Tea Ma'am?

Sister Mary Harris and I sat at my kitchen table visiting one afternoon. We could hear the chatter of Darlene and Dayna in their room playing as Sister Harris told about playing dress-up with her daughters, Kathy and Donna. 

Sister Harris told about dressing up one day and stepping outside to pretend she was a visitor. She knocked on the door and the girls told her to come in, but when she tried to open the door, it was locked. Her girls were very small and she had quite an ordeal trying to get back inside.

While we visited,  Dayna and Darlene came into the kitchen with their tea cups and asked, "Would you like some tea, ma'am?" Normally I would play make-believe with them and drink or eat what they offered. This day I distractedly said, "No, thank you ma'am. Not today." But Sister Harris reached out and drank the tea (water) that they served. 

Several minutes later the girls were back and offering tea again. Suddenly, as Sister Harris drank another cup, I realized, I had not given them a pitcher of water for their pretend tea party as usual. So where did they get the tea? 

As Darlene and Dayna walked out of the kitchen, I quietly followed just in time to see them dipping their tea cups into the toilet. I was thankful for Sister Harris' great sense of humor, and also thankful I hadn't accepted tea that day.