Up in heaven, the Goddess of Shopping set down one of her ten big shopping bags to wipe a tear from her eye.
“Our little Lily’s growing up…” she said with a soft smile, stealthily blessing Lily again.
Yes, again!
All the Gods and Goddesses were still sneaking Lily blessings!
Well, except the God of Death, who was on time-out!
Justitia was keeping a close eye on him!
Back down in the mortal realm…
After a quick snack break, mainly so Mr. Cat could get his saucer of cream, Lily and her crew went shopping!
“I know about just the thing!” Flo said proudly.
They went to the community shopping center, and in a corner of the clothing section of the department store…
Kigurumis!
“Kigurumi…?” Lily read the sign, hesitantly.
“No, you don’t pronounce it like that. It’s ‘kigurumi!’”
“Oh, kigurumi!” Lily said, pronouncing it correctly.
Kigurumi!
Lily’s Mama pulled one out.
It was a fluffy dairy cow costume!
“Isn’t this basically just a onesie?” she said.
It kinda was!
But it was cute, and they were all the rage as relaxed home outfits and cute costumes!
“Mama, I want this one!” Lily pulled one out in her size.
It was a dairy cow, with a dairy cow head fashioned into the hood, and little pink udders on the belly, and it had a cute cow tail!
There was a big zipper down the front so Lily could easily climb in.
Lily took it to the dressing room, and put it on over her dress, and when she came out…
She was totally adorable!
Her smiling face poked out from under the cow-head hood, and she looked like a little cow!
“Moo!” she said, beaming!
Lily’s Mama clapped her hands, but Flo…
Was sulking!
Mr. Cat trotted up to her and rubbed against her legs.
“Mrow, aren’t you going to get a costume?”
“I, I don’t want to!” she lied.
“You don’t want to dress up like a dairy cow?”
“I’m an apple farmer… they don’t make cute costumes for apple trees…”
Flo twiddled her fingers and looked down sadly!
“Meow… why not a cat costume?”
“Huh?”
Lily’s Mama saw them talking, and brought over a blue-grey cat kigurumi that looked a lot like Mr. Cat!
“Flo, why don’t you try this one on?”
“W-well, if you insist…”
Flo was blushing!
She really wanted to try one on, too!
She went into the dressing room…
And when she came out, she was a cute little cat!
She was totally adorable!
“Flo, you look great! Moo!” Lily said, jumping up and down.
“Thanks Lily, you look great, too. M-meow!”
A little cow and a little cat were bouncing around!
And all that bouncing around was making Lily hungry again!
“Okay, we got the dairy cow thinking costume! Let’s go get ice cream!”
Lily stepped forward to the register to pay confidently, but Flo hung back!
“I, I’m going to put the kigurumi back…”
“Huh? You don’t want it?”
Lily was shocked!
“I’m saving my money for the apple farm… I need to make a lot of money, to take our apple orchards to the next level…”
Flo was being careful with her money!
She walked back sadly, to put the costume back, but Lily put a hand on her shoulder.
“Flo… Didn’t you say you were gonna be my rival?”
“I, I am your rival! That’s why I need to spend my money wisely…”
Lily had a dashing look in her eye.
“Flo, nobody will think you’re my rival if I have a costume and you don’t! They’ll think I’m winning!”
Flo gasped.
She believed it!
Lily continued!
“Flo, I don’t want you to stop being my rival… So let me buy it for you, as a present! And, you can use it for your business stuff, too! Instead of yelling, you could be a cute cat girl that sells apples in the morning!”
Lily was firing on all cylinders, now that she had her dairy cow thinking costume!
And Flo…
Really did want the kigurumi!
It was super cute, and it looked like Mr. Cat!
It even had big cat paw gloves that were super warm…
It would be so nice to have during winter…
“F-fine!” Flo said. “But I’m gonna remember this! I’m gonna pay back this favor, okay! W-we’re rivals, after all…”
“Yeah!” Lily gave Flo a big hug, and then went and paid for both their costumes.
Flo was blushing and grinning all the way out the store back to the car.
Dale drove them all to Dan’s Dairy Farm, and the road went right past the barn where they could hear the mooing cows! And just on the other side was a parking lot, and there it was!
The Ice Cream Stand!
Lots of people from Bessie’s Landing were hanging out there this afternoon!
It was a hot, sunny day in Wisconsin, so they all went to get some ice cream, cool off, and hang out!
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Oh, is that you, Lily?”
“Hi Dan! Look, look, I’m a cow now! Moo!”
Dan smiled. “You look very cute, Lily. But don’t go turning into that hippie guy, alright!”
“I’d never!” Lily pouted, puffing out her cheeks.
“And I see you’ve got another cute kitty with you.”
Flo pouted. “Dan, you know it’s me!”
“Hahaha, hello to you, too, Flo. And you as well, madame.”
Sally and Dale introduced themselves. Dale wanted to try the ice cream, too!
Mr. Cat decided he wanted to nap on top of the car, since he was still full of cream from earlier.
“Now, normally I’d ask you all what kinds of ice cream you want, but this is your first time trying it, right?”
“I want apple flavor!” Flo said quickly.
Dan rolled his eyes.
“Flo, you always have apple flavor!”
“Apples are the best!”
Flo wanted to do her part to help the apple market!
“Everyone has their favorites, but you should really try the other flavors, too! So, that said, I’m going to make y’all a sampler of all the flavors, on the house! Just let me know what you think of all of them!”
“Wow, thanks Dan! Gods Bless!” Lily said.
She hadn’t been sure what to order, because everything looked good!
There was drawings on the menu of all the different fruit flavorings!
Apples, cherries, apricots, on and on it went!
Eventually, the two adults and the two businessgirl rivals sat down at a small table with the sampler of six different flavors in the middle.
Apple!
Strawberry!
Blueberry!
Vanilla!
Cherry!
Apricot!
They all said their prayers, and took little bites of each flavor!
“Mmm! The apple flavor’s really good!” Lily said!
Flo beamed, and puffed out her chest proudly.
“Of course it is! The apples in this ice cream came from our orchard!”
Dale’s favorite was the vanilla flavor!
Sally’s favorite was the strawberry flavor!
Flo insisted her favorite was apple, but she ate a lot of the blueberry flavor, too!
And Lily liked all of them, but if she had to pick… her favorite was the cherry flavor!
The ice cream was super yummy!
Lily looked back at her ghosts, who all looked a little down.
Mac sighed. “We asked Lord Hades to send us some ghost ice cream, but he hasn’t answered…”
“It reminds us a lot of when we sold ice cream at WcDonalds…” Rich said.
“Hmph. Darn machines kept breaking. They were a pain in the tookus!” Ray grumbled, eyes fixed on the ice cream.
But, that gave Lily a great idea!
“What if we sold ice cream at Lilyburgers?” she said, out loud.
“Well, you’d need a machine,” Mac insisted.
“Yeah, making ice cream is really time consuming, otherwise…” Rich said.
“Lily, do you even know how to make ice cream?” Flo asked.
“Huh?”
Lily forgot she was talking to her ghosts out loud!
And just then, Dan walked up!
“Oh, you want to learn how to make ice cream?” he asked.
“Yeah!” Lily answered instantly, eyes sparkling.
Her business senses were tingling!
“Well, I can show you! Come on and see!”
He gathered up their sampler plate, and listened to everyone’s feedback as they walked.
“Vanilla, Strawberry, Apple, and Cherry, huh… Yep, seems like everyone really likes Vanilla and Strawberry! They’re the most popular.”
“People just don’t know how great apples are!” Flo insisted.
“Apples are great, but the customer is always right in matters of taste!” Dan said with a smile.
He wanted to sell lots of ice cream!
He couldn’t just sell his own favorite. He had to give the people what they wanted!
And so, he led the little girls in their kigurumis into the kitchen, followed by Sally and Dale.
“And this here’s the ice cream machine!” He tapped it gently with his hand. “I actually broke the last one, hitting it too hard, so we gotta be gentle with it!”
It was a big metal box thing!
“See, you add ice, cream, salt, sugar, and whatever flavor you want, and the machine mixes it all up and it comes out as ice cream! Then you just keep it in the freezer! It lasts a few weeks, so it’s a good way to save extra milk from spoiling.”
“Yep, typical finicky ice cream machines…” Ghostly Ray Croc grumbled.
“Still, Lily’s hometown doesn’t have ice cream? Sounds like she’d make a killing,” Ghostly Duke said.
Ghostly Rich and Mac nodded. “Yep, Lilyburgers has been really successful so far. If only it wasn’t for these supply problems…”
“Where did you get the machine, Dan?” Lily asked.
“My brother makes ‘em in a factory, in the big city of D-Troy! And then he sends ‘em here in a boat, from across the Big Lake!”
Lily was bouncing all around the machine, getting a sense of its size, but to everyone else she just looked like a little girly in a dairy cow kigurumi bouncing around.
So cute!
“Dale, do you think we could fit one of these in Mayor Henry’s car?” Lily asked.
“Not a chance,” Dale responded instantly!
Shock!
“It’s just too big, and his car isn’t designed for hauling heavy machinery. You’d need a truck, or more likely, a cart.”
“Lily, are you thinking of buying one? They’re not really something for the home…” Dan said.
“No, I run a business!”
“Really?”
He looked down at the little girl wearing a dairy cow costume.
She didn’t really look like a businesslady…
And anyway, wasn’t she just a little kid?
He looked up at Sally, who nodded.
“It’s a long story…” she said.
“No it’s not!” Flo interrupted. “Lily’s my business rival!”
And Dan…
Shrugged!
“How much do the ice cream machines cost?” Lily asked.
“Well… I got a deal from my brother, but even that was four hundred dollars. Normally they’re six hundred…”
“Nevermind!” Lily said!
She changed her mind super fast!
Finicky machines, hard to transport, and so expensive…
The ice cream here was selling for twenty-five cents a scoop!
Even if her ingredients were free, that would take over two thousand sales to make back just the cost of the machine!
Maybe she could make the price fifty cents, since nobody else would be selling ice cream.
That was still over a thousand sales!
It would take too long to be profitable, especially if she wanted an ice cream machine in every Lilyburgers…
Her ghosts sighed behind her.
“Yeah, maybe that’s something for later on, when Lilyburgers is a bigger company with lots of franchises…”
“You could probably get a discount if you bought a bunch of machines all at once, but it’s probably too soon…”
“Plus, there’s still the Dairy Cow Strike…”
Lily gasped.
That’s right!
She almost forgot about the Dairy Cow Strike!
“Dan, Dan!” she said.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Are your dairy cows on strike?”
“Yep, I wish I knew why…”
Lily gave him a dashing grin. She put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest.
“Well, I’m gonna find out why! That’s why I put on my dairy cow thinking costume!”
The little cow-girl looked up at him, smiling, and Dan…
Was puzzled!
“You weren’t just wearing that for fun?”
“Nope!”
“Of, of course not! This is business!” Flo stammered.
“I’m gonna do method acting!”
Ghostly Duke nodded sagely.
“What’s method acting?”
“I’m going to act like a cow, to find out why they’re upset!”
Dan frowned. “You’re not gonna be like that hippie fool, Stevie, and waste everyone’s time, are you?”
“I’m not gonna be like Stevie, at least!”
Lily gave him a big business smile, and Dan relented.
He sighed. “Well, alright then…”
But he looked out the window. It was getting late! And he had chores to do…
“If you want, y’all can come back tomorrow and do your method acting whatsahoosit.”
“Yay! Thanks, Dan!”
“Mrow!”
And Mr. Cat strode into the room!
“Ah! No animals in the kitchen!” Dan cried.
Sally scooped him up quickly and took him out to the lobby, and everyone followed her.
“Flo, tomorrow, you’re gonna sell apples in the morning, right?” Lily asked.
“Uh, yeah…” she said.
She kinda wanted to spend more time with Lily!
But she had to sell apples…
(She actually didn’t, but she wanted to prove herself…)
“Good!” Mr. Cat declared while Sally held him in her arms. “I’m gonna teach you the cat way of doing things! You’re gonna be my apprentice!”
“Good for you, Flo!” Lily cheered.
Dan carefully closed the door to the kitchen. “Alrighty then, I gotta get back to work. See you tomorrow, Lily. Gods Bless.”
“Gods Bless!”
That night, Lily dreamed of happy cows and Flo dreamed of meowing cats.
