The sign was JC's idea. Kindness indeed was free at The Blue Moon Cafe. In terms of 

money

at least.

There was still something to be expensed though at the end of the day. The 

employees

providing the 

kindness

paid something of themselves. A smile, or a sincere grin was free to give. You didn't need to order them on

Amazon

.

But work behind a counter for more than two hours a day and you'd feel those smiles becoming more difficult to surface. People who worked behind a desk all day or in a lab didn't know this feeling. They would take their lunch break and expect the barista to give them a smile. They'd be so stuck inside their heads that they'd think the smile was elicited by them. Because they were so interesting or funny. In reality the 

barista

had given that same smile to the 100 people preceding them.

A smile became expensive to produce at the end of a seven hour shift. Customers expected them. So baristas produced the easiest smiles. The insincere one that appeared like what we thought 

smile

s ought to look like. Most people had gotten used to such smiles. That when they finally got a sincere smile that came not produced by the smiler, but emerged from within them, they felt as though they were touched by God's hand.

JC had maybe produced a smile once or twice in his twenty years in the service industry. He was the sole barista in 

Westcity

 who did not need to produce a smile on demand. He enjoyed being behind the counter. The customers coming in and seeing him. To him providing kindness was indeed free.