Jessie was still determined to make the most of her limited time, be it in a practical and fatalistic way. So on Halloween night, on the deck of the Carew Tower where her great grandfather had died, in a city where dark matter was constantly pushing to abandon zeal in favor of the status quo and with which her fate was inextricably bound, Jessie attended a posh and outrageous costume party dressed as Mary Jane, Peter Parker’s girlfriend in the Spiderman comic series — her intelligent, independent and tenacious comic book role model.
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Sometimes it seems like gluttony is the goal of Halloween. Mountains of candy glommed by little door-to-door ragamuffins are the proud trophies of the spooky night prowl. And this is consumed by sugar-crazed mouths within a day or two. Sick bellies and glazed eyes are the leftovers from the party. ...