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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. |
