Word: Hangdog

hangdog

[ hang-dawg, -dog ]

adjective

browbeaten; defeated; intimidated; abject: He always went about with a hangdog look.

shamefaced; guilty: He sneaked out of the room with a hangdog expression.

suitable to a degraded or contemptible person; sneaky; furtive.

noun

Archaic. a degraded, contemptible person.

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               Bob sat at a table at the cheapest bar in town.  He was hunched over his mug, containing the cheapest beer in the place, contained in a glass of dubious cleanliness.  Nobody else seemed to noticed.  Or at least, they did not care.  This particular bar had an unspoken rule: “You ignore me, I’ll ignore you.”  This meant that nobody spoke, and the only sound came from an aging jukebox whose speakers were perpetually one song away from total failure.

               This was fine with Bob.  Life had thoroughly beaten him down.  He was allowed to wallow in misery.  He did wish he could afford beer than had a taste other than bitter water, but no such luck.

               A scraping sound reach his ears, forcing him to look up.  Someone had violated the unspoken rule of the bar and chosen to sit near him.  The man looked out of place.  He was clean, well dressed.  This was a person who life allowed to coast by.  This was a person who was living the good life.

               “Hey.” The man said.  Bob looked at the man and returned his focus to his drink.  “You look like you’ve seen better days.” 

               Bob considered saying something.  But then he remembered he did not care enough to break the silence like the man so flagrantly did.  He chose to let out a heavy sigh and take a long drink from the mug.

               “I can help you, if you want.  Give you a chance to change things.  Live a better life.”

               This caught Bob’s attention.  Living a better life would be great, but there was a problem with the idea.

               “A better life, huh?” Bob said heavily.  “Buddy, I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.  I’m 47 years old, divorced twice, no kids, and people half my age make twice as much as me.  No way I’m living a better life now.”

               “Not right now, no.  But what about twenty years ago?”

               Bob snorted.  “Twenty?  Nah.  You’d have to go back thirty to make any difference in my life.  By the time I was 27, everything had already started going downhill.  I was just too dumb to notice it back then.”

               The man nodded.  “Thirty is tricky, but doable.  Sure.  What if you could go back thirty years?  Not as you are, but as you were.  Take everything you are now and put you back into the body of your youth?  Would you like that?”

               Bob looked at the man blankly.  “You a drug dealer or something?  Or are you just nuts?”

               “No to both.  I represent a certain company.”  The man pulled a business card out from his breast pocket and slid it towards Bob.  He did not look at the small sheet of paper.  “We’ve made great advances in technology that most would consider science fiction.  Now, time travel in the way most people think of it is beyond our current abilities.  But what we can do is send your mind back. Your consciousness would be placed into your younger self, free to make any number of different choices.  Using your knowledge of your life to lead a better one.  Sounds good, right?”

               “Sounds crazy.”

               The man shrugged.  “I suppose it does.  But that doesn’t mean it’s fake.  You have my number.  Take a few days to think about it.  I promise it’s worth it.  And hey, even if I’m lying, then does it really matter?  After all, once you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way you can go is up.”

               The man stood and walked out of the bar, leaving his card behind.  Bob finished his beer and his eyes lingered on the card.  The paper seemed to lure his eyes in.  He sighed and put it in his pocket.  The man was right, he had nothing left to lose.  And maybe, just maybe, he was telling the truth, and Bob could finally, finally live a real life.  And to a man who life had thoroughly beaten down like Bob, that was worth more than anything.

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 If you could go back in time and kill Hitler, would you?  The only correct answer (in my humble opinion) is yes, with the caveat that it be done right before he commits suicide.  That way, you can say you killed Hitler, but don't go screwing with the timeline and possibly inviting an even worse dictator to rise.