Is THAT Your Final Answer ?

My young male cousins learned a lesson from an even younger female cousin.
After a week spent;
shopping for and buying school clothes for kids,
chauffeuring kids around for shots,
making repairs on old people's homes,
and baby-sitting little kids,
- I was tired.

"Sir", a little female cousin said.
"Can you take me to the mall and buy me a big cookie?", she finished - as she looked up at me with those pitiful eyes.
"Nah, I'm tired", I said.
"Oh. Okay...
But is that your final answer?", she said.
I guess the week watching Regis' return to prime-time was going to pay off for her.

My male cousins were amazed that she would ask again after I'd already said "No".
They'd already learned that "No, means no".
But then she explained that I could get a few platters of the hot-and spicy chicken at the food court to forgo having to cook.
She pointed out that I could get a new movie to watch in case nothing was on TV.
She pointed out that I had to drop off a cousin at their home near the mall anyway.

She understood the art of the sell.
She got her big cookie.
Her older cousins got a lesson in salesmanship.
(And I got a lesson in how some little kids refuse to accept "No" as an answer.)