Date: Saturday, The Thirteenth day of April 1912
Place: Titanic – Quick Family Cabin
Time: 16:01

Winnifred sat on the bed in her cabin. She was just finishing up a project her mother had her do. Phyllis split her dress while sitting down, so Winnifred had to sew it up. Jane was busy with a naked little girl. Her sister was running around the room giggling her head off.

All of a sudden there was a knock on the door.

“Could you get that dear?” Jane asked. Shrugging, Winnifred walked over and opened it.

“Josephine? Anneliese?” Winnifred looked shocked. She was not expecting us.

“Hello,” I said, standing outside. 

“How’d you know which room I was in?” She asked.

“Your Mother told ours,” I laughed.

Behind her, I saw little Phyllis in the room running around naked with Jane running after her with a clean diaper.

“I believe we came at a bad time,” Anneliese giggled. All three of us giggled looking towards them.

“Wanna go somewhere fun?” Winnifred whispered.

“Sure,” I whispered back.

“Where are we going?” Anneliese asked.

“Winnifred looks back towards her mother and then to us. “It’s a secret.”

“As long as we won’t get into any trouble,” I feared the thought. “I’m already in trouble and have to stay with my sister whenever I leave the cabin.”

“You’re not going to get in trouble,” Winnifred promised. “As a matter of fact, we’ll be back before supper.”

“I look at Anneliese. She looks at me, we shrugged and both agreed to go.

“I’ll be back later, Mother,” Winnifred hollered back in the room.

“Be back before Supper,” Jane hollered back.

“I will mother,” Winnifred groaned.

We all went down the hallway to a door. I wasn’t sure where she was going. Looking both ways, making sure there was no one watching Winnifred opened the door to a staircase.

I notice her beginning to head down the stairs.

“Wait, shouldn’t we be heading up, not down,”Anneliese cried. “These stairs head straight to third class.”

“I thought we weren't going to get in trouble? I panic. 

“Don’t be a chicken,” Winnifred chuckled. “Second Class can go down, but Third class can’t come up.”

“I don’t think that works that way,” I argued “Someone will ask us where we live, which would mean they would have to tell our parents.”

Winnifred didn’t say anything. She kept walking down the staircase.

“I got a bad feeling about this,” Anneliese whispered to me. We all walked down the stairs. As we walked through the maze of the staircase. Walking through hallway after hallway. At the end, we could see a room with many chairs and tables. This must have been where third class ate their meals. I thought. It didn’t look like the second class and especially the first class dining rooms. 

Anneliese and I stop for a little bit. “This is where we would have had to eat if it wasn’t for Papa getting a temporary job here on the Titanic?” I thought. And by the look on my sister's face, I bet she thought the same thing.

“Come on!” Winnifred growled. 

Both of us continued following her. I still wonder where she was taking us. As we walked, we finally made it to the Level G corridor. 

“This is where we were on Wednesday,” I whispered to Anneliese.” She nodded and we kept following Winnifred, walking past the room we were in before and passing Mrs. Sandström’s cabin. I wonder what she and her daughters are doing? 

At the end of the corridor, we saw a door. 

“Authorized Personnel Only,” a sign on the door said.

“We can’t go in there,” I cried. “That’s a forbidden zone.”
 
 “Only if we get caught,” Winnifred chuckled. 
 
She kept saying that. I feel like we shouldn’t have agreed to come with her. If we get caught, who knows what will happen to us.

The door was locked, but that didn’t stop Winnifred. She took a hairpin out of her hair and started picking the lock. I was astonished at how she was able to do that.

Once she opened the door, she looked around a bit inside and then motioned us to follow. 

Again another hallway, but we didn’t go all the way. We took a doorway to some more stairs. These stairs winded around a bit.

With every step, we could hear loud noises from down below kind of like people yelling. I didn’t like what I was hearing. I saw an orange glow in the distance. The noise was getting louder as we walked down.

“Where are you taking us?” I asked.

“Well right now, this would be the boiler room,” Winnifred told me and Anneliese. 

“The boiler room?” Anneliese yelled. She had to yell, the noise was much louder this time.

As we walked in, we saw men shoveling coal into large machines of fire. It was like a vision of hell with the roaring furnaces and black figures moving in the smoky glow.

None of them noticed us as we walked into the room, but that didn’t take long. Men pushing wheel barrels of coal watched as three small children walked through.

“Hey kids!” a man yelled at us. “You shouldn’t be in here!”

We ran through the open door into another boiler room and fishtail around until we wind up into a dark area out of sight of the working crew. We watch the shadows of the workers in the glow of the fire. They just kept shoveling coal into the furnaces. The whole place thunders with the roar of
the fires.
We sat there for a while sweating from the heat in fear of getting caught by the man that yelled at us.

“I knew we shouldn't have gone here,” I cried.

“We’re going to get in trouble!” Anneliese whined. 

“Come on you two!” Winnifred yelled. “Stop being babies and let’s get going!”

“Where can we go?” I yelled back. “The only way out, is back through them,” I pointed towards the workers. 

“That’s what you think,” Winnifred said opening up a door behind us. 

We all darted to the door. Once we were in, and the door closed, the noise of the workers was silenced. It was also much cooler in the room we were in. 

“Where are we?” I ask, walking through rows of boxes.

“The cargo room,” Winnifred laughed. 

“Cargo?” I asked. You mean the storage room where the passengers belonging are?”

Winnifred shook her head yes.

I look over at Anneliese. She was hugging herself against the cold, after the dripping heat of the boiler room.

We walk up to what looked like a fancy royal red automobile. It kind of looked like what I believed was what Cinderella used while heading to the ball to meet the Prince. But this had a brass trim and some headlamps and no horses. I wonder what the Brother Grimm would think of today's transportation?

We kept walking around looking at all the storage that was in the room. A few more automobiles were sitting around, but none of them were as nice as the one we saw. 

Just then, we heard some noise coming from behind us. I started panicking. I could see a glow from what could be some oil lamps in the distance. Men were walking around. Most likely looking for us. I look over at Winnifred in anger and then at Anneliese. She looked frightened. About as frightened as I was. Winnifred looked confident enough. What is wrong with that girl? 

She motioned us to follow her. I felt like it was a bad idea, but I followed. Anneliese stayed right behind me. 

We could hear the men searching. 

Winnifred brought us to a rope that was hanging down from some luggage crates. “Climb this,” She whispered.

We didn’t have any choice. The men were getting closer by the minute. I climbed up the rope with Anneliese right behind me. Winnifred was last and pulled the rope up. We made it just in time as the men came around the corner of the luggage crates we were hiding. We lied flat as possible under some blankets. 

Eventually, the men walked past and were now in another room.

“How long are we going to stay here?” I asked. “It’s nearly Suppertime.”

Winnifred hushed me.

A glow came into the room once more. A lone man was walking along searching once more. 

As he left the room, I saw Winnifred take the rope, throw it down, and climbed off the luggage crates. 

We got down as well and headed the same way the men headed.

“Shouldn’t we going the way we came in?” Anneliese asked.

“Are you kidding?” Winnifred barked. “They’re most likely watching that door.”

“How do you know they aren’t watching the other doors?” I asked. 

“They are, but I know a secret way out of here,” Winnifred chuckled. We walk through the storage room. Winnifred climbed up on some smaller crates and open up a vent. “Come on,” she said.

The vent wasn’t the most fun place I’ve been in, but I felt much safer here than out in the open. I hear Anneliese crying behind me. After many tight twists and turns, we finally got through and ended up in a second class hallway.

“Why didn’t we go through that way when we first came through here?” I asked.

“We wouldn’t have had such an adventure that way,” Winnifred laughed. “Besides, did we get caught?”

Once we got back into our cabin, Anneliese ran to her bed. I felt bad. We almost got in trouble. I sat down next to her. Momma was sitting on the davenport knitting like always. “You two have fun?” She asked.

“Kind of,” I frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Momma asks. “What did you do?”

“Explored the ship,” I said.

“Well as long as you didn’t do anything that would get you in trouble, I’m fine with it.” Momma continued knitting.

I look over at her, and then at Anneliese. “I’m sorry,” I whisper.

She looks at me, smiles, and hugs me.