“General Secretary, we’ve received two messengers from the Glorious Sun Kingdom of France…”
General Secretary Brenda’s narrow-framed eyeglasses flashed in the light!
“Two messengers, you say…”
Tension filled the room.
Lily and Flo got excited!
Wow, this sounded interesting!
Flo was interested because she thought Brenda was a super impressive person!
She was one of Flo’s role models…
And for Lily…
The Glorious Sun Kingdom of France!
That was where wheat was grown, and exported from!
It was exported here, to The Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin, where they used it to make flour for bread, danishes, and other pastries, in addition to feeding the dairy cows!
It was exported to The Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas, where they used it to make flour for bread, pancakes, and sometimes used it to feed their cows when they weren’t on the range!
And it was exported to the Kingdom of Appalashia, where Lily lived, where they used it to make flour for bread, and the buns Lily used in her Lilyburgers!
The neighboring village of Grassy Hill also grew some wheat, but not enough to meet all the demand!
Lily had heard that anarchy had taken over in the Glorious Sun Kingdom!
Something about the Queen ordering everyone to eat cake…
Lily, of course, liked cake!
So she couldn’t understand why everyone would be mad…
But that was that, and this was this!
And the this was that the price for her Lilyburger buns had gone way, way up!
They were forty cents each!
Or, at least, they had been when she had left at the start of this week!
Who knew how much they cost now…
Gulp…
(Lily swallowed her bite of test Lilyburger, eyes wide as she watched Brenda discuss the messengers with the undersecretary.)
Before, the buns had been ten cents!
And before even that, they had been seven cents!
The entire reason for her road trip had been to go to The Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas and figure out, at least, the beef prices.
Then the President there had sent her to Wisconsin, to solve the Dairy Cow Strike and help grow the cattle herds again.
Lily had done those things!
She had caught the cattle-rustling varmints, and she had helped solve the Dairy Cow Strike!
She even did it in a Friendly way!
All that was left was The Glorious Sun Kingdom of France…
And…
Why were there two messengers?
Brenda finished her preliminary discussions with the undersecretary.
“Lily, Flo, would you both come with me back to my office?”
“Okay!” Lily answered.
She had a determined look on her face!
Flo looked confused.
“Why do you need me?” she asked.
“There’s the matter of labor regulations that you’ll need to enforce as the Lilyburgers regional franchise manager. I’ll give you the handbook.”
“Okay!”
Now Flo looked determined, too!
The undersecretary perked up.
“Oh, is Miss Lily here, too? She got a letter from the Texans. It’s back at the capitol.”
And so, they went!
Well, only after Mr. Cat got his french fry tax.
He had been struggling this week!
Life after french fries was tough…
Lily’s Mama went with the two young girls and the mischievous cat, and Granny Pomum stayed to clean up the kitchen and do work for the bed and breakfast inn she ran.
Brenda left Flo with the regulations handbook, and Lily with the letter from President Sprocket, and went for her pre-diplomatic meeting meeting!
A meeting before a meeting!
All of Lily’s Ghosts breathed a sigh of relief.
“Phew, there’s the bureaucracy we’re used to…”
Lily tore open the envelope, spread the letter on the table, and started reading!
Flo and her ghosts crowded around to read it with her, over her shoulder!
Dear Lily,
The Lilyburgers franchise has been doing great!
We’ve been experimenting with barbecue sauce and fried onion rings, and have added them to the local menu.
Texas-style Lilyburgers have been a huge hit!
Good luck with the Dairy Cow Strike. As soon as we get word you’ve solved it, we’ll send the herd up north, and we can lower the price of beef!
Stay Free!
Your Friend in Freedom,
President Davy Sprocket
Regional Franchise Manager for Lilyburgers Corporation
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Flo squinted at the letter.
“Experimenting?”
Lily looked up at her ghosts.
“Yep, it’s fine,” Mac said.
“Sometimes there will be things popular in one region, and if it’s really popular, you can try it in other regions, as well,” Rich said.
“You should get a full report on the Texas-style Lilyburgers at the end of next month,” Ray Croc said. “It’s part of the franchise agreement.”
Lily looked back at her business friend and rival.
“Yeah, it’s part of the franchise agreement. They also renamed the french fries down there to ‘Freedom Fries.’”
Flo’s eyes sparkled.
“Oh, we can rename them? Good! Can we call them Friendly Fries instead?!”
Mr. Cat narrowed his eyes and smiled, looking really cool!
“What’s in a name? A French Fry by any other name would still taste as yummy.”
Lily…
Shrugged!
“Sure! You’re the boss in this region, Flo! If you think changing the name is a good idea, you can do that!”
Lily was okay with delegating!
She was only eight years old, after all.
She couldn’t spend all day making decisions for everybody!
“And can we maybe sell ice cream, too..?”
Flo was reaching!
And she had remembered Lily thinking about selling ice cream in her restaurants, too!
This time, Lily…
Frowned!
“Flo, you can, but make sure you figure out if you’ll make money doing that ahead of time, and then make sure you do a test run in one restaurant, before expanding further. The ice cream machines are expensive, and if they break all the time, your customers will be sad… But if you think it’s a good idea, you can try it!”
Flo nodded with a serious expression.
“Okay, Lily! Just wait, I’ll prove we can sell ice cream too and make a lot of money!”
Flo was fired up!
Brenda poked her head back into her office.
“Lily, can you join our meeting? I’m sorry to ask this of you when you just helped us so much, but we could use your help…”
Lily stood up.
“Okay!”
“Lily…”
Flo stood too, and squarely faced her business rival.
“I’m going to stay here, and write up a plan for selling ice cream.”
Flo was going to focus on her own challenge!
Lily smiled dashingly. “I can’t wait to read it, Flo.”
And then Lily gave Flo a big hug!
Flo hugged her back!
They parted, and Flo’s face was bright red!
“J-just you wait, Lily! I’m going to catch up to you in business in no time!”
“Good! Flo, come visit me in Three Creeks Village sometime!”
“I will!”
They had an epic business handshake, and then hugged again, and then Lily followed Brenda into another meeting room.
There was a lot of meeting rooms in the Wisconsin capitol building!
Lily, her Mama, and Mr. Cat all joined the pre-diplomatic meeting meeting!
Lily and her Mama sat in chairs next to Brenda, and Mr. Cat got a small box placed on the table.
He hopped right in!
He loved it!
He barely fit inside the box, but he was super comfortable.
“Ahem,” an older gentleman cleared his throat. “Let’s resume the meeting. Miss Lily, first of all, we would like to extend to you our sincere gratitude for your help with resolving the Dairy Cow Strike, and we would award you the Order of Friendship of Peoples.”
He passed Lily a box, and inside there was a medal!
“Oh, cool, thanks!”
She had gotten one of these from President Davy Sprocket, too!
“Normally, we would have an award ceremony, but we’re pressed for time…”
Brenda nodded. “That’s right. And, Lily, one of the benefits of us giving you this award is that you can represent us in foreign affairs. If you’re willing, of course…”
Lily tilted her head, and Lily’s Mama raised her hand. “Uh, what do you mean, exactly?”
Brenda sighed, massaging her forehead, and all the other men and women in the meeting looked at each other nervously.
“It’s the French,” Brenda said tiredly. “They’re having a Revolution.”
“A French Revolution?!” Lily exclaimed with wide eyes.
Brenda waved her hand dismissively. “They do this all the time. They’ve been a Kingdom for a while, but sometimes they decide to be an Empire, or a Republic, or other things…”
That sounded complicated!
“Is that why wheat is so expensive right now?” Lily asked.
The older gentleman who had given her the medal nodded.
“That’s right. Their new Queen ordered everyone to eat cake, and stop making bread, and the farmers and millers didn’t like that… So they decided to have a Revolution, and stopped growing wheat and milling flour…”
A woman sitting across from him spoke next. “Both the Queen and the Revolutionaries have sent messengers here, asking for help with negotiating a settlement. But we don’t have anyone good to send to help both sides.”
“We should just help the Queen! She’s in charge, and that’s the proper order!” one man said.
“We should just help the Revolutionaries! The Queen was unfriendly, and they’d be better off not being a Kingdom, anyway!” one woman said.
Brenda sighed again. “We don’t even have anyone we can spare right now, what with implementing the Dairy Cow Welfare Revitalization Plan.”
Brenda turned to face Lily directly.
“Lily, I know you’re busy with your business, but could we ask you to go to the Glorious Sun Kingdom of France and help them negotiate an end to the French Revolution, as an independent third party?”
Lily tilted her head.
“Is that okay? Aren’t they asking for help from the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin?”
Brenda pointed at Lily’s new medal.
“With the Order of Friendship of Peoples, you’re sort of part of the Friendly Commonwealth already. Didn’t you get something similar from Texas?”
“The Great and Everlasting Free State of Texas,” Lily corrected.
Everyone at the meeting rolled their eyes.
“Yes, yes, of course,” Brenda said. “But you got a medal, right?”
“Yeah!”
Brenda smiled. “Good, then there should be no problems. As a Friend of two different countries, and a citizen of a third, you’re independent, and can understand both sides…”
Lily looked at Mr. Cat.
He yawned!
“Well, you should be able to understand both sides, at least.”
Lily wasn’t entirely uninvolved!
She wanted wheat prices to come down!
And she wanted to make a deal so her restaurants had enough buns!
“Are you sure?” she asked.
Mr. Cat nodded.
“Sure, Stay Free, and Stay Friendly, right?”
The two mottoes of the Texans and the Wisconsonites!
Brenda nodded. “Right. The Revolutionaries want the freedom to bake what they want, and the Queen wants everyone to be Friendly.”
“But how is telling everyone to eat cake Friendly?” Lily asked.
A woman at the conference table explained the French custom of tea parties, of which the Queen of France was a huge fan!
She did nothing but throw tea parties, with all kinds of cakes and delicacies!
So much so, that they had run out of cakes!
“So then she ordered that all the wheat be used to make more cakes, and her advisor warned her that then the people wouldn’t be able to bake bread to eat, and she ordered them all just to eat cake…” the woman concluded her explanation.
“And that’s what started the Revolution, this time,” the older gentleman said.
“So, will you help us?” Brenda asked.
Lily nodded. “Okay!”
Lily had her own reasons for helping!
She wanted cheap wheat, and enough buns to sell as many Lilyburgers as she wanted!
Ending the Revolution was necessary to make that happen!
“Good, so what the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin wants is for a peaceful resolution to the Revolution, and the resumption of trade…” He explained the details, and Brenda wrote them down for Lily to take with her.
“We’re still preparing a tea party for the Queen’s messenger, but you can meet with the Revolution’s messenger as soon as you’re ready.”
“Wait!”
Everyone turned to look at Lily, concerned.
“I have to say my prayers first!”
That’s right!
She had never done international diplomacy (like this) before!
At most, she had done international meddling!
So she needed to say her prayers, first!
Lily bowed her head, and folded her hands, and the Gods and Goddesses up in heaven started jockeying for position again…
