Joyful Tears

Anna Maria stood outside her trailer exuding an air of frustration and irritation. Her director had just asked her to display "joyful tears" when her boyfriend returned from the war in Iraq. She was not an actress who found it easy to cry at a moment's notice, and to add that she had to weep for happiness just completely flummoxed her. Who the hell, she thought, really cries for joy? Anyway, Anna Maria was a soap opera veteran so she knew she could do it, and nobody would be too much the wiser if the emotions weren't real. She went in the trailer and cut up the usual onions and stuck a few in her pocket. When Joe called "Action!" she was ready. She embraced the dumb SOB that played her boyfriend/ returning war hero, smiled, pressed her onion juice coated fingers against her eyes as though trying to stop the flow of tears, and lo and behold, a profusion of clear salty liquid wet her lovely cheeks.