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Elya Yelnats
Elya Yelnats is the great great grandfather of Stanley Yelnats IV. He lived in Latvia in the early 1800's. Elya is a poor labourer who works mucking out the stables for a farmer called Menke. -
The Farmer's Daughter
Elya falls in love with Myra Menke at first sight. She is the beautiful but dim witted daughter of Morris Menke. Elya wants to marry but discovers that Igor Barkov, a 57 year old pig farmer has already offered Menke a pig for Myra's hand in marriage. If Elya wants to marry Myra he will need a bigger pig. -
The Family Curse
Elya goes to an elderly Egyptian woman, Madame Zeroni, to share his problem. Madame Zeroni tells Elya to take her smallest pig up the mountain to drink from the mountain stream and sing the woodpecker song. The pig will grow big and fat and Elya can use it to win Myra's had in marriage. In return for her magic Elya must come back and take Madame Zeroni up the mountain and sing for her while she drinks from the stream. If he forgets to do this then he and family will be cursed forevermore. -
Disappointment
Elya takes the pig to Menke. Myra has to choose who to marry. Elya becomes upset when he realises that she does not value his love because she can't choose him instead of Igor. In anger he runs off to America. As Elya sails to America he realises that he forgot to return to Madame Zeroni to fulfil his promise. His family will now forever be cursed until he fulfils his promise. -
Greenlake
Greenlake is a small country town in the south west of America during the mid 1800's. Katherine Barlow is a school teacher in Greenlake. She teaches the children during the day and also teaches the adults to read and write in the evenings. Trout Walker owns the town and the lake and fancies Kate Barlow. -
Kate and Sam Forbidden Love
Kate falls in love with Sam the onion man. Sam is a negro. It is against the law for Sam to fraternise with a white woman. -
Burning the Schoolhouse
After Trout Walker has been rejected by Kate he discovers Kate and Sam kissing. He reports this to the sheriff and the locals burn down the school house. Sam tries to escape in his row boat but Trout Walker hunts him down and shoots him. -
Kissin' Kate Barlow
Kate is heartbroken when Sam is killed. The next day she turns up at the sheriffs office and offers him a kiss. She shouts the sheriff and then kisses him leaving a bright red lipstick kiss on his forehead. -
Stanley Yelnats I
Kissing Kate Barlow forms a gang and rides up and down the country robbing and killing. In her adventures she robs the stage coach that Stanley Yelnats I is travelling in. He is heading west to make his fortune. Kate steals Stanley's trunk which contains all of his wealth. She decides not to kill him but instead leaves him in the desert to die. Stanley managed to survive and was found delirious saying that he was saved by God's Thumb. -
Kissin' Kate comes to an end
Kate grows tired of her life of crime and returns to Greenlake to die. She finds Sam's boat in the middle of the dried up lake. Trout and Linda Walker threaten to shoot Kate if she doesn't tell them where she had buried her treasure. It hasn't rained in Greenlake since Sam died. The lake and town have gone. Kate leaves Trout with a curse that he and his children's children will dig for 100 years and will find the treasure then kills herself with a yellow spotted lizard. -
Trout and Louise Walker
On Christmas day Trout Walker makes his granddaughter Louise Walker dig holes to try and find Kate Barlow's treasure. Louise Walker grows up to become the warden of Camp Greenlake where she gets male juvenile delinquents to dig holes to 'build character'. Really she is getting them to dig holes to find Kate Barlow's treasure.
