“What freaked me out about you—,” Caballo began, but suddenly stopped, bug-eyed with hunger,as Mamá plopped big bowls in front of us and futzed over them with chopped cilantro andjalape.os and squirts of lime. The snarling look he’d given me back at the hotel wasn’t because Iwas standing between him and freedom; it was because I was standing between him and food.

Caballo had set out that morning for a short hike to a natural thermal pool in the woods, but oncehe spotted a faint he’d never seen before, hike and hot tub were history. Hetook off running, and was still going hours later. He hit a mountain, but instead of turning back, hebent himself into a three-thousand-foot ascent, the equivalent of climbing to the top of the EmpireState Building twice. Eventually, he linked onto a path back into Creel, turning what should havebeen a relaxing soak into a grueling trail marathon a police shieldcould hold me upside down and drainmy gutschange your mind. By the time I shanghaied him in the hotel, hehadn’t eaten since sunup and was nearly delirious with hunger.