The Stranger in the Woods_ The - Michael Finkel

Meng-hu. “No historical hermit, especially those motivated by a spiritual sense but also wilderness hermits,
has ever had the slightest motive to encroach upon anybody’s belongings—be that body, mind, time, space,
or goods.” Stealing, added Meng-hu, is universally condemned by other hermits because it shows that one is
undisciplined, lacking in empathy, and a menace to society, which are all contradictory to hermit ideals.
Knight, official hermit or not, was unable to afford bail, so he remained in the Kennebec County jail.
Within days of being locked up, he caught a debilitating head cold, but after that his immune system kicked
in, and he managed to avoid further illness. He received a new pair of glasses, his first in thirty years, with
oval lenses and silver wire frames.
He lost weight, and became as gaunt as after a grim winter in the woods. Now that food was freely given
to him, he joked, he couldn’t eat; but the truth was that jail made him too nervous to have an appetite. He
was a model inmate, says Chief Deputy Sheriff Ryan Reardon. His beard—his timepiece and his disguise—
grew wildly, and ever more itchy, but he refused to shave.
Knight had figured that both his parents had died while he was in the woods, but soon after his capture,
Diane Vance, who’d run a background check, told him that his mother, Joyce Knight, was still alive. She was
in her eighties. Chris begged Vance not to contact her, or anyone else in his family, and she agreed. He
wished to remain a secret, even in jail.
Six days after his arrest, Knight was informed by Vance that the story had leaked. His mother would soon
learn about him through the media. Knight gave Vance permission to notify his mom that he’d been found.
She telephoned Mrs. Knight. “I didn’t beat around the bush,” said Vance. “I just broke the news to her. I
think she was in shock, because it’s quite possible she thought he was dead. Then I think she ended up being
mad because he was in jail, and had been committing crimes. I remember her saying, ‘At my age, it’s a lot
to take in.’ ”
Knight accepted a single jail visit from his brothers Joel and Timothy. It was Joel who had co-signed the
loan on the Brat that Chris had abandoned. According to Kerry Vigue, the family friend, Joel paid off the
full amount owed and never pressed charges. “Joel thought that was not a brotherly thing to do,” Vigue
noted.
Chris did not allow his mother to come. He said that a visit with his mother would cause her shame and
grief. “Look at me: I’m in my prison clothes. I couldn’t let her see me like this. I’m a thief, I’m in jail, guilty
of so many crimes. This is not something my mom raised me to be. This is no place for her.”
It was for the same reason, Knight said, that he never phoned home the whole time he was in the woods.
“Because who I was”—a hermit, a thief—“would offend my family’s belief system. It would embarrass
them. I couldn’t tell them.” Instead, he allowed his family to wonder endlessly, to ache; a confounding
choice.
He decided that he would see his mother only once he was released from jail, so they could speak
“properly, face-to-face.” But after six months of imprisonment, he had no idea when that might be. His skin
had broken out in hives, and his hands sometimes trembled. Just finding out how many more seasons he’d be
spending locked up might have reduced some of his stress, but he understood the delay. “I don’t fit into any
categories,” he said. “Apparently, they don’t get a lot of hermits these days.” So he sank back into himself,
clutching the threads of his sanity, waiting to learn of his fate.