chapter 14 donna takes me in , buys me a bed , gives me my own room , and begins sorting through the legal red tape involved for her to become my legal guardian , which is complicated since no one knows if my father is still alive or where he might be-and i do n't know of any living family i may or may not have since my mom left her home out west early on in life , hitchhiked east at the age of thirteen , and never told me anything about her parents whom she hated and refused to even name .