where does maya live after running away from her fathers house?

Chapter 32:

Summary:

Maya wanders around town, and decides to spend the evening in a junkyard car. When she wakes up, she finds a bunch of young people surrounding the car. As it turns out, all of them live in the junkyard in separate cars, and go about doing various menial jobs during the day. They share everything among the group, and Maya ends up living there among the kids for a month. Then, she phones her mother and tells her that she wants to come home. Her mom pays her airfare, and all Maya has to do is get to the airport. She says her goodbyes to the group, which are pretty casual; and she arrives home in San Francisco, her mother having no idea of Maya's adventures during the summer.

Analysis:

The junkyard seems like an ideal refuge for Maya; she is among a group of people her own age and makes many friends, which she hasn't done too often. Again, the theme of abandonment which could have taken over the story after the last episode with her father is avoided. And there is a certain dramatic irony in the fact that when we'd expect Maya to be in a position of loneliness and hardship, she actually feels more secure and befriended than ever before. She sheds her naivete, and her melodramatic tendencies, and any self-righteousness she has; she becomes more adult during this episode, and more at home with people.