Horse Eden : Claire's Storytime

10 year-old Annie flopped into the bed, tired. Her grandma would be in the room later, so now it was just her and her three year old sister, Emma. But this was not a normal bedroom, it was a first class bedroom on the Titanic!

Annie knew she was going to miss England and her friends, but she was going to have a new start in New York. Her grandma had paid for tickets for herself and Annie. Annie’s parents had paid for Emma. Annie’s parents were in New York, trying to make a fortune, and they did! But, they had gone without the girls, in case they did not succeed. Now that they were successful, Annie and Emma were going with Grandma, to live all together in New York. How would they get there? The Titanic!

Annie was also excited. They were sailing on the world famous Titanic. In fact, it was unsinkable! People were lucky if they got a third class ticket, since so many people tried, in hopes to get a ticket to the famous unsinkable ship. Annie was very lucky, since she and her family had gotten first class tickets! Annie thought of her day, how they pushed through the crowd, carrying all of their belongings, leaving home for the last time. Annie rolled over. Slowly, very slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 2: Exploring

April 11th, 1912

Annie woke up to Emma licking her like a dog, since that was her favorite game. “Emma, you can’t do that here.” Annie scolded her. “This is the Titanic, not home”

“Woof.” replied Emma. “I’m not Emma, I’m doggy.”

“Annie’s right.” Grandma said, but not in a mad voice. “Plus, if you are a dog you can’t wear your new dress!” As soon as Grandma said that, Emma gasped. “I must wear it!” Emma told Grandma. “I’m Emma now” In a flash, her pink lace dress was on her. Backwards, but on her. Grandma helped Emma put it on right, and put a bathing suit under, for Annie wished to swim in the pool. Annie got on her dress and her bathing suit, which was the same as Emma’s.

Soon, they were sitting at a dining salon, eating breakfast. “Today Emma, we will find the pool.” Annie announced, a bit too loud, causing people to stare. Annie ignored them. “Let's go.”

“Not too fast, little explorer, are you forgetting something?” Grandma asked.

“Oops” Annie apologized. “Do you want to come too Grandma?”

“Yes, and good remembering your manners.” Grandma replied.

“Enough chit chat. Let's go!¨ Emma yelled. The people watching laughed.

Soon, they were in the halls, exploring. The Titanic was like a maze. Unless you had a crew member with you, which they didn’t. Soon, they found a library. “Ah, what a great find.” Grandma announced. “A place to learn!” Grandma looked around, gazing with love at the books. Eventually she found a book that she liked and plopped down, on a big, cushiony, chair. Emma ran up and sat on her lap. Annie did the same. “This is about ships.” Grandma told them. “Maybe you can learn about this ship we are sailing on.” Grandma started to read. Annie loved when she read, her sweet voice pronouncing every word like it’s very important. She never read fast, or slow. Just the perfect speed. When she finished, Annie was a bit sad. She wanted it to go on forever. But Emma broke her trance.

“Why is there no happily ever after?” Emma asked, sadly.

Grandma smiled sweetly. “Because this nice author didn’t want one.” She took the girls off her lap, and got another book. “But this one did.” Then she read again.

Soon they were back to square one: the search to find the pool. They did! Once their dresses were off, Annie jumped in. Grandma took longer, because she was carrying Emma. Annie swam, and while she swam, she felt a shiver. Why did she shiver? It was warm in the pool. Then she realized what the shiver was. A shiver of fear. Like this ship, this magnificent, this beautiful, this unsinkable ship, was doomed.

Chapter 3: The Deck

April 12th, 1912

“AAAHH!!” Emma screamed. “NOT THAT DRESS!” It was the next day, and Emma needed to wear a purple dress (still with lace), because she got the dress before wet and wore another one of her dresses, and now she had to wear the purple dress until they got it cleaned. Apparently she did not like the little yellow flower that was sewn around the edges. Now Emma was having a melt down.

“Look, you will match me.” Annie explained. “You will look so cute!” Emma looked at Annie for a second, then kept on crying.

“I will get you ice cream.” Grandma promised. Emma looked at Grandma, then to Annie. In a flash, the dress was on.

“Mint chip?” Asked Emma.

“Mint chip.” Grandma promised.

Grandma didn’t come with them, she wanted to explore, so grandma told them where to find the ice cream and sent them on their way. They soon found it, and Emma had told them about her dress, and Annie did not want another crowd so once they got the ice cream Annie pulled on her arm to keep exploring. Somehow they found themselves on the deck. How beautiful it was! What a view! Annie loved it! In fact, Emma loved it too! They took a long time, watching the sea, in fact, Emma decided she saw a shark and caused quite a scare on the deck. Annie decided to go down for lunch before Emma convinced everyone there were aliens trying to take over the ship (the people on the top deck were quite gullible).

Lunch didn’t take long, so before Annie knew it, they were back in the halls. Emma wanted Annie to read to her, so they went back to the library and spent the rest of the afternoon reading fairy tales.

Chapter 4: I think there will be an Iceberg

April 14th, 1912

The day before (April 13th) was a blur. Nothing important happened, so Annie mostly forgot it. But the next day (April 14th) Annie never forgot:

9:30 A.M.

Annie woke up quite late, surprised. Normally Emma would have woken her up. “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” someone screamed outside. Annie jumped out of bed and opened the door to see what was going on. Annie could not believe what she saw. There was Emma, running in the hall, (in her pajamas, thankfully) with underwear on her head. Grandma and a crew member were running after her, and Emma kept screaming “WOOOOOOOO!”

“Emma had too much ice cream!” Grandma explained. Annie realized the urgency of the situation, and lept out and caught Emma. “Ahhhhhh.” Grandma sighed, then she turned to Emma, angry. “You are going to stay in the room for the rest of the day, missy!” Emma started to cry, and Annie went into the room and got dressed. She was free! Free from Grandma's rules. Free from Emma's needs. Free!

1:13 P.M.

Annie had gone up to the deck, because she loved it so much. Then, she got a bit bored and decided to watch people. She hid under a lifeboat, but more like crouched under part of it. She hid for a long time, not seeing much. She wanted to leave, but then she saw two crew members talking. “Jackpot” Annie whispered. She started to eavesdrop.

There were two, one young and one skinny. They both looked a little funny, so Annie came up with nicknames for both of them. The skinny one’s nickname was Carrot, and the young one’s nickname was Tit, since the way he gazed at the ship was unmistakable: he loved the Titanic.

“How's the messages going?” Asked Carrot.

“Okay, I guess.” Tit answered. “Robert’s taking over, so I can take a break for lunch. Mostly the messages are about icebergs.”

“Whoa, that’s not very good, the water’s going to be very still and cold tonight.” Carrot worried. “Do you think there will be some?” Now Tit got serious.

“I think so.” he said.

Annie gasped, and they heard her. They both started to walk over to her hiding place, and Tit whispered under his breath, ¨She can´t hear this.¨ Annie dashed. Fast. She didn’t know where to go, so she just went where her legs took her.

Her legs took her to lunch. She ate and ate and ate. She was very hungry! As she was filling her belly with delicious food, she thought of her sister's empty one. How could Emma eat??? She took all her food with her and ran to her room. She opened the door and found Emma on Grandma’s lap!

“What’s happening!” She screamed. Grandma just smiled at Annie.

“Emma’s going to have another chance after her nap.” Grandma explained.

“But I’m hungry” Emma complained. Annie handed her food.

“I need to go now.” Annie told her little sister. “I will come back, if I don’t, then go to where the third class cabins are. I will be there.” Then Annie took off.

8:51 P.M.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur, except for finding Emma. Emma had woken up, and found her way down to the third class cabins. Annie did not know this, until she heard a cry for help. Annie did not realize that it was Emma until she heard the words “Stop it. I want to find my big sista.” Then she realized it was Emma! She ran to where Emma was.

What she saw scared her. There was Emma, sitting on the floor, making mad faces at two third class passengers, one a woman and the other a boy. They spoke words Annie could not identify, she guessed that it was another language. They looked confused and Annie tried speaking English to them. “SORRY. SHE. WAS. BAD.” Annie spoke slowly, and did motions to them. They looked like they understanded, so Annie tried to push her luck. “GET. TO. HIGHER. GROUND. YOU. MIGHT. BE. IN. DANGER.” Annie kept on pointing up, and they eventually went up the stairs. Then Annie realized something. She could do it to all third class passengers! Then they would be safe! Annie picked Emma up, and told her, “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”

9:30 P.M.

Much later, Annie had to start carrying Emma because she was tired. Pretty soon when Annie’s arms hurt, she decided it was time for bed. They went to bed, but not before telling Grandma.

Once they got all cozy in their nightgowns, and Emma fell asleep, Annie heard someone outside. “It must be someone going to bed.” Annie thought. She waited for the person to go away, but they didn’t. Annie crept out of bed, and opened the door a bit. There was a man, in old worn out clothes. “Third class, probably” Annie thought. “I wonder what he is doing here?” Annie decided to help him, he was probably lost.

“LOST.” The man said, like he had never said it before. “LOST.”

“GO. DOWN.” Annie pointed. Then the man ran. “Ugh.” Annie thought. “All my work for nothing.” Annie decided to go down, and maybe go and get the third class passengers up again. After all, she couldn’t fall asleep. She wrote a note to Grandma explaining why she wasn't in bed.

11:46 P.M.

Later, she and Emma were alerting people. Emma had been woken up by the man. “GO UP PEOPLE!” Emma screamed at a boy and his father. Annie thought they might fight back, but they looked just scared. So they ran, thankfully, to the place where the stairs were. Annie looked around, then at Emma. Maybe she wasn’t so bad to have here. All of a sudden, Emma yelled, “BIG BUMP!” Then she started crying.

“What?” Annie asked.

“BIG BUMP!”

“Excuse me?” Annie questioned.

“There was a BIG BUMP!”

“Maybe you are imagining things.” Annie told her. “Let's go to bed” Annie started walking left. Normally the hall would open to the stairs, but it didn’t. “I thought it was this way.” Annie thought. “Uh oh. We are lost!” All of a sudden Annie heard a ruckus going on down the hall. She listened closer. Someone was speaking English! Maybe they could help her! She ran to the voice.

“Hello little miss, I must tell you to go up on the deck.” A crew member said to Annie. “The captain wants you to be safe up there, but it probably is nothing.”

“Why? What happened?” Annie asked.

“The ship supposedly hit an iceberg.” The crew member informed. “Oh, and he wants you two to wear this” He gave them two life jackets. Annie put hers on, then helped Emma. “I trust you!” Then he ran off.

“Wait!” Annie yelled. “We are lost!” But he couldn’t hear them. Emma started to cry.

“I want Mommy!” She cried.

“It's okay, we will be fine!” Annie comforted her. “Let's go.” She ran straight, because the crew member ran straight.

But soon they came to a dead end. Tears welled up in her eyes. “Will we ever get home?” She wondered. Then she heard footsteps. Where were they coming from? Then she saw something. No, it was her eyes playing tricks. She ran closer to the wall. Wait… it was a ladder. She picked Emma up and put her on the ladder. Annie held her breath. “Climb” Annie told Emma. Somehow, Emma knew what she meant. Soon Annie started to climb. “Let's see where this takes us.” She said under her breath.

12:07

After what seemed forever, they came to an end! Annie got Emma out, then she got out. This was second class! She knew the way!

Soon she was on the deck. Children crying, people screaming, violins playing. Wait? What? Violins? There was an Orchestra playing. “How odd.” Annie thought. Usually she loved the sound of the Orchestra, since it calmed her down, but there was nothing calming about this music.

“Look Annie.” Sleepy Emma said. “The north pole.” Then she pointed to an iceberg

“Last lifeboat boarding” Some voice said.

“Grandma!” Emma started crying and was looking over the edge. Annie looked. Grandma was in the lifeboat! Soon, she had no choice. She jumped. Annie was holding on to the screaming Emma, praying to live when she jumped. Luckily, they landed in the boat. But in the process, they landed on a man’s leg. Grandma, finally looking back, saw something she would never forget. Emma was on the floor, sucking on something that was hopefully ice. Annie was trying to retrieve the man’s hat from falling in the ocean, while the man looked like he just saw a ghost.

“Oh thank god you're here! Grandma looked back as soon as she saw the two girls. But once she saw what they were doing, all she could seem to say was: ¨Oh dear. Paddle!¨ Oh, and they paddled. Well, Annie did. Emma was still holding the ice. And nobody stopped paddling till they saw the comforting lights of a boat.

Home

April 18th, 1912

When she saw land, tears fell down Annie’s cheeks. New York was so new, and wonderful. But the best part was that her parents were there. She was so happy, she cried. Grandma just stood there, but her hand was on Annie’s shoulder, telling Annie that Grandma was happy. “We made it” Grandma whispered. Soon, Annie could see her parents. They looked very worried, so worried that Emma took action.

“We are here people!” Emma yelled with joy. Then their eyes fell on Grandma, Emma, and Annie. Then her mother started crying, so as soon as they got off the boat, Annie and her Mother raced into each other’s arms. Everything was amazing.

“We thought you died. We hoped you didn’t. We prayed, oh, we prayed so hard!” Annie’s Mother said between tears. Emma finally took the “ice” out of her pocket. It was a diamond necklace. Grandma screamed “Where did you get that?” Emma only remembered that it was on the floor of the lifeboat. What a gift for them to start their new life!

And after that, Annie’s story of the Titanic was wonderfully imperfect. After all, she was a survivor of the Titanic.

The End!!!!

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