I'm Glad My Mom Died

Jennette is working on her resume on the new family computer, which was built by her brother Marcus. The programs on the computer were paid for by one of her acting gigs, which her mom let her use after she paid the bills. As she goes over the long Special Skills section of her resume, including skills like pogo sticking and dance, her mother tells her to bold the words “crying on cue.” Jennette is anxious to do so; crying on cue is the most important and impressive skill that a child actor can have. Jennette possessed this rare skill, and her mother would encourage it by having her imagine different tragic highly detailed events happening to her family.

Jennette is waiting to audition for the role of Emily on an episode of Without a Trace, where she will have to cry on cue during an interrogation scene. As she waits to audition, she senses in herself a strange loss of energy. Her mother reads the diet section of a magazine, her favorite part. When she confides in her mother that she worries she cannot cry, her mother incredulously and aggressively tells her that she “is Emily” (125). For the first time, Jennette does not believe her mother and is frightened.