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Newly divorced, Achilles Pumpkinseed lives alone in the house left to him by his deceased mother. Depressed and adrift, he spends his days smoking pot and watching television, usually alone but sometimes with his equally rootless friend Patroclus. Although he owns a small business, Achilles cannot face working any more than he can muster the energy to deal with the world he used to be a part of. Then one day, an unexpected visitor named Homer shows up at Achilles' doorstep, bearing an unusual gift: an old dilapidated camping trailer painted like a child's image of a watermelon. Insisting that delivering this improbable gift to Achilles is his "mission", sworn to at knife-point for the young man's hated stepfather Creon, Homer forces Achilles to accept the bizarre object. As fate would have it, the Watermelon acts as a magnet, luring all manner of oddball humanity to Achilles' home - a flaky artist, a pushy photo-journalist, a pedantic television reporter, and even the ghost of his beloved mother. At first, Achilles rejects the intrusions, until one day he discovers a young runaway sleeping in the trailer. Rather than chase her off as he did the others, Achilles invites the vulnerable Persephone into his home... and his life. Eleventh-hour appearances from his ex-wife and deranged step-sister ensure that Achilles' life will never be the same. Until it is. Sort of. Search keywords
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