Unsinkable

At Whit's End, John Avery Whittaker and Emily Jones have just finished clearing out an old storage room, where Emily has found some hymn sheet music, including "Nearer, My God, to Thee," tucked in the bench of a battered piano they have since sent away. As they admire the empty room, with its mysterious wall scribbles of numbers and hearts, Jason Whittaker arrives with a find of his own: an envelope from some estate-sale boxes dropped off at his antique shop. Inside is a letter written in 1912 by a Reverend John Hankins, politely turning down his cousin's invitation because he and his daughter Nina must travel on to Chicago. As Whit reads, the story slips back in time: Nina, thrilled by newspaper photos, begs her father to trade their tickets so they can sail on a brand-new ship instead of the one already carrying his cargo of musical instruments. Her father gives in, and Nina exclaims, "Even the name of the ship is grand. The Titanic."

Emily is stunned to realize the letter writer was a Titanic passenger, since the great ship sank on its very first voyage. Stranger still, the envelope was later mailed, in 1920, to Nina Hankins at the very address that is now Whit's End. So Nina survived, and she once lived in this building. The three split up to investigate. They learn that Nina married and became Nina Lee, lived near Odyssey most of her life, and helped open the Fillmore Recreation Center, the building that stood where Whit's End stands today. Best of all, a library assistant supplies old news footage from the grand opening of Whit's End itself, in which a young reporter interviews the elderly Mrs. Lee. She says she is glad Whit's End will carry on the center's mission of serving children, but when asked about her own story, she turns oddly mysterious, telling the baffled reporter he will have to "play a part," that there is a key to her story but it is silent, and that she doesn't want to "string" him along.

The riddle clicks into place: keys, strings, hammers, and the hymn "Nearer, My God, to Thee" all point to the old piano, which likely came from the very shipment of instruments in the letter. But the piano is at the junkyard, about to be burned. After a frantic dash across town, they find it safe in a corner and open it up. Wedged inside, silencing several keys, are a journal, letters, and a cassette tape that has waited there for decades, unnoticed because the piano was damaged during renovations and never played again. Back at the antique shop, Jason digs out a cassette player, and Nina Lee's own voice begins her tale. Knowing she had only months to live, she recorded the painful story she had told almost no one.

On April 10, 1912, Nina and her father board the Titanic as third-class passengers, and she declares it the best gift he could ever give her. The captain invites Reverend Hankins to lead the Sunday service for third class, and while he prepares, Nina befriends Henry, a young messenger boy who knows every hidden stairway on the ship. He sneaks her through first class, where she gapes at chandeliers, golden walls, and desserts bigger than Henry's shoe, and tags along to the wireless room and the bridge, where officers are receiving warnings about a field of icebergs ahead. Henry isn't worried, insisting the watertight ship is unsinkable, though Nina doubts there is any such thing. But the glimpse of luxury sours Nina's heart; suddenly her plain cabin and Irish stew seem shabby, and she even refuses to lead the singing at her father's service. Her father warns her that treasures should be stored in heaven, not on earth, and forbids any more exploring.

That night, though, Henry offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance: his brother Reginald is a lookout, and Nina can climb the crow's nest with them. She sneaks out at 11:30 without even a coat and, shivering high above the calm, glass-smooth sea, feels like she is on top of the world. The stillness worries the lookouts, who have no binoculars and can barely see ahead. Moments after Nina climbs back down, an iceberg looms out of the darkness. The ship swings hard, and for a breathless moment it seems to slip past, until a terrible grinding sounds from below the waterline. "The iceberg hit the hull!" Henry cries, and Nina's story breaks off there, to be continued.