Step on a crack, break your mother's back.
Childish games and chants, rituals without reason, followed religiously. These games, these rules present in every childhood.
Dare you Hawkeye!
He avoided the house that belonged to the witch, he never cut through a graveyard, he skipped every crack. Ten years, he never broke the childhood rules.
Double dare you!
He's chicken, thinks a stupid crack matters!
He was taunted into stomping on the crack, proof he wasn't chicken. He did, and he ran home afterwards to check on his mother's back.
Three weeks later his father served Hawkeye cornflakes for breakfast.