Tea in China

"Marie, tell Terrell to get in here to do his homework."

There I was doing what I do best. Being "mom" to my two youngest cousins.

"Terrell! Krissy said get in here to do your homework!" Marie came running back in from the garage. "Terrell said, can he do his homework later so he can go over to his friends house to play?"
"No. Tell him I said, get. In. Here. Now." Marie ran out to the garage. Seconds later I hear the door to the garage slam. They both approach me while I stood at the kitchen island eating my salad.
"Can I stay outside and play with my friend while the sun is still up?"
"No. Do your homework now and get it over with."
"Aw! But I wanna play over my friends house." I took that little bit of information and seen it as an opportunity to mess with his head, just as I always do.
"That has nothing to do with the price of tea in China." Terrell looked at me with a puzzled look. "What!There's no T in China."
"Yes there is."
His sister and I looked at each other and laughed out loud.
"No it's not."
Marie blurted out while in laughter. "What are you talkin' about, Terrell? There is tea in China."
Still not convinced Terrell sticks to his one liner. "No it's not."
"How do you know? You've never been there. There's tea in China." All the while I'm thinking to myself, 'I've never been to China either, but I know there's tea there.' I look over my shoulder at him. "There's tea all over the world. Why wouldn't it be any tea in China?"

The kids grand dad tares himself away from Judge Judy and lets out a loud belly laugh from the living floor. He then chimes in to our ridiculous debate we were caught having with his baritone voice, "You don't believe there's tea in China?" And continued on with his loud belly laugh.

In the most annoying whining voice Terrell could conjure up, he replies, "NOOooooo." All the while all three of us are laughing because we can't believe our ears. Then in the toughest voice Terrell could dig up out of his immature throat he says to all of us, "You can't spell China with a T."

We all suddenly came to the same conclusion and laugh even harder at his eight year old mind. I respond, "Oh! T in China. No, Terrell. Tea. T-E-A. 'That has nothing to do with the price of T-E-A in China.' Do you get it now?"

Terrell looks up at me, smiles, and laughs at himself.

This Shorts Moment has been brought to you by Krissy.