Island — Gary Wilson

Is it possible to be an island? What is it like to be an island? Is it worthwhile being an island? Who better to contemplate such questions than one who is a fugitive from the law, who is completely cut off from society, who, though surrounded by masses of humanity, follows a path of utmost solitude? ‘The Island That No Man Was Supposed to Be' comes to us from the ferry that runs between Mazatlán and La Paz. The narrator is reminiscing over the recent past that he has spent on the run. He describes various adventures he has had. Hiking in the high country near Banff in the Canadian Rockies. Kayaking along the shore of Vancouver Island. Going thirsty on a desert road in California. Fending off the questions of persistent federales in Mexico. Narrowly giving bounty hunters the slip in the Midwest. Living on the streets of LA. But more importantly the narrator communicates to the reader the mindset of the hunted, the constant wariness, the enforced transience, the absolute self-reliance. And it is this absolute self-reliance that brings the reader to the verge of a whole new world of thought.