The main character in What Jamie Saw is eight-year-old Jamie. The story begins when he woke in the middle of the night and saw Van, who was his baby sister's father, reach in the baby's crib and throw her, Nin, across the room "like a football." Fortunately, Patty, Jamie's and Nin's mother, stepped in the room just in time to catch her. The baby had been crying all night and it evidently sent Van over the edge. For weeks and months, Jamie retained the image of Van that night standing by the baby's crib with his head hung down.

That very night, Patty packed the kids up and their few belongings in their old car and left Van. Patty told Jamie they were heading to Earl's apartment. Earl was a father figure to Jamie. Although Patty told him that Earl was her best friend, Jamie fantasized...