getting close to done.

  “See ya later, Mr. Bill,” John said.

  “Yeah, see ya John.”

  “Bye Miss Sally, Miss Lily.”

  “Bye bye!”

  “Tell your mother we said hi, John, and thanks for coming over!”

  “Uh huh,” he said, and then went home for his own dinner!

  Lily set the table, and Sally brought out the food.

  Steak, salad, pasta, and pie…

  For the last month and a half, they had been eating simple, cheap meals.

  Bill and Sally had wanted to save every cent they could for Lily, for after they were gone.

  But now…

  Sally was relieved.

  Everything was going to be okay.

  Lily’s business was doing well.

  Bill was recovering well.

  She said a powerful prayer of thanks to the Gods and Goddesses.

  Her Piety Points shot up!

  Lily also said her usual prayers, and wholeheartedly enjoyed a yummy meal with her Mama and Papa!

  She was so happy!

  And Bill ate, too, and it was delicious and he said his prayers…

  But his mind was whirling with thoughts of gaming!

  He hadn’t realized how many kinds of games there were…

  John had taught him the rules, but he hadn’t held back at all!

  And…

  Although he trusted his wife…

  He wasn’t sure about Lily’s businesses.

  He hadn’t seen them, himself!

  He was still worried…

  He wanted to be healed already, and back to work!

  But all he could do was wait to heal, and play games…

  The food was yummy, but he was distracted.

  At least, until the pie came out.

  He loved his wife’s apple pie!

  He even had an extra slice, despite the look Sally gave him.

  He always did that!

  Although, given that he was less physically active, it gave him a tummy ache this time…

  Sally rolled her eyes.

  Serves him right!

  Still, she smiled and helped him to bed after dinner.

  Lily happily washed the dishes.

  She was helping!

  And the she went to bed, stuffed full of yummy food.

  Tomorrow was her first day off!