Cracker

That punch knocked Sweet off of his chair and knocks the chair after him and on top of him, but he just pulls himself up off the floor, rights the chair like a man who's just slipped and sits himself back down again. Then he smiles that sweet smile at Cracker, spits his candy out past him, and says,
"Guess you've not had the time yet then."
He leans round Cracker, who's staring at him like a dog that's up and spoken complaining about the food, and waves at the woman in the car; a nice, polite wave, that's almost a salute the way Sweet does it. Cracker's still staring, but he manages in a voice that sounds like someone's strangling him,
"Don't you go waving at my woman."
"As your wanting," says Sweet. "She don't seem much friendly to me anyway."
"That's 'cause you're dirt," says Cracker, his mouth setting into a thin line. "And dirt belongs on the floor."
Sweet might have been expecting another punch, but if he was then he was surprised, because Cracker kicks his chair, breaking a leg and pushing it back, and Sweet lands on the floor again. This time he sits there, pushing the chair aside and tilting his head back to look up at Cracker.
"Seems like that chair must have right upset you," says Sweet, "though it doesn't seem quite right for a man to pick on them that can't fight back like that."
"You keep your thinking to yourself," says Cracker, and his fingers are flexing again, not knowing whether they're hands or fists once more. "What happened to Sheriff Donny's kid then?"
Behind his back, across the road, the good ol' boys are exchanging glances now, and there's little whispers passing back and forth between them. Cracker can't see them, but his woman can, and she calls out from the car in a Yankee screech that can etch glass.
"Cracker!" she yells, sounding like a train entering a tunnel, "Cracker, them boys over by the store know what you're talking about!"
Cracker turns and looks them over, and you can see that he's not scared even though there's six of them and only one of him. Then he pulls this gun from his pocket and points it back behind him so that it's aiming at Sweet, and he says,
"If'n one of you gentlemen doesn't help me out here, then I'm pulling this trigger to make a start, and when I'm finished you'll all be sorry."
That sets up a muttering and a mumbling among the boys, but Cracker has to pull the hammer back on the gun before one of them pipes up and offers as how he might have seen Sheriff Donny's boy back by the fields, working on the harvest. Cracker lowers his head and raises it again slowly, in what might just be a nod if you think he was capable of courtesy, and then he pulls the trigger and the loudest damn bang the town's ever heard goes off, and the bullet speeds away from his gun.