A mother and her son of about ten are crossing the street at the intersection of Westbourne Grove and Hereford Road. Sipping coffee at Café Nero, I am watching them from across the street. When they reach the middle of Hereford Road, a Volvo station-wagon suddenly turns in their direction from Westbourne Grove. Confusion ensues when the boy spots the car and pulls back in fright. The mother continues walking, pulling at the boy’s arm. Then she stops and looks back at him. The car first stops, but it starts to move again a few seconds later. Startled again, the boy pulls back a bit more insistently. At length, the mother stops in the middle of the street and yells at the driver. She is acting protectively. A few moments later, the danger already averted, the son starts teasing his mother for having lost her temper. Now he is behaving like a man again. A brave man, too. The mother laughs with him. They cuddle. They must be living together without the boy’s father. He is her boy and her man at the same time.