Zero Day

The Yelnats family has been cursed with bad luck, which they blame on their ancestor Elya's failure to keep a promise to fortune teller Madame Zeroni over a century earlier in Latvia. One day, Stanley Yelnats IV is wrongfully convicted of stealing a pair of sneakers donated to charity by baseball player Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston, and is sentenced to 18 months of hard labor at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention camp in Texas, in lieu of jail time. The camp is in a dry lake bed where rain never falls and venomous yellow-spotted lizards thrive. Stanley meets warden Louise Walker, her assistant Mr. Sir, and counselor Dr. Steve Pendanski. Inmates, nicknamed Zero, Zig-Zag, Armpit, Squid, X-Ray, and Magnet, dig holes daily, earning a day off for any finds that intrigue Louise. After Stanley discovers a golden lipstick tube marked K.B. and a fossil, he is accepted into the group and nicknamed Caveman. When Magnet steals Mr. Sir's sunflower seeds, Stanley assumes responsibility and is taken to Walker's cabin. He finds wanted posters there and learns "KB" stands for Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow, a schoolteacher-turned-outlaw who once robbed a money chest from his great-grandfather Stanley Yelnats Sr. After admonishing Mr. Sir for his report, Louise lets Stanley return to work. Camp Green Lake's history is revealed in flashbacks as a flourishing lakeside community in the 19th century. Kate romantically bonds with Sam, an African-American onion merchant who helps repair her schoolhouse. When the wealthy Charles "Trout" Walker discovers the two kissing, he informs the other citizens out of jealousy, and they burn down the schoolhouse and murder Sam. (After this murder, no rain falls on Green Lake for over a century.) In retaliation, Kate becomes an outlaw, hunting down Trout's men and earning her nickname by kissing the men she murders. As her legend is established, Green Lake declines due to the lake's gradual evaporation. Years later, Kate is found by the now-destitute Walkers. Before allowing herself to be lethally bitten by a lizard, she boasts neither Trout nor his descendants will find her buried fortune. In the present, Dr. Pendanski mocks Zero, whose real name is Hector Zeroni, but Zero injures him and flees. After some deliberation, Stanley searches for Zero. The two have difficulty surviving in the desert without water. Eventually, Stanley carries the ailing Zero up a nearby mountain, and they regain their strength after finding a field of wild onions and a water source. By doing this, Stanley unknowingly fulfills Elya's promise to Madame Zeroni and breaks his family's curse. While camping on the mountain, Zero tells Stanley he took Sweet Feet's sneakers from an auction at a homeless shelter, mistakenly thinking they were a free donation. Zero then threw them over the bridge while evading the police, which led to the shoes inadvertently hitting Stanley's head. Returning to the camp, Stanley and Zero investigate the hole where Stanley found the lipstick and uncover a chest before they are discovered by Louise, Mr. Sir, and Dr. Pendanski. They soon figure out that Louise, Trout's granddaughter, has been using the inmates to find Kate's treasure. The adults cannot steal the chest from the boys, as the hole is swarming with lizards, which do not bite Stanley and Hector due to the onions they ate earlier. The puzzled adults wait for the lizards to kill the boys. The next morning, the attorney general and Stanley's lawyer arrive, accompanied by Texas Rangers, and the chest Stanley found is discovered to have once belonged to his namesake great-grandfather. Louise, Mr. Sir, who is actually paroled criminal Marion Sevillo, and Mr. Pendanski, who was impersonating a doctor, are arrested. Stanley and Zero are released, and it rains in Green Lake for the first time in over a century. The Yelnats family obtains the chest containing jewels, deeds, and promissory notes. They share this with Zero, who uses it to hire private investigators to find his missing mother. Both families live a life of financial ease as neighbors.