Free And Along Came Jake by Christopher Vaca

Brierly tended to the house, Madison and Jake cleaned the table, washed the dishes, then finished up their chores.
     
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    Jake made his way into town and headed right for Smitty's store. He arrived around 8:45 a.m., and saw Smitty waiting anxiously at the door. Jake shook his head and walked right past him.
    "Don't look so happy, Smitty." Jake said.
    "This is gonna be my best day ever!" Smitty said, as he rubbed his hands together and started sucking on his teeth.
    He grabbed Jake by the arm, applying some pressure, and led him to the back of the storage area. When Jake saw all the junk pilled in there, he nearly fainted. "This is gonna take all week to get this organized!" Jake folded his arms and sighed.
    "Yeah, I know!" Smitty laughed. "Ain't life great—NOW GET TO WORK!"
    After working for about two hours, Jake had an idea. He purposely began to break things, making it seem like nothing more than a careless accident. Every time Smitty heard something break, he would run to the storage area to see what was happening. After a while, Smitty had enough; his profits were slowly being destroyed.
    "Alright Jake!" Smitty huffed. "You're doing more damage than good, so we'll call it even. Let's just say you've paid me back, okay? Now get out of here, before you break anything else!"
    Jake left the store with a mischievous smile. "And remember," Smitty yelled. "If you ever steal from here again, I'm gonna tell Big Paul so fast you won't know what happened!"
    "No problem Smitty!" Jake replied. "I've learned my lesson. The next time you see me in here, I'll have money!"
    After he was out of Smitty's sight, he began to laugh, knowing he outwit Smitty once again.
     
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    Jake walked into big Paul's shop and heard a pleasant ring as the top of the door met a well-placed bell causing it to chime. He looked towards the bell, then turned his attention to all the disorganized furniture in the store. He began to peek inside some boxes, when Big Paul emerged from his little office, wiping his hands on a rag.
    "Hi Jake!" Big Paul greeted. "I thought it was you ringing the bell. How are you today, and how did things go over at Smitty's?"
    "Doing great Big Paul. Everything went well, but I'm here now. And ready to put in an honest day's work!"
    "Well I suppose we should get this place organized" Big Paul replied tossing the rag to Jake. "Let's get this place looking like a furniture store, what do ya say?"
    "Yes sir, just tell me where you want everything, and I'll get right to work!" He smiled.
    "I'll tell you what, I'm gonna leave this project to you. I've got some paperwork I need to get done in the office, use your imagination and make this place look good. Remember, whenever you complete any job, you're putting an unwritten signature on it, so do it right the first time."
    "How can I sign something without writing my name on it?" Jake asked, a puzzled look crossed his face.
    Big Paul grabbed two chairs and pulled them over as they both sat down. "Jake, my boy!" he said, "Whenever you complete something, you always put your unwritten signature on it—you see, your unwritten signature is your mark, it's what people remember you by. More importantly, it's a sign of what you think of yourself. For example, if you do something just good enough to get by, that's your unwritten signature, so when others see your work, they'll think of you as mediocre, or someone that did just enough to get by. But it's you that will live with the fact that you didn't give it your all."
    As Jake began to process what Big Paul said, he dropped his head down, remembering what he did in Smitty's storage area; breaking things on purpose just to get out of the job. Mr. Sutton smiled, reached over and put his hand on Jake's shoulder.
    "However" he proceeded. "It's never too late to start. You can start right here, right now!" Jake picked his head up, began to smile, and continued to listen to Big Paul. "If you always give your all in whatever you