You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
fed her, but with Knight she had no questions. “Unequivocally,” she said, “I believe him.” Sergeant Hughes<br />
felt <strong>the</strong> same: “<strong>The</strong>re’s no doubt <strong>in</strong> my m<strong>in</strong>d he’s lived out <strong>the</strong>re <strong>the</strong> whole time.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was not a morsel of conv<strong>in</strong>c<strong>in</strong>g evidence that Knight had ever spent an even<strong>in</strong>g away from <strong>the</strong><br />
woods, m<strong>in</strong>us <strong>the</strong> one occasion he admitted to—an admission that itself was a sign of his precise honesty.<br />
He said he didn’t need medical care because he wasn’t exposed to germs. He kept his food sealed <strong>in</strong> plastic<br />
totes and rema<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> camp nearly all <strong>the</strong> time; most large animals won’t approach when a human is<br />
present.<br />
At <strong>the</strong> time of his arrest, after a long w<strong>in</strong>ter, he was down to a s<strong>in</strong>gle set of unsoiled clo<strong>the</strong>s—he was due<br />
for a laundry day. Even <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> cold, he kept himself clean with sponge baths, preferably us<strong>in</strong>g a large yellow<br />
car-wash sponge, if he could steal one, and he frequently took shower gel and deodorant. He could speak so<br />
well because vocal cords do not, <strong>in</strong> fact, curl up and die with disuse, and speak<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> complex sentences isn’t<br />
about <strong>the</strong> mouth, it comes from <strong>the</strong> bra<strong>in</strong>, which <strong>in</strong> Knight’s case was fully operational, albeit idiosyncratic.<br />
Knight had no idea that a family of Knights lived nearby, and anyway <strong>the</strong>y’re not related; his surname is<br />
common <strong>in</strong> central Ma<strong>in</strong>e.<br />
He wished <strong>the</strong>re had been more Great Ice Storms. “Ice is nearly liquid. You don’t have liquid <strong>in</strong> serious<br />
cold, <strong>in</strong> kill<strong>in</strong>g cold. It was twenty-eight degrees dur<strong>in</strong>g that storm. In a car, driv<strong>in</strong>g, it was serious. For me,<br />
it was a novelty. Actually, it helped. It put a thick layer of ice over <strong>the</strong> snow, and I could walk around<br />
without leav<strong>in</strong>g tracks.”<br />
Most of <strong>the</strong> North Pond locals, when <strong>the</strong>y were <strong>in</strong>formed that Knight’s story was undoubtedly true, did<br />
not change <strong>the</strong>ir m<strong>in</strong>ds. <strong>The</strong>y were conv<strong>in</strong>ced that Knight was runn<strong>in</strong>g some bizarre con, and that all who<br />
believed him had fallen <strong>in</strong>to his trap. <strong>The</strong>y didn’t reject his story mildly; <strong>the</strong>y rejected it venomously. A few<br />
seemed less angry about hav<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong>ir goods stolen than <strong>the</strong> fact that Knight’s tale was accepted by anyone.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y couldn’t get <strong>the</strong>ir heads around Knight. It was as if he’d <strong>in</strong>sisted that he could flap his arms and fly. His<br />
story was both true and unbelievable at <strong>the</strong> same time, an unsettl<strong>in</strong>g merger.<br />
<strong>The</strong> locals were rattled because Knight’s feat went aga<strong>in</strong>st all that felt natural, was anti<strong>the</strong>tical to nearly<br />
everyth<strong>in</strong>g one learns. In <strong>the</strong> Bible, <strong>in</strong> chapter 2 of Genesis, Adam’s aloneness is <strong>the</strong> first th<strong>in</strong>g God f<strong>in</strong>ds<br />
objectionable: “And <strong>the</strong> Lord God said, It is not good that <strong>the</strong> man should be alone.”<br />
One reason <strong>the</strong>re are virtually no more devout Christian solitaries—and haven’t been s<strong>in</strong>ce <strong>the</strong> 1700s—is<br />
that <strong>the</strong>y frightened <strong>the</strong> ecclesiastical authorities. Hermits were unsupervised th<strong>in</strong>kers, ponder<strong>in</strong>g life and<br />
death and God, and <strong>the</strong> church, with its <strong>in</strong>gra<strong>in</strong>ed schedules and rote memorization, did not approve of many<br />
hermits’ ideas. Thomas Aqu<strong>in</strong>as, <strong>the</strong> thirteenth-century Italian priest, said hermits could be subversive to<br />
obedience and stability, and that it was better to keep such people <strong>in</strong> monasteries, subject to regulations and<br />
rout<strong>in</strong>e.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> solitary is necessarily a man who does what he wants to do,” wrote Thomas Merton, an American<br />
Trappist monk who died <strong>in</strong> 1968. “In fact, he has noth<strong>in</strong>g else to do. That is why his vocation is both<br />
dangerous and despised.”<br />
I began ask<strong>in</strong>g cab<strong>in</strong> owners—and, later, many o<strong>the</strong>rs—to estimate <strong>the</strong> longest time <strong>the</strong>y’d ever spent<br />
without human <strong>in</strong>teraction. By this I meant not see<strong>in</strong>g anyone or communicat<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> any way, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g<br />
phone, e-mail, or text messages. Just time by one’s self, unconnected, though read<strong>in</strong>g or listen<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>the</strong><br />
radio or watch<strong>in</strong>g TV alone was okay.<br />
N<strong>in</strong>e out of ten people, often after a contemplative pause, realized that <strong>the</strong>y had never passed a s<strong>in</strong>gle day<br />
<strong>in</strong> solitude. Usually it was no more than a handful of wak<strong>in</strong>g hours. My fa<strong>the</strong>r has lived seventy-three years