Jamie pressed her remote to open the gate and the man ran inside to sweep the boy up into his arms and cover him in kisses. “Ben!” he muttered. “My Ben. Oh God, I thought you were gone.”

Jamie smiled at the reunion. It was nice to feel she’d done a good deed. She stepped closer to the man, prepared to accept his thanks.

“What the hell did you think you were doing – snatching him like that and taking him into your house? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? He could have been killed by a car,” he snarled.

Caught off guard, Jamie found herself apologising. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t know where he’d come from.”

“Oh, sure. And I suppose you spent ages ringing the doorbells of every house in the street. I live next door to you. Right next door! And you couldn’t even be bothered to knock and ask if I might possibly be missing my son.”

“Look, he was thirsty. He might have been dehydrated for all I knew, so I just…”

“Thirsty?” the man exploded. “Well, that explains why he’s covered in juice and soaked to the skin. You decided to throw the juice all over him, is that it?”

Jamie folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. “You might at least thank me for…”

“Fuck,” the little boy interrupted happily. “Oh, fuck.” Cringing, Jamie watched as a tide of red surged into the man’s cheeks.

“What did he just say?”

“Look, I’m sorry,” she babbled. “I might accidentally have said that word in front of him. You see, he had just spilled the juice all over himself and smashed a glass, and I was still rattled from when he almost fell off the kitchen chair and I…”

“Oh, fantastic. Not only do you grab my son off the street, but you drench him in cold juice, expose him to cut glass, and let him fall off a chair. Oh, and you teach him his first curse word too. And I’m supposed to thank you?”

“You might at least…”

“You might at least have tried to find out who he belonged to. Now, will you let me out of here so I can take him back home?”

Feeling somewhat shaken, Jamie pressed the button again to open the gate and watched as he marched away. The little boy turned in his arms to give her a mile-wide smile. Then he lifted one chubby hand and waved at her.

“Wait!” Jamie said.

The man turned back to her with a sigh. “What now?”

“Can I … I mean, could you…?”

“Could I what?”

“Could I possibly … see him again? Ben, I mean. We kind of bonded, and I’d really love to spend some time with him, and…”

The man snorted. “Yeah, right. That’s going to happen.” He turned and walked away.

***

Tell us: Do you think the man was right to be angry? Or should he have thanked Jamie?