Date: Saturday, the Thirteenth Day of April, 1912
Place: Titanic – Quick Family Cabin
Time: One Minute Past Four in the Afternoon

Winnifred sat on the bed in her cabin, just finishing up a project her mother had given her. Phyllis had split her dress while sitting down, so Winnifred had to sew it up. Jane, their mother, was busy chasing a naked little girl around the room. Phyllis was giggling her head off, refusing to stay still.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Could you get that, dear?" Jane asked.

Shrugging, Winnifred walked over and opened it.

"Josephine? Anneliese?" she blinked in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you!"

"Hello," I said from the hallway.

"How did you know where our room was?" she asked.

"Your mother told ours," I laughed.

Behind her, I could see Phyllis running around the room stark naked, with Jane following behind her, holding a clean diaper.

"I think we came at a bad time," Anneliese giggled.

We all laughed.

"Wanna go somewhere fun?" Winnifred whispered.

"Sure," I whispered back.

"Where are we going?" Anneliese asked, suspicious.

Winnifred looked back at her mother and then at us. "It's a secret."

"As long as we're not getting into any trouble," I said nervously. "I'm already grounded and have to stay with my sister when I leave the cabin."

"You're not going to get in trouble," Winnifred promised. "We'll be back before supper."

I looked at Anneliese. She looked at me. We shrugged—and agreed.

"I'll be back later, Mother!" Winnifred called.

"Be back before supper," Jane replied.

"I will, Mother," she groaned.

We followed Winnifred down the corridor until she stopped at a door. Looking both ways to make sure no one was watching, she opened it and led us into a narrow stairwell.

"Wait," Anneliese whispered. "Shouldn't we be heading up? These stairs lead straight to third class."

"I thought we weren't going to get in trouble?" I said, starting to panic.

"Don't be a chicken," Winnifred chuckled. "Second class can go down—third class just can't come up."

"I don't think that's how it works," I argued. "If someone finds us down here, they'll probably tell our parents."

Winnifred didn't respond. She just kept walking.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Anneliese whispered.

Still, we followed her.

We passed hallway after hallway until we reached a room full of wooden benches and plain tables. It must've been the third-class dining area.

Anneliese and I paused.

"So this is where we would've eaten," I whispered. "If Papa hadn't gotten that job..."

Anneliese didn't say anything, but I could tell she was thinking the same thing.

"Come on!" Winnifred called back impatiently.

We kept walking.

Eventually, we reached the G Deck corridor.

"This is where we stayed on Wednesday," I whispered.

She nodded, and we walked past the room we used to be in. I noticed Mrs. Sandström's cabin as we passed. I wondered what she and her daughters were doing right now.

At the end of the corridor was a door.

Authorized Personnel Only

"We can't go in there," I said, panicking. "That's off-limits!"

"Only if we get caught," Winnifred said with a smirk.

She kept saying that.

The door was locked—but that didn't stop her. She pulled a hairpin from her braid and picked the lock. I stared in astonishment.

"You know how to do that?"

She didn't answer—just opened the door, looked around, and waved us forward.

We entered another hallway. After a short walk, we reached a spiraling staircase.

With every step, the sound of yelling and clanging grew louder. A faint orange glow lit the walls.

"Where are we going?" I shouted.

"This is the boiler room!" Winnifred shouted back.

"The boiler room?" Anneliese cried. The noise was almost too loud to talk.

We stepped into the massive chamber.

Men were shoveling coal into huge, roaring furnaces. Black shapes moved like shadows through the smoke and flames. It was hot. Very hot. The glow was blinding in places.

"This looks like hell," I whispered.

One man saw us.

"Hey! Kids!" he shouted. "You can't be in here!"

We turned and ran, weaving through barrels and doorways, finally ducking into a dark corner.

We sat against a wall, hidden from view, drenched in sweat and shaking.

"I knew we shouldn't have come here," I sobbed.

"We're going to get in trouble!" Anneliese moaned.

"Come on, you two," Winnifred hissed. "Stop being babies!"

"Where do we even go?" I said. "We can't go back out there!"

"That's what you think," Winnifred said—and opened a door behind us.

We rushed in.

As the door closed behind us, the roar of the fires vanished. The air was suddenly cool. Almost cold.

"Where are we?" I asked, rubbing my arms.

"The cargo hold," Winnifred said proudly.

"The storage room for all the passengers' belongings?" I asked.

She nodded.

I looked over at Anneliese. She was hugging herself tightly, shivering after coming out of the blazing heat of the boiler room.

We walked up to what looked like a fancy, royal red automobile. It kind of reminded me of what I imagined Cinderella's carriage must have looked like—only this one had brass trim, large headlamps, and no horses. I wondered what the Brothers Grimm would think of today's transportation.

We kept walking through the storage room, past crates and boxes, looking at all the cargo

We kept walking through the storage room, past crates and boxes, looking at all the cargo. A few more automobiles were parked nearby, but none of them were as beautiful as the red one.

Then we heard something.

Voices. Footsteps. Coming from behind us.

I froze. I could see a soft orange glow approaching—like the flicker of oil lamps. There were men walking around, searching. Looking for us.

I turned to Winnifred, scowling. Then I looked at Anneliese—she looked terrified. I was just as scared. But Winnifred? She looked... confident. What was wrong with that girl?

She motioned for us to follow her.

It felt like a bad idea—but we didn't have a choice. I followed. Anneliese stayed right behind me, clinging to my sleeve.

The men's voices were getting closer.

Winnifred led us to a thick rope hanging down from some stacked luggage crates.

"Climb this," she whispered.

My heart was pounding. But I grabbed the rope and climbed. Anneliese followed. Winnifred came last and yanked the rope up just in time.

We lay flat across the top of the crates, hiding beneath some old blankets. I held my breath.

A few seconds later, the men passed by.

They didn't see us.

They kept going—into another part of the storage area.

"How long are we going to stay here?" I whispered. "It's nearly suppertime."

"Shhh," Winnifred hushed me.

A little while later, we saw the flicker of another lamp.

A lone crewman was walking along slowly, searching. When he disappeared into another section, Winnifred moved.

She threw the rope back down, climbed off the crates, and we followed.

"Shouldn't we be going back the way we came in?" Anneliese asked.

"Are you kidding?" Winnifred barked. "They're probably watching that door."

"How do you know they're not watching the other ones?" I argued.

"They are," she said. "But I know a secret way out."

We followed her deeper into the cargo hold.

She climbed up onto some smaller crates and opened a vent.

"Come on," she whispered.

The vent was tight. It creaked as we crawled through it, knees and hands scraping along the metal. I didn't like the feeling, but I definitely felt safer in there than out in the open.

Behind me, I heard Anneliese crying.

"Almost there," I whispered, not sure if I believed it myself.

After what felt like forever—twisting and crawling in the dark—we finally reached the end of the vent and dropped out into a quiet hallway.

It was second class.

We were back.

"Why didn't we come this way before?" I asked.

"Because," Winnifred grinned, brushing herself off. "We wouldn't have had such an adventure."

She turned to us and added with a wink, "Besides... did we get caught?"

~o~O~o~

Once we got back into our cabin, Anneliese ran straight to her bed. I felt awful. We had almost gotten in trouble, and I knew it was partly my fault for going along with Winnifred's plan.

I sat down beside her.

Momma was sitting on the davenport, knitting, like always.

"You two have fun?" she asked casually.

"Kind of," I said with a frown.

"What's wrong?" Momma looked up from her yarn. "What did you do?"

"We... explored the ship," I admitted.

"Well, as long as you didn't do anything that would get you in trouble," she said, returning to her stitching, "then I'm fine with it."

I glanced at her, then turned to Anneliese. I lowered my voice.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

She looked up at me... then smiled—and hugged me.