{"id":341,"date":"2011-02-12T21:22:58","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T21:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/"},"modified":"2011-02-12T21:53:19","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T21:53:19","slug":"skinnybones-and-the-wrinkle-queen-%e2%80%93-synopsis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/books\/skinnybones-and-the-wrinkle-queen-%e2%80%93-synopsis\/","title":{"rendered":"Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen \u2013 Synopsis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Books<\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>| About the Book <\/a>| Synopsis | Questions & Activities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tamara Tierney isn\u2019t thrilled over the prospect of being placed in yet another Edmonton foster home but she agrees, at her social worker\u2019s urging, to put more effort into making the placement work. Actually, things aren\u2019t too bad at the Shadbolts with Shirl and Herb and their two chubby gremlins, Lizzie and Lyle. A bonus is that everyone is gone during the day so it\u2019s possible to play truant at least a couple of times during the week to catch the fashion shows on TV \u2013 essential viewing for someone determined to become a model.<\/p>\n

Tamara has missed the introductory session preparing her grade nine class for an excursion to the Sierra Sunset Seniors\u2019 Center but, in the process of alternating the afternoons she plays truant, she\u2019s present the day the class is headed over to the Center. Her teacher provides her with a gift of hideous purple knit slippers to give to the senior with whom she\u2019s been \u201cbuddied.\u201d Meeting an ancient, mean-looking woman in a bright red dress and a flashy brooch, Tamara mentally dubs her \u201cthe Wrinkle Queen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jean Barkley, after a restless night at the \u201cTriple S Ranch,\u201d decides on her own private moniker for the tall student buddy with outrageous clothes and magenta hair caught up in clips: \u201cSkinnybones.\u201d Tamara helps her set up her walker and, as they take an excursion away from the community room, the gift of the wretched slippers gives them both a laugh. In a way, Jean Barkley decides, she won\u2019t mind seeing this girl again.<\/p>\n

Following classes that day, Tamara heads over to a promotion for a modeling agency she\u2019s read about in a brochure. Brad, the representative, gives her details about courses being run in the summer in Calgary and Vancouver. Tamara wonders where she might ever get the $2500.00 she\u2019d need \u2013 and that\u2019s when the thought of the bejeweled Miss Barkley flashes across her mind.<\/p>\n

Jean Barkley flares up at the teen when she next visits and brings the brochure. But then a plan begins to hatch in the old woman\u2019s mind. Seattle, scheduled to present Wagner\u2019s Ring Cycle of operas the coming summer, is within easy driving distance of Vancouver. Over the years, Jean Barkley has lived for opera but recent surgeries have made it impossible to drive (although she still has her license) \u2013 and her nephew and the Center would discourage her embarking on such a trip at her age and in her condition.<\/p>\n

The two conspire to run away together. Tamara will serve as Jean\u2019s companion to the opera week in Seattle; Jean will put up the money for Tamara\u2019s modeling course in Vancouver. Letters are written, tickets ordered, cover-stories planned, dresses purchased (as well as a good supply of the Wrinkle Queen\u2019s essential cigarillos and brandy) \u2013 and Tamara talks Herb into giving her driving lessons so she can get her learner\u2019s permit.<\/p>\n

The road trip in Jean Barclay\u2019s candy-apple red Buick is something of a trial for both of them. But, once ensconced in their bed and breakfast in Seattle, Jean enjoys being fussed over by Ricardo, the gay proprietor \u2013 and Tamara doesn\u2019t mind the attention either. As the opera week progresses, Ricardo discovers what the two are up to but agrees not to contact Edmonton.<\/p>\n

In Vancouver the following week, Tamara begins her course in a church basement in the English Bay area while Jean rests up in an old waterfront hotel that\u2019s always been a favorite of hers. Tamara is befriended by Christophe, a fellow student, who tells her that there\u2019s been a picture of her on the local TV news along with details of an elderly woman and her red Buick also gone missing. A smitten Christophe agrees to keep mum so Tamara can at least finish her course. On a rainy morning, Tamara borrows the Buick (without asking) to drive to class but forgets to lock it and discovers, at noon, that the vehicle\u2019s been stolen. Angry as a hornet, Jean takes a taxi to a salon to get her hair done. Heading from the salon to an adjacent bar to get a drink, she stumbles against a planter, falls, and is rushed to St. Paul\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n

That same afternoon, police arrive at the modeling school to pick Tamara up. She is devastated when she finds, along with the police, that Jean is in an emergency ward and will need to have revision surgery on her wrecked knee. Back in Edmonton, it looks like Tamara will be moved, once again \u2013 but this time to a group home. Herb and Shirl can\u2019t bear the thought, though, and agree to take her back. Juvenile court puts the teen into a mandatory counseling program and sentences her to community service for several hours a week at the senior center.<\/p>\n

When Jean Barclay returns to the center, Tamara brings her some flowers and the Wrinkle Queen wistfully mentions to Skinnybones that there is a wonderful opera festival each summer in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it far from L.A.?\u201d Tamara asks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could probably drive it in a day or two,\u201d Jean Barclay replies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Books | About the Book | Synopsis | Questions & Activities Tamara Tierney isn\u2019t thrilled over the prospect of being placed in yet another Edmonton foster home but she agrees, at her social worker\u2019s urging, to put more effort into making the placement work. Actually, things aren\u2019t too bad at the Shadbolts with Shirl and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":10,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-341","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/341\/revisions\/345"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glenhuser.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}