Tearing is the secretion of tears, which often serves to clean and lubricate the eyes in response to an irritation the eyes. Tears formed through crying are associated with strong internal emotions, such as sorrow, elation, emotion, love, awe, or pleasure. Laughing or yawning may also lead to the production of tears.

It was a cold day, He sat on a bench facing the park and despite the many layers he wore he was still shaking it wasn’t because of the cold…it was the tears. How many heartbreaks can someone endure before the heart can no longer heal? How many disappointments can someone endure before he stops caring about himself or others? In truth, he believed he was facing the worst week of his life or anybody’s life. He came out here to cry because he didn’t like others to see him crying. When someone came by his bench, he would quickly wipe away those tears and watch them look at him with pity in their eyes. He watched happy couples pass by. He saw friends laughing together as they passed him by. He hated them all why should they be happy. The bench was placed between two ancient trees that cast shade and protected him from the sun. The trees were so large the branches were intertwined and formed a web of leaves and wood. Ahead of him was the lake its water calm and clear, one small boat sat in the middle of the lake a couple were on it the man rowing and the woman reading from a book. Every now and then, he could hear their laughs; they hurt him like echoes of past memories… happy memories.

He heard footsteps behind him and he quickly wiped away his tears. A woman was coming from the road behind the bench. He fixed his gaze on the lake and waited for her to pass him by… she did not. Instead, a moment later she stood directly in front of him blocking his view of the lake. She was pretty in a simple way, she wore a skirt and a white shirt with a hoodie on top of it hiding her features but he could still see her Hazel eyes and parts of her golden hair. She tilted her head slightly and they locked gazes then she said, “You are sad!”

“No,” He responded turning his face away,

“That wasn’t a question, you ARE sad,” she said as she leaned closer to examine his face.

“What do you want? If you can see that I’m sad why don’t you leave me alone?” he said with an angry tone.

Her hands moved and gently removed the hoodie. She stared at him with those baby hazel eyes then she said “I’m sad too, and I understand that you want to be alone…you see I also wanted to be alone but this is a beautiful spot and I thought I could sit here silently and we could share the shade and the view… we can both be sad and alone together.”

He grunted a laugh despite himself “how can we be alone together? That doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

“Does everything have to make sense?” she asked.

“No I guess not,” he said while nodding.

She sat down to his right pulled her legs on the bench and wrapped her hands around her knees. He was watching her now but she was paying him no attention. Her eyes moved up to the trees then down to the lake and finally rested on the boat and held there. She took a deep breath then sighed…the longest sigh he had ever heard a sigh that shook him to the core a sigh that seemed to ripple through the world, the trees and leaves rustled slightly as if a cool breath passed by then she fell completely silent and as still as a statue.

He continued watching her for a while, and then his gaze fell down the ground again. Every now and then, he would feel the tears forming in his eyes again and he would look at her and wipe them away quickly. She did not seem to notice at all, she just sat there expression unchanging. After he repeated the same action a few times, he finally surrendered and started crying. After some time, he felt her hand brushing against his and then held tight. He wanted to push her away; he wanted to say that he doesn’t need her. He didn’t, instead, he held tight and cried away. He cried for the failures. For lost loves, for opportunities missed. He cried for the injustice that he endured at work…oh how terrible his life is.

After some time, he was done crying. He rested his back on the bench, looked at her, and saw not one tear in her eyes. That irritated him a little…but still he was grateful. He pulled his hand from hers and said “Thank you.”

She nodded in response and continued to look at the lake “You know this being alone together turns out to be better than I thought,” he said with a slight laugh. She turned to regard him and then nodded again without smiling. He frowned and said, “Well, I’m going to leave now but I’ll be back tomorrow if you want to come back and be alone together.”

“No, I don’t allow myself to be sad every day,” she said without turning to him.

“You can’t be that sad I don’t see you shedding any tears,” he said annoyed.

“I can’t cry… no matter how hard I try,” she paused and then said, “it is a simple equation really… simple math… strong emotion added with the intense feeling of sorrow or happiness, and tears start rolling down your cheeks, yet no matter how hard I try no tears would come.”

He stared at her and was about to speak when she said,” I never thought I would feel bad because I can’t cry.”

“Maybe you are not sad? Maybe you think you are sad?” He asked.

She gave him a sad smile and said “I’m 18 and I’m dying…the doctors said I have less than a year,” she paused, sighed then continued “I spend most of my time enjoying what is left of my life as much as I can but every once in a while Melancholia catches up to me and I come here and I allow myself to be sad and I think about all the things that I will never get to do like be on this boat with a man I love or give birth to a baby daughter and call her Emma.”

She got up from the bench and said “Yet no tears come to my eyes! Imagine a sadness so deep no tears will come…beautiful if you think about it…The Mathematics of Tears,” suddenly she laughed and it let up her face and He was stunned by how beautiful and innocent she looked. She looked directly in his eyes and said “tomorrow my father is going to take me sky diving and after that, I’m going with my friends to sing karaoke and try beer for the first time I’m done being sad…what about you? What is so bad in your life that you are willing to come here every day and waste your breath and tears?”

Stunned into silence. His heart hammered in his chest and he looked at her eyes. Those cheerful dying eyes and he said “I…I’m not sad, my life is…” but he couldn’t finish and all he could do is watch her wave at him as she started walking away with a happy gait. He thought about what she said “a sadness so deep no tears will come,” he got up and his eyes moved up to the trees then down to the lake, finally rested on the boat, and held there. He took a deep breath then sighed…the longest sigh he had ever felt. A single tear rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away with his finger then he looked at that single tear. A different kind of tear he thought. Then he looked back to the boat again and with a single long sigh from the depths of his heart he whispered” The Mathematics of Tears…beautiful.”