It was the fourth day of running the cart, and Lily was getting the hang of things. Like the mister ghosts said, she practiced her customer service, trying to remember her customers’ names and what they liked to order.

  The girl from yesterday, Hazel, came back too! She ordered a full set, and Mr. Cat managed to get a few french fries out of her!

  “Sorry everyone! I ran out of food for today! I’ll be back tomorrow!”

  Lily told the remaining miners, even more today, who hadn’t been able to buy lunch, and they walked away grumbling.

  She felt bad, but there wasn’t much she could do by herself.

  And then…

  Someone came up to the cart!

  It was the supervisor, Mr. Foreman!

  “Hey, Lily, you got a second?”

  “Yes Mr. Foreman, what is it?”

  Lily closed her ledger and looked up at the man wearing a hardhat, despite working in an office.

  “Is there any way you can sell more burgers? I’ve started getting complaints from some of the workers…”

  The supervisor explained a lot of really complicated stuff about work shifts and mining operations that went right over Lily’s head!

  He thought maybe she would get it as the daughter of a miner, but she was only eight!

  She just nodded along.

  “Uh huh, I understand.”

  She didn’t understand anything!

  “So, could you sell more?”

  “Sorry…” Lily made a sad face. “There’s only so much I can do… twenty Lilyburger sets is about my limit…”

  The supervisor sighed. “Well, if that’s how it is, it is what it is…”

  “Wait!”

  It was…

  Hazel!

  She had been awkwardly standing there, unsure how to join the conversation!

  She had been shocked that Lily and the supervisor were talking business at such a high level!

  Although Lily had only been nodding along and saying “Hmm, I see…” every now and then!

  Her respect for Lily only grew!

  “Miss Lily! I want to work for you! I asked the Gods and Goddesses like you said and I really want to buy a new top—I mean, I want to cook Lilyburgers with you!”

  “Oh!” Lily exclaimed.

  If Hazel worked with her, she could carry a lot more ingredients in the morning! And they could cook more!

  The WcDonald brothers did an invisible high five only Lily could see, if they hadn’t done it behind her.

  “That’s great!” Lily said. “Meet me at the bakery tomorrow at, uh… seven AM.”

  That was a little bit after dawn, when it got light enough for Lily to go out on her own.

  “You got it, Miss Lily!”

  Hazel scampered off, practically—no, literally skipping, and Mr. Foreman…

  Sighed!

  “Uh, Lily… no, you know what? I’ll just tell Tim to make sure his daughter is up on time…”

  “Huh?” Lily said.

  “Anyway, do you think you can cook more tomorrow, now that Tim’s daughter is helping you?”

  “Yeah!”

  “How much more? There’s like twenty or thirty miners that have been complaining to me… Not like I’m in charge of the food stand, though…”

  Being a supervisor could be hard sometimes!

  Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you control everything!

  Part of being a good supervisor is listening anyway, and doing your best!

  Mr. Foreman, true to his name, was a good supervisor!

  And, behind Lily…

  The ghostly WcDonald brothers were celebrating!

  “That’d be great! We could more than double our sales!”

  Lily looked at them and tilted her head, silently asking how much more they could do.

  “Hmm,” Mac said, “with Hazel’s help, we could probably do triple.”

  “Huh?!” Lily said, apparently in response to nothing. Mr. Foreman’s eyebrows raised.

  “Yeah,” Mac continued, “because she could keep cooking during lunchtime while you’re serving the customers and handling the money.”

  “I dunno, Mac,” Rich said. “We should probably ramp up a bit slower than that. Hazel will need training, too.”

  “Oh, right. She probably doesn’t know how to cook burgers and fries in the first place…”

  “Uh, Lily…” Mr. Foreman said, as the eight year old in front of him was looking back and forth between two spots of empty space.

  “Uh, oh, uh… we’ll try to do more tomorrow! Lily still has to train Hazel!”

  “Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Well, do what you can. Give your father my regards, too.”

  “Okay!” Lily gave him a big bright smile and finished cleaning up the cart.

  Then, she bought up extra ingredients for tomorrow. Enough to make twice as much food!

  She was a little worried about waste, but her ghostly advisors assured her the food would be okay the next day if she didn’t manage to cook it all with Hazel.

  And speaking of Hazel…

  She was window shopping with her friends!

  And bragging about her new job she was starting tomorrow!

  If she made ten dollars a day, she could buy all kinds of stuff compared to when her allowance was just five dollars a week.

  “That’s wild that a cooking job just dropped into your lap like that, no cap,” one of her friends said, using the hip lingo of today’s youth!

  “Forreal forreal on Gods you better say your prayers and be mad thankful tonight,” another said, nearly incomprehensibly!

  “Ohio bet I’m so amped for tomorrow, my drip gon’ be extra bougie forreal.”

  “Hazel you’re so extra hahaha.”

  “That food really so gas huh?”

  “No cap it hits different, if you know you know.”

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “Guys we can’t keep sleeping on this whole meal.”

  They…

  Uh…

  What?

  They were talking about Lilyburgers…

  Maybe?

  Uh, possibly, Hazel’s friends made plans to check out Lily’s food cart the next day, during Hazel’s first day of work as an adult.

  Are the kids alright?

  In any case, the next morning, Hazel’s parents indeed did have to wake her up and get her out the door on time to meet Lily at the bakery.

  Hazel showed up, barely on time, wearing one of her mother’s spare aprons.

  “Good morning, Miss Lily!” she said, speaking English once more.

  “Good morning, Hazel!” Lily said. Behind her, on the counter, there was several bags of buns. “Can you carry these? We need to stop by the butcher and then we can go to the cart.”

  Lily already had in her hands two blocks of cheese.

  Hazel, being older and therefore bigger, carried the big bags of buns with ease. Lily carried the heavier, but smaller, packages of meat and cheese.

  At least, at first.

  “Uh, Lily…”

  Lily was struggling!

  It was ten pounds of ground beef and two big blocks of cheese!

  But she persevered!

  She made it almost halfway to the cart!

  “Lily, I can carry the meat, too.”

  “...Please and thank you.”

  Lily surrendered!

  Hazel carried most of the ingredients up to the cart, where Mr. Cat was already waiting.

  “Mrow!” he said.

  “Good morning, Mr. Cat!” Lily said.

  Hazel copied her boss. “Uh, good morning, Mr. Cat,” she said.

  “Mew!” he said, and then scampered off to play around until the fries were ready.

  Lily and Hazel took the cover off the cart, and Lily started showing Hazel how the food was prepared.

  How to slice the potatoes, fry the slices, and let them dry under the heat lamp.

  How to form the ground beef patties, and cook them up.

  How to take the cooked patties and create a Lilyburger, keeping slices of cheese ready as needed.

  Hazel learned with intense focus!

  Slice the potatoes!

  Fry the slices!

  Flip the patties!

  Add the condiments!

  Juice the lemons, add sugar to the water, and set the pitchers aside!

  And then, before she knew it, the whistle blew for lunch!

  “Oh no, Miss Lily, we didn’t finish cooking in time!”

  There was still some ingredients left uncooked!

  Lily looked up into the empty air for a moment.

  “It’s okay!” she declared. “You just keep cooking it all up. I’ll handle the customers.”

  The miners came out of the mine with very serious expressions on their faces.

  They were hungry!

  They were jostling each other!

  They had reached their limits!

  They got into line and arguments broke out!

  “Don’t worry everyone! We have more food today!” Lily said, and a cheer went up in the back.

  “Keep cooking, Hazel!”

  “Mrow!”

  “Don’t stop to pet Mr. Cat until we’re done!”

  “Hey! Mrow meow!”

  “I’ll take a full set with cheese.”

  “Coming right up! That’ll be two dollars.”

  Hazel…

  Was in the zone!

  She deftly switched between burger flipping and French fry frying and kept cooking!

  Each patty was cooked to sizzling perfection!

  The fries were salted perfectly!

  And soon enough, she ran out of ingredients, but when she looked at the stack of Lilyburgers she’d been building, and the pile of fries…

  They were both nearly gone!

  When she looked out at the picnic tables where the miners were eating their lunch, everyone looked really happy!

  They were enjoying the food she made!

  “Hazel, can you make more lemonade?” Lily directed, and Hazel juiced some more lemons and refilled the pitchers.

  “Hmm…” Lily said as she looked at the leftover burgers and fries.

  There was still some more time during lunch, and a few of the miners came up late.

  “Are there any Lilyburgers left?” one asked.

  “I want to try the fries so bad…” another said.

  “Yeah!” Lily said, and the miners looked so happy!

  They were shedding manly tears of joy!

  “Hurray!” they cheered, and bought the rest of the food!

  There were still a few miners who Lily recognized as regulars, but they had brought their own lunches today. They had agreed not to buy any Lilyburgers today so the other guys could have a chance!

  There was still room to expand in this market!

  And then…

  A bunch of youngsters showed up!

  Hazel’s friends arrived!

  “Whoa, there really is a mini-restaurant here…”

  “Fleek.”

  “Yo, Hazel, you got the hook-up?”

  Lily was shocked!

  “Oh, Miss Lily, these are my friends. They wanted to check out the Lilyburgers when I told them how good they were.”

  Is… that what she had been saying the day before?

  Hazel said something incomprehensible to her friends and communicated that they had arrived too late, and they’d have to come back tomorrow.

  They were disappointed, but with a chorus of “Bet!” they left, promising to return again.

  Lily, the ghosts, and Mr. Cat all shared a look.

  What?

  “I mean, word of mouth spreading is a good thing…” Rich said, tentatively.

  “Yeah…” Mac replied.

  “More customers means more money…” Lily murmured.

  “Mrow! You didn’t save me any French fries!” Mr. Cat yowled.

  Hazel picked up the cleaning routine with minimal instruction, having helped her mother in the kitchen before, and Lily consulted with her ghosts.

  “We easily sold forty sets today, without any waste.”

  “Yes, so we could do even more. Now that Hazel knows the procedure, she should be able to get right to it as soon as we set up.”

  “If you just focus on fries and lemonade tomorrow, Lily, then Hazel can cook up all the burgers. It’s called division of labor!”

  “Oh, and don’t forget to include Hazel’s pay in your ledger,” Mac wrapped up the discussion.

  Hazel and Lily put the cover on the cart, and Lily handed the older girl ten slightly crumpled one-dollar bills.

  “There you go, Hazel! Ten dollars. Same time and place tomorrow?”

  “Woohoo!” Hazel cheered. “Definitely, Miss Lily!”

  And then she skipped away, fully intending to spend every last bit of the money she had just earned.

  Economic activity in Three Creeks Village was increasing!

  Lily checked her ledger.

  Today they had sold forty full sets, thirty of which had cheese.

  After paying Hazel, she had made forty-nine dollars and sixty cents.

  That was as much as her Papa made working in the mine!

  She had made a lot more money after she hired Hazel, and the work hadn’t been as hard!

  “That’s right, Lily. Hiring employees costs money because you have to pay them, but it’s a good idea as long as it lets you do more business.”

  The next day, Hazel arrived on time again, after her mother woke her up. This time they bought enough ingredients for sixty sets, since Hazel’s friends had promised to return.

  It was getting to be a lot to carry, but Hazel brought a grocery bag with her, and they made it okay.

  On the fifth day, they sold fifty-five sets to the miners, and the last five sets to Hazel’s friends when they arrived.

  Every single miner was able to buy what they wanted, for the first time!

  It was a bit hard, and Hazel had to push herself, but she was getting better and faster as she got more experience!

  And today Lily made seventy-nine dollars and forty cents in gross profits!

  The next day, they did it again! A few more miners came to order food, and a couple more teens from the village made the journey to try the hot new food in their village!

  “It seems like fifty-five sets is the sweet spot,” Mac and Rich told Lily.

  Lily quickly did some rough math.

  “So… about one thousand, nine hundred a month…” she said. And then, she smiled!

  That should be enough money to pay for her parents’ retirement!

  She went home that day, super proud of herself!

  She didn’t have to worry about work tomorrow since the mine would be closed on Sunday!

  That night, at dinner, she told her Mama and Papa the good news!

  But, her Mama and Papa shared a sad look.

  “Lily, we’re so proud of you… You’ll be able to take care of yourself, when we’re gone.”

  “Huh?!” Lily exclaimed.

  “Huh?” the ghosts exclaimed.

  “Meow?” Mr. Cat exclaimed—he had been under the table begging for bits of chicken.

  “Lily… at the end of month, we have to start making payments on all our debts,” Lily’s Papa explained.

  “We need to pay almost five thousand a month.”

  “““Huh?!”””