“Papa…?”

  “Bill, dear?”

  Lily and her Mama called into the dark home.

  It was eerily still.

  Sally rushed deeper into the house, towards their bedroom, to see if Bill was back there.

  Lily set down her bags, worried.

  Mr. Cat sauntered in behind her.

  “Meow,” he said.

  “Bill?” Lily could hear her mother calling from the back of their house.

  Lily walked up to the letter on the table, and climbed into a chair so she could read it. A moment later, her Mama joined her from the back.

  “He’s not there…” Sally muttered to herself.

  Mr. Cat hopped up onto the table, and the three of them read the letter.

  To Sally, Bill’s wife,

  Bill has been arrested for failure to repay his medical debts and been taken to debtor’s prison.

  There is a warrant out for your arrest, too. Please turn yourself in immediately.

  Signed,

  Norton Broadcourt, Earl of Taxation and Prisons

  _______________, Mayor of Three Creeks Village

  There was a blank space where the mayor was supposed to sign…

  Lily was scared.

  How could this happen?

  They had left her Papa with enough money to pay the debts.

  They had double checked!

  “Mama…”

  She looked up at her Mama, but…

  Her Mama was pale, and she was trembling.

  She had a horrible look on her face…

  Mr. Cat leaned over the letter, read it, and hissed!

  His hackles were raised!

  His hair was standing up, and his tail was puffed out.

  He was mad!

  He liked Bill!

  Bill’s lap was super warm for napping in, and he never got up, so Mr. Cat could sleep there without disruption!

  Lily’s ghosts also read the letter.

  “What in tarnation…” Mac muttered.

  “How could this have happened?” Rich asked.

  Ray Croc was stunned. “A warrant?”

  Ghostly Duke… He glowered at the letter. “Ridiculous… they really have debtor’s prisons here? That’s outrageous…”

  Lily’s Mama started crying, tears streaming down her face.

  After all they had been through…

  It hadn’t been enough.

  Lily almost started to cry, too.

  But, instead, she jumped off the chair and ran to her room!

  She threw open the door, and there it was!

  The symbol of the gods she had drawn on her wall almost two months ago!

  She got down on her knees and prayed!

  “Mister Gods and Misses Goddesses! Please help! Where did they take my Papa?! Why did this happen?!”

  She screwed her eyes shut and folded her hands as hard as she could and prayed…!

  And there was a screech of squealing tires outside her house!

  A moment later, the sound of a car’s engine turning off.

  “Mrow!” Mr. Cat meowed from the dining room, and Lily stood up and ran back into the front of the house!

  Lily’s Mama had collapsed into a chair at the table and was still crying over the letter.

  Knock knock knock

  It was up to Lily to answer the door!

  She ran up, and could hear yelling on the other side!

  “Lily! Sally! It’s George, the Mayor!”

  The Mayor!

  Lily opened the door, and there was George, and Henry, and Junior!

  And past them, Lily could see Dale in the driver’s seat!

  “Oh, good, we got here in time!” Mayor George sounded relieved.

  “Indeed, quickly, let’s get inside,” Mayor Henry said.

  Junior adjusted his glasses, making them flash in the light. “We’ve got a lot to report…”

  Lily let them all inside, and when Sally saw them, she quickly stood up, knocking her chair over.

  “Are you here to arrest me, too?” she asked, bitterly.

  “What? No, no!” George said, raising his hands. “Let us explain.”

  Lily’s Mama was mad!

  “What happened?! Why did they arrest Bill?! He had the money to make the payment!”

  “We’re gonna tell you, alright? Let’s just calm down…”

  Junior took a knee to get down on Lily’s level.

  “Lily, do you mind if I make us some tea? Sorry for the intrusion…”

  Lily shook her head. “No, go ahead Junior.”

  “Thanks.”

  With incredible efficiency, he brewed them all some tea, and they sat at the table.

  Once they all had tea, Lily began.

  Her Mama was too mad and sad to speak!

  “Did Papa forget to pay the bills?” she asked.

  Papa could be scatterbrained sometimes!

  Mayor George shook his head with a bitter expression.

  “No, I double checked and came here on collection day to oversee things. Bill was ready, and had all the money when the creditors came…”

  Mayor George sighed.

  “The debtor’s prison guards came with a signed warrant of arrest, without even waiting to see if Bill could come up with the money. They never intended to collect any payment in the first place.”

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  Mayor George pushed a piece of paper towards Lily and her Mama, and they looked at it.

  It was the warrant for Bill and Sally’s arrest.

  For failure to repay debts.

  “I tried to gum up the works by not signing the warrant, but they just ignored it and arrested him anyway.”

  Lily frowned.

  Ignoring the paperwork?

  That would never fly in Wisconsin!

  Mayor Henry sipped his tea, then set down his teacup.

  “There’s something rotten in The Great Swamp City…”

  “The Great Swamp City?” Lily asked.

  Junior answered. “It’s the capital of our Kingdom, where the King and the Crown Prince run everything. Normally they leave us alone out here in the hills and mountains, but there’s something going on down there…”

  Mayor George tapped the warrant again.

  “Technically, this is invalid, so Miss Sally, you shouldn’t be in trouble, but…”

  “But they took Bill anyway,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  They weren’t following the rules!

  Sally sat speechless, staring at the incompletely signed slip of paper.

  “Ahem,” Junior cleared his throat and updated Lily on her businesses.

  They had stayed open during the food shortage, selling out every day.

  It had been a huge relief for Stone Pit and Three Creeks villages.

  They had lost money on each Lilyburger sold…

  But the fries and lemonade made up for it, and they had made some small profits.

  Not enough to pay the rents for next month, but things looked like they were getting better!

  Rumor was the problems in Texas and Wisconsin had been solved.

  Lily nodded.

  “Yeah, I did the super chores and things are all better in The Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas, the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin, and the Glorious Sun Kingdom of France… But now there’s a problem in the Kingdom of Appalashia, too?!”

  What the heck!

  These things were supposed to come in threes…

  In any case, the increased economic activity had been super helpful for the people of the villages. They had mostly been able to deal with the higher food prices.

  Things in Grassy Hill and Lumberville weren’t so great.

  They were doing less work in Lumberville to spend more time hunting… Economic activity was slowing way down!

  Grassy Hill’s farmers were doing okay, but they couldn’t even afford to buy their own village’s wheat…

  Word was, the debtor’s prison guards had been going around those villages, as well.

  When Lily heard about this, she slammed her little hands down on the table!

  “That’s so bad!” she cried.

  The two Mayors and Junior nodded grimly.

  Lily’s Mama sniffed and wiped her eyes.

  “Mrow,” said Mr. Cat.

  “We gotta go save Papa!” Lily declared.

  And with that, it was decided!

  Lily, her Mama, and Mr. Cat were headed to The Great Swamp City to rescue her Papa!

  This time, they were taking Mayor George’s car, and he was coming with them!

  Dale was going to take Mayor Henry’s car and go ask for help from Lily’s friends!

  Junior was going to keep managing the restaurants, and Gertrude was going to keep things running with the Mayor gone!

  Honestly, her job might be easier with him out of town…

  The most important thing he had done in the last two weeks was not sign some paperwork!

  And so, having just unloaded their bags from one car, they loaded their bags into Mayor George’s car!

  It was getting late, but they were in a hurry!

  That night, they stayed in a hotel in Charleston. Lily could hear her Mama crying before she fell asleep.

  All Lily could do was pray before she, too, fell asleep, snuggled up to Mr. Cat.

  Throughout the land, that night, several cats received messages from the Gods…

  And old, rough-looking mouser with part of his ear missing…

  A cream-loving calico cat…

  A beautiful white long-haired Turkish Angora with a newfound taste for French Fries…

  All of them were given their missions…

  And when Lily woke up, Mr. Cat was awake and looking at her!

  “Meow,” he said.

  “Good morning, Mr. Cat…” Lily said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “I got a message last night…” he said.

  “A message… huh?!”

  Lily’s Mama sat up.

  “A message? From who?”

  Who would leave a message with a cat?

  Cats weren’t particularly known for being responsible…

  “The Goddess of Shopping!” Mr. Cat announced. “She says you should go shopping today!”

  Lily and her Mama shared a look.

  “Really…?” Lily asked.

  That was…

  Not exactly super helpful!

  They were hurrying to The Great Swamp City to save her Papa!

  Was now really the time to go shopping?

  But, Mr. Cat nodded seriously.

  “Yep, that’s the message, and I got an extra life for it, so it’s a really big deal…”

  Cats are the messengers of the Gods!

  When they do things for the Gods, they get extra lives!

  That’s why cats have nine lives!

  Lily and her Mama shared another look.

  Neither of them were really in the mood to go shopping.

  But if the Goddess of Shopping said they should…

  “Did the Goddess say what we should buy?”

  “It’s some kind of outfit.”

  “What kind?”

  “I dunno, but I’ll know it when I see it!”

  Sally sighed.

  It was probably a good idea to go shopping anyway.

  She could put together some kind of disguise.

  She didn’t want to get arrested!

  They met back up with Mayor George, and told him the Goddess’ message.

  “Shopping, eh? The best shopping is just outside The Great Swamp City. We’ll get there right around lunchtime, so it’s a good place to take a break.”

  They all got back into the car and resumed their drive.

  Along the way, Lily looked out the window, and there was big signs!

  Like, really big! Giant, even!

  “Those are called billboards, and they have ads on them.” Mayor George explained.

  “Ads?”

  “Yeah, ads. s. They basically tell people about things to buy.”

  But these billboards weren’t advertising anything to buy.

  Duke Gamberton’s Casino Resort!

  Earl Broadcourt’s Five Pines Casino!

  Baron Harold’s Seaside Resort and Casino!

  It was nothing but ads for casinos!

  “This is nothing but ads for casinos,” Lily’s Mama wisely pointed out!

  “What’s a casino?” Lily asked.

  “It’s a place people can gamble on games. Remember the card players in the Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas, at our motel?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  Sally explained gambling to her daughter.

  And Lily was aghast!

  She was shocked!

  “Wait, so the odds are stacked against the player?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Why would anyone do that?!”

  Lily was a good-at-math girl!

  If the odds only ever got as high as forty-five percent for the player, that meant that forty-five times out of a hundred they would win, and fifty-five times out of a hundred they would lose!

  So in a hundred games, most would break even, and she would lose ten times!

  It was a sure-fire way to lose money!

  “And a lot of the games have worse odds than that,” Mayor George pointed out.

  Lily did the Scream pose for the first time in a long time!

  And as they drove, they passed more and more ads for casinos and gambling!

  And in the corner of all the ads, there was a small bit of writing…

  A Dave Dealerman Partnership

  Dave Dealerman…

  “Well, there’s a law against children gambling…”

  “Phew…” Sally breathed a sigh of relief.

  Then she remembered that Lily was emancipated!

  “What’s that?” Lily asked, pointing at yet another billboard.

  “What? Oh geez!”

  It was an ad for a trading card game!

  One of the selling points was “Legal for Children!”

  Geez!

  Mayor George explained.

  “Wait, so they’re just little bits of paper, with stuff printed on them, and you have to buy packs of random cards and hope you get the one you want?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That’s just like gambling!”

  “Well, you can’t actually make any money back, so it’s kind of worse…”

  Lily was appalled.

  Flabbergasted!

  Taking bits of paper worth cents, and selling them for dollars…

  And not just that, but bundling them up in packs of random cards so the customer doesn’t even know what they’re buying…

  “How have I never heard of this before now?” Sally asked.

  It hadn’t been like this when she was growing up!

  “They just passed a law earlier this year, legalizing casinos. I guess the trading card stuff started at the same time…” Mayor George said.

  And on they drove, passing dozens more billboards advertising all kinds of gambling…

  What was the world coming to?!