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oom. A t<strong>in</strong>y cab<strong>in</strong>, roof caved <strong>in</strong>, is $16,500. I wonder if he’d accept such a gift, or if his <strong>the</strong>rapist would<br />
agree that it’s a good idea. He’d still need money, for repairs and food, and he has not a dollar. All of <strong>the</strong><br />
donations to his cause went to restitution, and he owes more.<br />
Knight had specifically asked me not to <strong>in</strong>terfere <strong>in</strong> his life, so I veto buy<strong>in</strong>g him <strong>the</strong> cab<strong>in</strong> and fly home.<br />
I write him a letter: “I absolutely cannot stand <strong>the</strong> thought that you may choose to take a stroll with <strong>the</strong> Lady<br />
of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Woods</strong>.” I do not tell his caseworker, or anyone else <strong>in</strong> Knight’s life, about <strong>the</strong> suicide risk, but every<br />
month or so I write aga<strong>in</strong>, through spr<strong>in</strong>g and summer and <strong>in</strong>to fall. <strong>The</strong>re’s no reply.<br />
When November arrives, <strong>the</strong> time of his threat, I can stand it no longer. I book a flight to Ma<strong>in</strong>e, and ten<br />
days before I leave, I send him a brief note say<strong>in</strong>g I’m on my way. My wife calls me while I’m chang<strong>in</strong>g<br />
planes <strong>in</strong> New York. A postcard has arrived from Knight. “ ‘Urgently important that you leave me alone,’ ”<br />
she reads to me over <strong>the</strong> phone. “ ‘Show me respect by leav<strong>in</strong>g me alone. Please. If you appear I will call<br />
police. Leave me alone. Please.’ ” I fly back without see<strong>in</strong>g him.<br />
W<strong>in</strong>ter descends, and I try to keep tabs on Knight. Every North Pond resident I speak with says <strong>the</strong> past<br />
two summers without <strong>the</strong> hermit have been <strong>the</strong> most carefree <strong>in</strong> memory. People have been leav<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
cab<strong>in</strong> doors unlocked, like <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> old days. “It’s just done,” says Jodie Mosher-Towle, editor of <strong>the</strong> twiceyearly<br />
bullet<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> North Pond News. “It’s <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> past. Nobody wants to hear about <strong>the</strong> hermit anymore<br />
around here, because it’s like yeah, whatever.” Maloney, <strong>the</strong> DA, e-mails to tell me that Knight cont<strong>in</strong>ues to<br />
arrive <strong>in</strong> court promptly every Monday and is do<strong>in</strong>g fantastically well. So at least I know he’s alive.<br />
At <strong>the</strong> end of w<strong>in</strong>ter, Maloney announces that Knight has completed <strong>the</strong> Co-Occurr<strong>in</strong>g Disorders and<br />
Veterans Court and on March 23, 2015, he will officially graduate. It’s been nearly two years s<strong>in</strong>ce his<br />
arrest at P<strong>in</strong>e Tree. “His performance <strong>in</strong> this court has been flawless,” Justice Mills says at his f<strong>in</strong>al hear<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re was never a misstep. He has done everyth<strong>in</strong>g he has been asked to do.” Knight is placed on<br />
probation for three years, unable to possess alcohol or drugs and required to cont<strong>in</strong>ue psychological<br />
counsel<strong>in</strong>g, but with few o<strong>the</strong>r restrictions. “Mr. Knight,” says Maloney, “is now a member of our<br />
community.”<br />
Knight sits <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> defendant’s chair <strong>in</strong> court, still th<strong>in</strong> and clean-shaven, but with someth<strong>in</strong>g different about<br />
him. Though he doesn’t speak at graduation, his demeanor seems more docile. <strong>The</strong>re is an unfamiliar<br />
slackness to his visage. He is wear<strong>in</strong>g a navy blue V-neck sweater over a white button-down, like a<br />
k<strong>in</strong>dergarten teacher.<br />
In one of <strong>the</strong> first letters he wrote me, Knight described himself, <strong>in</strong> verse, as “defensive, defiant,<br />
aggressive, you bet,” <strong>the</strong>n added, conclud<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> rhyme, “but at least not compliant, at least not yet.” From<br />
<strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>itial moment I encountered Knight, through to <strong>the</strong> day he told me he wanted to kill himself, he was full<br />
of defiance.<br />
Now, <strong>in</strong> court, he seems compliant. Fight<strong>in</strong>g aga<strong>in</strong>st everyth<strong>in</strong>g, he may have realized, only makes one’s<br />
life <strong>in</strong>f<strong>in</strong>itely harder. He has seen <strong>the</strong> bottomless nonsense of our world and has decided, like most of us, to<br />
simply try to tolerate it. He appears to have surrendered. It is rational, yet heartbreak<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
After <strong>the</strong> hear<strong>in</strong>g, I drive by North Pond aga<strong>in</strong>. I park my car beside <strong>the</strong> road and struggle through <strong>the</strong><br />
snow-choked woods to his camp. It’s my eighth trip here; I’ve spent <strong>the</strong> night five times, across every season.<br />
Now I sense that <strong>the</strong> site, as with Knight himself, has been scrubbed of some crucial vitality.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Ma<strong>in</strong>e Department of Environmental Protection had recently sent <strong>in</strong> a six-person team and an allterra<strong>in</strong><br />
vehicle and removed <strong>the</strong> rema<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g trash and propane tanks, creat<strong>in</strong>g more of a human trail <strong>in</strong> a few<br />
hours than Knight did <strong>in</strong> decades.