"Yeah I'm still figuring it out, Mary Jane," said Spiderman. He shot some web out of his wrists into the tree branches above them, where it caught and hung. He shot some more out of the other wrist. "I still need to figure out how to convince my uncle to let me get a sword."

Spiderman and Mary Jane lay on their backs, side by side, in a far corner of the park. The leaves were beginning to turn. The night was breezy, crisp.

"Yeah," said Mary Jane.

"I think he's afraid I'm going to hurt myself or something. It's so stupid," said Spiderman. He shot another wristful of web into the tree.

"Yeah," said Mary Jane. She crinkled a dried-up leaf in her hand, without looking. "It's a really nice night."

"Uncle Ben is so stupid. Maybe he's worried I'm going to hurt one of my friends with the sword?" said Spiderman. "But that's so stupid. Why would I hurt one of my friends with a sword?"

"Yeah I don't know," said Mary Jane.

Spiderman rolled over and got onto his feet. He jumped up to an overhanging branch, holding on with his two hands, dangling. He swung back and forth, tracing a vigorous arc.

"Hey," said Mary Jane.

"What?" said Spiderman.

"Could you eat a pumpkin, like not in a pie but just. Like just straight up cook and eat one. Do you think that would be good?"

"What?"

"I mean a pumpkin is just a squash, right? And people eat squash all the time. You can cook them in the microwave with butter."

"Yeah I guess," said Spiderman.

"So do you think you could do that with a pumpkin? Could you just cook and eat it with butter and salt like an acorn squash?"

"I think it might be too woody."

"What?"

"I think the flesh of a pumpkin might be tougher than the flesh of an acorn squash, so you could try to do that but it might not taste good." Spiderman swung hard into a somersault, flipped through the air, and landed at Mary Jane's feet.

"Flesh?" said Mary Jane. "What the fuck… oh, not like meat, ok, yeah." She crinkled another leaf. "Yeah maybe that's why."

Spiderman bent over backwards, planted his hands, and moved into a handstand. He began doing handstand pushups.

"Maybe if I started doing kendo, he'd have to get me a sword."

"Yeah," said Mary Jane.

"I think they might do kendo at the Y."

"Yeah," said Mary Jane.