Gregor woke up to the sound of his alarm clock and leaned over to shut it off. He looked out his window at the barren land that was Virginia in late fall. He sighed and for the millionth time missed his old New York City apartment. But it wasn't really the apartment he missed because he liked his room here with its light blue walls and white carpet, the fact that it was 10 times the size of the other room, and that he had his own bathroom. He also liked that they had heat during the winter and air conditioning in the summer, luxuries they hadn't had before. He could remember all these things, even though it had been four years since they moved.

Gregor rolled onto his back and thought about New York. It was the place where they had laid his Grandmother down to rest, the place from where Mrs. Cormaci called him, and the place where Luxa was.

Luxa. Four years had done its wear on his memory, but he could still see her face in his mind. He missed her, but she had most-likely moved on. She probably would have become Queen by now and have found herself someone else. She'll do great things for the Underland, heck, she already has! Gregor thought, remembering her bond with Ripred. He sighed and got up; he had promised Boots the night before that he would make her pancakes for breakfast in the morning.

He walked out of his room and heard Boots and Lizzie laughing. She was too young when it all happened, she probably doesn't remember. He had thought about asking her a million times, but his mother had forbidden him from it. Besides, when she told him about the dreams with the giant talking bats and cockroaches, he knew she didn't remember anything.

"Gregor, you said you were gonna wake up early and make me pancakes, but since you're such a sleepy head, I got Lizzie to do it instead." Boots rubbed her finger in the leftover syrup on her plate and stuck it in her mouth.

"Here, I made you some too." Lizzie sat a huge stack of pancakes in front of him and began pouring syrup on them.

"Thanks Liz. So, what did you dream about, Boots?" Gregor asked through a mouthful.

"I drew a picture of it so I wouldn't forget; I'll go and get it!" Boots excitedly slipped off the chair she had been sitting on and ran out of the kitchen to her room.

Ever since they had moved to Virginia, Boots had drawn pictures of everything. When they had lived on the farm with Uncle Richard and Aunt Maggie she drew pictures of all the animals with her crayons. When they moved to their own house, she drew pictures of her family, the landscape and her friends. Then she started drawing pictures of the things she dreamed about, which were really memories of the Underland.

Boot's was a really great artist though, especially for seven. Her room was decorated with the pictures she drew and the pictures her parents had let her paint on the walls. She had an easel and a desk with every kind of drawing utensil imaginable; pencils, colored pens, markers, crayons, colored pencils, oil pastels, and paint.

"Here Gregor! Isn't it cool? I dreamt that I was riding on this giant cockroach's back and trying to teach him something, but I'm not sure what. It was really dark though and it was almost as if we were underground!" Boots pulled a picture from behind her back of Tick, her cockroach friend from the Underland. On top of Tick was the three year old version of Boots, clapping her hands and trying to teach him the Alphabet song.

"Cool." Gregor said it quietly since he knew exactly what was happening in this scene since he had witnessed it. He also knew who else had been there and that made his shoulders stoop lower.

"I also have this one, of a really pretty city, but there's no light so they had a bunch of torches everywhere!" She held up the other picture and it was of Regalia, the beautiful Underland city where the humans lived.

"Gosh Boots, they're both so good. I don't kn-" Gregor was interrupted by the phone ringing. He walked over and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hello Gregor, this is Mrs. Cormaci. I'm in the hospital and I want you to come back to New York to see me, and I wouldn't mind if you brought Margaret and Elizabeth too."

"Ms. Cormaci, you know I'm not allowed to go back , and my mow would would kill me if I brought Boots and Lizzie too."

"Gregor, this is extremely important! Defy your mother for just this once please. You have a Drivers License and a car, I don't see what else you might need to come down with your two sisters, maybe just a few bucks." Ms. Cormaci was getting highly aggravated that Gregor just wouldn't agree.

"I can't just skip town and give my Mother a heart attack, my Dad could go back into relapse if he gets to stressed! Besides I couldn't go back and not want to go back." Gregor knew his sisters would be listening now, so he couldn't mention anything about the Underland.

"I know, I know, but I...I'm dying Gregor, and I want to be able to say goodbye before I go. So, write your parents a note and give them this number. Just please come." He couldn't argue with her now that he knew she was dying. He was like a second Grandmother to him and he would want to say goodbye before she passed.

"Okay, we'll be on the road in a few hours." Gregor and Mrs. Cormaci said goodbye to each other, and Gregor hung up.

The old truck his uncle had given him wasn't made to hold three people and therefore the ride up to New York was rather uncomfortable. Boots was in the middle and she was elbowing everybody because she didn't get the window seat like she wanted. Lizzie was still trying to calm down after having a panic attack that they were doing something her parents would highly disapprove of. Gregor was leaving his Mother Voice-Mails to make sure his parents didn't overly freak out when they found out he had directly obeyed their strictest rule: Never go back to New York until after you're eighteen and don't tell them about it.

"We're here!"