A/N: Just a little piece I thought up while thinking about the lesser known Newsies. It was originally going to be a ficlet, but turned into more of a one-shot. I can't help it when my muses get the better of me!
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Jake
They found him: a young boy, searching for his mother, the only one he had left. He was just below their age. They took him in, saying he would not be there for long, that his mother would find him. Their optimism soon ended, and his ended with it.
For a long time he was nameless, refusing to tell them who he was. For a long time they would pester him into telling, but another boy stopped them. This boy was called Jack Kelly.
Jack protected him from the streets, telling him every night that he would find his mother. He gave the boy back his optimism. He taught him how to live off of the newspapers, how to sell them, how to convince others to buy them. The boy began to look up to him, trying his hardest to be like him. He was the first to tell you how wonderful Jack Kelly was, and he wanted to be him. Jack Kelly made him feel safe. He made him feel wanted. Jack Kelly made him brave.
One night Jack asked him for his name, telling him that he would not go far without a name. The boy decided on one…Jake.
Jake. It was the closest he could get to Jack without being obvious.
His mother would tell him to go back to his old name. It was the one she had given him, and therefore the one he should use. He remembered often the time when he tried to change his name. He didn't remember what the chosen name had been, only that it was hideously silly.
"Jordan," she said to him. "You keep respect for your father's name. He wanted you to have it, and so you shall have it."
He had no memory of a father himself, only the things he did. It was his father who would come home late and pull extra blankets over him. It was his father who would come home with a small bag of spices for his mother. It was his father who moved them out of danger when a group of men attacked their home. It was his father who stayed behind, never writing his promised letter to prove he was still alive.
His father made him feel safe. So did Jack Kelly. So he named himself after Jack, telling himself that his mother would appreciate it. She'd love to know that Jake was still named after his father, regardless of who the father was. This is what he told himself, and it was what he would believe.
When Jack left for Santa Fe, Jake did not know what to do. He ran from the Lodging House, despite what the others told him. Without Jack, Jake no longer felt safe. He no longer felt brave. Jack was no longer his father, and Jake was no longer Jake.
He looked for work, taking random, short-lived jobs, then found a job building a new machine. It was a carriage without horses…an automobile. He was always good with his hands, and applied as quickly as he could.
The application asked for his name. Ford, he wrote down. Ford Jordan.
It was the closest he could get without being obvious.