anchor: Maybe he should have cut out of the game yesterday.... Or never come down into the valley weeks ago ... or left Red Springs.... Those "maybes"stretched as far back and as neatly in line as the railroad tracks they had been talking about earlier, one slipping smoothly into another as if cast in one strong string of doubts.
positive: Perhaps he should have quit the day before today.
negative: Perhaps he should continue doing what he's doing.