It took my man a whole day to get his wits back, so to speak. But when he woke up, he was a different man. It was wonderful. He wasn't distrusting, cynical or unfriendly anymore. Frank woke up on the couch, where he was lying under a blanket, as if he had only taken a nap. I had washed him and made suren there were no signs of our earlier “disagreements” in the house.

Everything was clean and it seemed we had allways been the regular couple nextdoor. Frank stretched his arms and legs and yawned.

“Did I sleep all afternoon or what? I feel like I ran a marathon, and needed a lot of sleep. Now I feel good again.”He rubbed his eyes and got up to drink some water.
"You slept quite a while, but that's okay, you worked so hard lately. I guess you needed it.” I was making diner in the kitchen and he stood behind me, and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“You're the best, Mandy.” I kissed him on the cheek, a little carefull, and he stroke my hair. When diner was ready, we sat by the table.
“We haven't seen my parents for a while, maybe we can visit them this weekend.” I suggested. Frank shrugged, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sight of this relaxed, intelligent and handsome man. “But if you want, we can also do something else you like.”
“We can do both. Saturday we visit you parents, and Sunday we... say, go to Allamanton Parc, to do a nice hike.” Frank said with his mouth full of fish.
“That's great. I like it.” We smiled at eachother. After we put the dishes in the dishwasher, Frank walk towards me, and hugged me.

“You're just so wonderful, Mandy.” He whispered in my ear, and I got goosebumps all over my body. “You're allways sweet and doing things for me, like making me a delicious diner. I feel like I don't reward you enough.” I giggled and turned around. “Mandy, mandy, my mucho magical Mandy.” Frank said with his lips against mine. I felt my body respond immediately, after it had been ignored by him for so long.
“Are you... I mean, do you feel good enough to... well, aren't you too tired?” I asked shyly. Was this real, or was he playing some devious act? Maybe he didn't mean all these sweet words and was he seducing me, and suddenly he'd kill me out of revenge. But in his eyes, all I could see was love.
“Of course I'm not too tired, silly. You give me energy!” He breathed on my shoulder. We ran to the couch and I landed on top of him and kissed his neck, his chest and all the way down. We hadn't had so much fun in months. We slept close to eachother that night.

The week went by fast, and we had a great time at my parents house, talking and playing games. Frank looked energetic and happy, and I wondered if maybe this whole dark episode in my life couldn't better be over. As I saw it now, I didn't really need this maniacal side of me. I was contend, and calm.

Then Sunday came. We got up early, and drove to Allamanton Parc in my car. It was a two hour drive, and my car didn't go that fast, so it even took us two and half. In which Frank took all his time to ask me what had happened to his car. I said I'd used it once and that some stupid old lady had crashed into it on an intersection in town. I'd brought it to the garage where it was still standing, but it wouldn't take that long.

“Why don't I know this?” Frank said wonderingly.
“I told you a zillion time, Frank, but as I said, you were working so much lately, that information went in your one ear and out the other. You're just a little forgetfull lately.” But it went on and on, with questions about when this had happened, and if I'd called the garage allready. He drove me nuts in a short time, and before I knew it, I yelled at him to shut up. He sat for a while, staring out the window. I asked myself how I'd get his car back, or just one that looked like it.

After this tedious drive, we parked the car and started walking. The surroundings were lovely, the dry, shrubby mountains and whisteling birds calmed us down and made us forget about caraccidents. Frank and I walked hand in hand, in silence. Untill...

“If my car isn't back by the end of next week, I might sue them.” He said quietly. “It might be nice for a change, to sue someone myself.”
“O, come on, that's not like you.” I answered.
“Why not? I can be tough and I think I should give them some boundary, like: untill here and no further. Give me back my car now!” Frank waved his fist in the air, and I laughed.
“You're not tough, honey. You're sweet and soft, and intelligent. Just be patient. Before you know it, the car's fixed.” I patted him on the back.
“Don't do that, you're damaging my manhood. But I mean it, this is just some car mechanic trying to get a kick off of harassing people.” Frank looked very seriously and I let go of his hand.
“You can't mean that. It's the holiday season, maybe some of their people are away. Just give them a break. It's not like you'd die without your car.”
“You're just too naieve to believe that someone could be like that, but it's true. I'll sue them, make them think twice before they'll do something like that again."
“Don't be a baby.” I said angrily.
“Don't be so rude!” He shouted. “Why can't you back me up for once?”
“Oh, like I never do that. Come on, don't start whining like that.” I walked a little faster, and felt annoyed that Frank would spoil our day out with his stupid behaviour.
“Mandy, I'm not whining. I think I'm behaving like a real man, not letting people step over my boundaries, and you say this is not good. I don't understand. How do you want me to be? How can I...” I turned around and we stood still.
“Stop your stupid questions. You're a man to me if you don't ask a million questions, if you can handle a simple rude remark from my side without feeling “hurt”. If you can put up a fight with me.” My face felt like it had been lying in the summersun all day, very hot and red. My eyes were almost popping out of my head, from all the anger I felt.
“But... but that's not what a man is like. You always loved my sensitive side, that I like to cuddle with you and that I'm in touch with my feelings.”

“Ha! O, really.” I smiled vaguely and stared at him intently. “I don't think so.” I stepped towards him and hit him on the shoulder.
“Ow!” He shouted, but he didn't do anything but put his hand on the sore spot. O, such a great man, I thought. The little weasel didn't even defend himself. “Why would you do that?” Frank whispered. So maybe Maniac Mandy was still necessary in this life. To teach her weak husband a lesson! I glansed at the canyon, which was 500 feet deep. It was only two steps away from us. I pretended to try to relax, and took a deep breath.

“Let's just forget this, okay? It's all unnecessary tension between us.” I shrugged and started walking. Frank followed a few steps behind, seemingly deep in thought. Yeah, a great man he was. The looser. A few minutes later, Frank started walking a little faster and came beside me. He put his hand on my shoulder.

“Are you sure you're okay? I really wish you wouldn't get so mad so quickly. I don't know how to respond to that. If I'm quiet, I don't respond enough, if I get mad, I feel like you get even madder.”
“Yes, that's true!” I shouted. “That's because I want the fight, I want the collission, it gives me a way to express myself!” Frank looked at me with a mixture of surprise and horror. “And you're allways too weak to put up a decent fight!”
“Like that's the normal way to be with eachother. I don't think...”
“You shouldn't think.” I whispered, and jumped towards him, and with a sudden explosion of power, I pushed him towards the edge. He stumbled backwards and his feet had no solid ground anymore. He waved his arms to gain his balance, but he had too much motion. Backwards and downwards he went, the wind rippling his clothes, his new sporting shoes shining white against the dark stones. He hit the wall many feet down, but I didn't hear anything. The little dot that was Frank landed on a rocky outcropping, almost on the bottom of the canyon.

I was alone up here. There was only wind in my ears, no sounds, as if the world was watching me. I felt strangely alone, and suddenly I sincerely missed the Frank that I'd lived with these last days. Why had Maniac Mandy ruined this for me? Tears started rolling down my cheeks. Why hadn't I kept her under control? I couldn't, she was so strong. And how was I supposed to get Frank out of that canyon? Or get there myself? My knees went week, and I crawled up into a little ball. I crawled up even more, and wanted to get smaller, untill I was no bigger than the tiny stone pricking in my hands.