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I cried. "We weren't bothering you."
    "Look," Nathan said, picking up something from the road—a purple and white turnip. "This is what got you."
    Without warning, another one caught Henry in the forehead.
    "If this ain't my day!" Dolan crowed. "Got him, too! Jes' one to go."
    "Come on," Henry urged. "They drunk."
    Sure enough, there was a whiskey jug on the seat.
    I didn't want to tangle with the Hills, especially not all three at once. They were mean enough when they were sober, and Dolan was a big guy.
    "Don't turn your backs on me!" Lonnie shouted at us. "Look at me when I'm talkin' to you."
    We all turned around. A lifetime of training made us do whatever any white man told us—even a sorry cracker like Lonnie Hill.
    "So talk," Nathan said. "I can't wait to hear what somebody brilliant as you got to say."
    "Hush!" I hissed at him.
    "You got a smart mouth, you know that?" Lonnie said. "One thing I hate, it's a nigger with a smart mouth."
    "You know what
I
hate?" Nathan asked.
    "Don't!" Henry begged. He looked scared out of his wits.
    "What'd that be?" Lonnie asked.
    "That a woman old and ugly as yo' mama charge half a dollar. The boys in Toad Hop say she ain't worth more'n two bits."
    In a second they swarmed off the wagon and charged us. Now we had to fight, and we did.
    It's a good thing the Hills had been drinking—else they might have whipped us bad. They were fit to be tied, and Henry wasn't much help at first. I thought he was just going to stand there and "turn the other cheek" after Orris punched him in the face, but he got mad and fought back as best he could. Nathan took Dolan out with a quick knee to the crotch. Then we fought Orris and Lonnie. I got in my licks against them both, and so did Nathan, who could scrap like a cornered bobcat when he was really angry.
    When it was over, we hightailed into the woods, leaving Dolan on the ground clutching his nuts, Orris with a nose pouring blood, and Lonnie with a gash on his cheek. Henry's face was a bruised mess, Nathan had lost part of a front tooth, and I had a split lower lip and a right eye swelling shut.
    "I could choke you," I told Nathan when we were safely away from the road. "That cracker is right. You
do
have a smart mouth."
    "Why you mad at
me?
Maybe you don't care what white folks say, but I'm sick and tired of bein' called a nigger. I'm gonna fight back every time trash like them boys mess with me."
    "And get yourself killed," I predicted.
    "Y'all both shut up!" Henry shouted. "Just shut
up.
We in bad trouble now, and y'all can't do nothin' but fight each other. What gonna happen when them boys get home and tell they daddy?"
    "Nothin'," Nathan said. "They old man sorrier'n they is. Long as they bring him his liquor, he won't care if they get they white asses killed."
    Henry wiped away tears. I wanted to smack him.
    "Nathan's right," I said. "Nothing else will happen."
    "You don't know that! It's all your fault," Henry accused. "You, too, Caleb. If y'all hadn't of throwed them rocks at the prisoners, them boys wouldn't of chucked turnips at you."
    "How you figure all that?" Nathan asked. "That's crazy talk."
    "Bible say, 'As a man sows, so shall he reap.' Y'all throwed rocks at the Germans, and God brought it back on you right away."
    "You gone plumb crazy!" Nathan exclaimed. "I told you to shut up about that Bible stuff. You say one more word, I swear I'm gonna bust your head wide open."
    "Let's just get home," I said.
    "I told y'all not to go back to the camp after that guard say for us to move along," Henry added. "If you'd of listened to me—"
    That's when Nathan punched him in the stomach.
    Then he stalked off through the woods.
    ***
    Pop was sitting on the porch when I came into the yard. "What on
earth
happen to you? Lucy!" he called. "Come out here."
    I stood at the foot of the porch steps. Ma came through the door, wiping her hands on a dishtowel. "Caleb?" she exclaimed. "How—"
    Pop got to his feet. "You been