The job interviews were a big success!

  There were a lot of people looking for work, especially people looking for first jobs!

  Lily’s offer of ten dollars per half shift was super competitive!

  But, before Lily could finish her interviews, the mayors returned!

  George had a big grin on his face!

  Lily saw that, and gave him a double thumbs up!

  George gave her one back with a dashing grin!

  He had beat his longtime rival, the Stone Pit mayor, for the first time!

  And the Stone Pit mayor…

  Lily took a closer look at him.

  He was tall and thin, and looked all the more so next to the heavyset Three Creeks mayor.

  He was still wearing his golf slacks, a golf vest, and one of those floppy golf hats…

  He was a total pro!

  He took golf seriously!

  His head was covered, but the hair on the sides and back at least was a thick silver, neatly trimmed.

  He had hazel eyes, and a mustache!

  And, next to him…

  Was a doppelganger!

  A clone!

  A copy!

  Er…

  No, the other man was clearly younger, and wasn’t wearing a hat, and his hair was light brown…

  And he didn’t have a mustache!

  But the resemblance was uncanny.

  “Oh, Mayor, you’re back.”

  The clerk turned and greeted him.

  The mayor…

  Grimaced!

  “Oh dear…” the clerk muttered.

  The mayor of Stone Pit…

  Was a sore loser!

  Of course, he was perfectly polite.

  He was a gentleman!

  But boy did it stick in his craw that his rival had beat him today!

  George was oozing smugness underneath his own polite expression.

  And…

  It was almost past lunch time!

  He was getting hungry.

  Hangry, even!

  He wasn’t himself when he was hungry!

  And, though he wouldn’t admit it…

  His wife wasn’t very good at cooking!

  She didn’t like it!

  That was all well and good. It was fine. Not every wife has to like cooking, or be good at it…

  So the mayor handled it himself.

  Granted, he wasn’t very good at it either.

  But it was something he did for his wife because he loved her, and she appreciated it!

  And they were both terribly skinny…

  “Ahem, allow me to introduce the restaurateur I was telling you about, Henry. This little lady here is Lily.”

  “Ah, so you’re Lily. My name is Henry Graneau, and I’m the mayor of Stone Pit Village. You can call me Henry.”

  “Hi Mr. Mayor, I mean, Henry!”

  Lily waved, and smiled brightly.

  “And this is my son, Junior.”

  The mayor’s copy was his son!

  “Yo, nice to meet ya, Miss Lily.”

  “Nice to meet you! Gods’ blessings on you both!”

  The mayor…

  Narrowed his eyes!

  “You know,” he said, “George’s golf game has improved markedly, and he’s been praying a lot more openly…”

  George…

  Nodded proudly!

  “Indeed, praise to the God of Golf for his help today!”

  The mayor’s Piety Points rose!

  He was getting the hang of it!

  But Henry, the other mayor, was more focused on the little girl in front of him!

  The golf prodigy who had definitely taught George some secret that made him so good at golf!

  It was, of course, the prayer.

  But he couldn’t believe that!

  It couldn’t be that simple!

  It couldn’t be that easy!

  Golf was a game of technique and skill…

  But, Henry was wrong!

  It was that easy!

  There was a God of Golf!

  It was by his blessings that anyone was ever able to hit that tiny little ball on the ground at all!

  Without his blessings…

  Whiff!

  Woosh!

  Clack!

  You’d be lucky to hit the ball at all, let alone hit it straight…

  In any case, the mayor was interested in Lily’s secret!

  He was dying to play a round of golf with her, so he could copy whatever it was she was doing!

  (She was having fun and saying her prayers!)

  Next to the suspicious, skinny mayor, his son was looking at Lily for a different reason!

  He had just graduated from the Royal University branch at Charleston with a degree in business!

  Eventually, he would take over as mayor from his father.

  After a free and fair election, of course.

  Not!

  This was a monarchy!

  Mayors were appointed by governors, who were appointed by the King.

  Of course, Junior would have to prove himself to the governor, but there weren’t many better options.

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  Junior was learning from his Father all about running the village, and he had been properly educated, and he was networking with other up-and-coming leaders…

  But he was basically a shoe-in.

  It was great!

  Except…

  He was bored!

  His whole life was laid out for him!

  And his father was still a ways off from retirement!

  Junior suddenly found himself with years of free time!

  But, he didn’t know what to do.

  What could he do?

  There just weren’t many opportunities, out here in the sticks.

  Until today, when he heard about Lily.

  An eight-year-old girl who had started a restaurant, of all things!

  And not just one, but two!

  Everyone knew that restaurants were limited to the large towns and cities. They were very expensive, and took a long time to eat a meal, and the food was cooked to order and was very good!

  That wasn’t how the Three Creeks Mayor had described Lily’s restaurant!

  Instead, it was cheap, fast, the food was standardized, and it was very good!

  And, by all accounts, it was thriving.

  George had the sales data from the opening week!

  He was an investor, after all.

  A part owner!

  So he had been bragging on the golf course!

  As one does.

  Now, all this was intriguing on its own.

  Junior had already decided he would visit Three Creeks sometime in the near future, and try out a Lilyburger with cheese, and french fries.

  But George had said that Lily was in town—his town!—looking to open more restaurants!

  Not just one, but two!

  In a little village like Stone Pit!

  This blew his mind.

  He had a degree in business!

  This simply wasn’t how business was done!

  The correct number of restaurants for Stone Pit was zero!

  He could go into all the numbers explaining why: the typical villager’s lack of disposable income, the population size, the prevalence of home cooking…

  But…

  Those arguments also applied to Three Creeks Village!

  The correct number of restaurants there was also zero, for the same reason!

  And yet, their mayor had the data.

  Both of their restaurants were thriving!

  Lily was making a profit!

  And so was George!

  Junior…

  Wanted in!

  Lily, on the other hand…

  Needed one more employee.

  She needed a supervisor she could trust!

  Unfortunately, Stone Pit didn’t have a lot of experienced people looking for new jobs.

  Especially in a restaurant type business.

  It was too different!

  The people in Stone Pit were good at digging up stone, cutting it to spec, shipping it down the river…

  Stuff like that!

  Of course, they had a butcher, and a baker, and their own market selling ingredients…

  But that was all different.

  Becky was really special!

  The room filled with tension.

  George was smug.

  Mayor Henry wanted to learn Lily’s golf secrets.

  Junior was eyeing Lily…

  Sally was gloomy…

  Lily was smiling, but in the back of her mind, she was thinking about who to hire!

  Her ghosts were watching over her, but they couldn’t do everything.

  They stood there, invisible, with their arms folded.

  And, in the midst of all this…

  “Mrowww…”

  Mr. Cat got up and stretched!

  All eyes fell on him!

  As they should, in his opinion!

  He was the best!

  He woke up from his nap and was immediately the center of attention!

  He hopped down from Sally’s lap, ignoring her dismay.

  And…

  He walked up and rubbed against the young man’s pant legs!

  His golf slacks!

  Mr. Cat was getting his fur all over them!

  “Heheheh…”

  He was being a little rascal!

  But…

  Junior bent down, and pet him!

  “Hey there buddy,” he said!

  Mr. Cat let himself be petted for a bit, and then turned back to Lily.

  He hopped onto the table, and looked her right in the face.

  “Meow, it’s lunch time!”

  George stroked his chin.

  “Indeed, it is lunch time… Henry, what do you say to coming over to Three Creeks and trying out Lilyburgers today?”

  Henry nodded. “Certainly. Junior?”

  He turned to confirm with his son that he was fine with a little drive to the neighboring village.

  Junior nodded eagerly.

  “Yes! I was going to go myself in the next few days, anyway.”

  Lily sighed quietly to herself.

  At least she was going to get more customers today.

  But in all the resumes she’d gone over, there were no good options for supervisors.

  “George, can I drop off my order with the smith first?” Lily asked.

  She wanted to at least get that done today.

  It would take a couple days to be ready, and hopefully she could find a supervisor by then.

  Otherwise, she’d have to train one from scratch…

  George agreed, since the men wanted to change out of their golf clothes and into their driving clothes, and by the time Lily returned they were ready to go!

  The Stone Pit mayor drove his car, and Junior drove his own car!

  It had been his graduation present!

  It was a bright red color, with whitewall tires!

  It looked super snazzy!

  They flew down the country roads!

  Mr. Cat yowled as they went, to a really catchy tune!

  He was starving!

  He wanted french fries!

  Up in heaven, the God of Literature frowned.

  “Song lyrics might be a step too far…” he muttered.

  He had to focus on helping Lily, not tempting fate!

  So, without any music, they arrived back in Three Creeks village, just as the lunch rush was ending.

  “Hi Becky! Hi Eric!” Lily waved to her employees.

  “Hi Lily. Oh, good day, Mr. Mayor,” Becky said.

  “Hello Rebecca, how’s business?” George asked.

  It was five percent his business, after all!

  “Business is doing well. We sold sixty-six sets so far today.”

  Junior’s eyes bugged out!

  He had an understanding of what was in a Lilyburger set, from what George had explained—bragged—about on the golf course!

  It was a burger, and fries, and lemonade, and it cost two dollars with cheese!

  That was a hundred and thirty two dollars in revenue, just at lunch!

  And they would be open for dinnertime, too!

  “Well, we’ll all take a full set. Miss Sally, Henry, Junior, do you want cheese or not?” George said magnanimously.

  He was showing off!

  Everyone decided to have cheese, so he paid ten dollars and five people got lunch!

  “Coming right up!” Eric called, and he whipped up some fresh burgers and fries for them in just a few minutes!

  “Incredible, the food is prepared so quickly…” Henry said.

  Junior couldn’t even speak.

  He was stunned speechless!

  And then, when they all had their food and sat down next to the fountain, both he and his father were utterly entranced by the food!

  It was so delicious!

  It wasn’t as good as the food in the restaurant in Charleston…

  But it was darn close!

  Better than anything they ate at home…

  And Lily was going to open restaurants serving this food in their village?!

  Henry struck first.

  “Miss Lily, how would you like to move to Stone Pit village…?”

  “No thanks!”

  Lily smiled brightly.

  Instant rejection!

  No hesitation!

  Henry didn’t even have time to feel hurt, it was so fast!

  “...May I ask why not?”

  George, meanwhile, had a mouthful of food and was chewing furiously so he could retort!

  Henry was trying to poach his business golfing buddy!

  Er, one of his villagers!

  “My Mama and Papa live here, and I want to keep living with them!”

  Ah…

  So bright!

  It was blinding!

  Lily’s pure innocence and love for her parents!

  Henry sighed.

  And…

  George swallowed!

  “Now listen here, Henry!”

  He got started, but Henry held up a hand.

  “It’s alright George, I understand. I’ll have to be satisfied with her restaurants opening in our village, instead.”

  “Darn right!”

  George wasn’t going to let Lily go without a fight!

  Sally watched this…

  With perfect poise and relaxation!

  She had complete faith in her daughter.

  There had never been any doubt that Lily wouldn’t want to move to Stone Pit!

  “So, Miss Lily…” Junior said. “How soon do you think you can open the restaurants?”

  Lily sighed.

  “I could open them next week, but I couldn’t find a good supervisor…”

  Lily clasped her hands in prayer.

  Please, Mr. Gods and Misses Goddesses, help me find a good fit for the supervisor position!

  And…

  Junior’s eyes flashed!