The dog padded over to Ruth and put its head on her knee, sniffing the baby as if to make sure she hadn’t hurt it. Something about the creature niggled at me.

“Is it just me,” Ruth asked, “or does this dog look almost like the one you used to have when we were kids? What was his name again?”

I smiled despite myself. Of course, that was it. Ruth was right. “Shadow,” I replied. And then the strangest thing happened. The dog’s ears perked up in response and it turned to me as though I’d called its name.

Ruth laughed. “It certainly seems to think it’s Shadow. Maybe it’s a ghost come back to haunt you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said, walking to the telephone. “I’ll make the call. You sit with him and keep him calm.”

“What call?”

“To the police.”

“The police? Why on earth do you want to call them?”

“A baby has just been left on our doorstep, Ruth. Of course we need to report it.”

“No!” She said it so forcefully that she startled the baby, who started crying again. “We’re not calling the police.”

“Abandoning a baby is a crime. Whoever did this needs to be found and held accountable—”

“It’s not like his mother left him at a garbage dump or in a field somewhere. She left him on our doorstep where she knew he would be safe.”

“The baby needs to be taken into custody—”

“Listen to you! ‘Taken into custody.’ He’s not a criminal. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“For God’s sake. Will you please stop interrupting me? I was going to say he needs to be taken into custody so that he can be transferred to a place of safety.”

“And then what?”

“First, they’ll look for his mother—”

“Oh, please! How will they ever find her? It would be an impossible task! And even if they do by some miracle, it doesn’t matter, really, because she clearly can’t care for him since she left him here.”

“Believe me when I tell you that most women who give up their children regret it immensely.”

“Then it makes more sense to keep him here. That way she’ll know where to find him if she changes her mind.”

“We can’t just keep him, Ruth. He needs to be processed into the system.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

“He’ll go to a children’s sanctuary—”

“You mean orphanage!” Ruth snapped. “Stop trying to sugarcoat it, Delilah.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I say we let the poor child have one night of peace and decide what to do in the morning.”