Afterwards, he rides the repaired bicycle down the road where his old home is. His family sees him riding on the road, and contacts his foster family. Later in the book, a person who he thinks is his friend, starts using him to do illegal things. One of those times is when they plan to set a teacher's classroom on fire. The fire gets out of control, though David tries to stop it. His "friend" later tells the teacher that it was all David. As a result, he is removed from his foster home, and sent to Juvenile Hall. He returns to the California foster care system upon his release. In his sophomore year of high school, he is placed into a class for slow learners. He then decides that he is more interested in earning money than school, because he will be out of foster care in less than a year. He also looks for his father, only to find out he lost his job at the fire station due to his alcoholism, but he gives David his fireman's badge as a proper goodbye present before he and David part ways. When he is out of foster care, he enlists in the US Air Force. As he talked to his mother and began to cry, he then hopes that his mother will say the three special words that he has always wanted her to say. "I love you." She does not say it and he believes she is just playing with his emotions. He soon realizes that the mother's love that he has always been searching for was in the arms of his foster mother, Alice. The story ends with him beginning his career in the Air Force so he can learn how to treat others. From then on it continues to the book A Man Named Dave. References External links Dave Pelzer's Personal Website An interview with Dave Pelzer 1997 non-fiction books American autobiographies