Chapter 9, The Next Family, and Chapter 10, The Finis Hotel, Swindon Summary

In chapter nine, Thursday arrives at her mother's house. Thursday has not been home in ten years, but all seems the same to her. Uncle Mycroft and Aunt Polly live with Thursday's mother and are parked in front of the television when she arrives. To drag him away from the television, Polly suggest Mycroft take Thursday out to his workshop while she and Mrs. Next finish dinner. In the workshop, Mycroft shows Thursday his latest inventions, including a Rolls Royce that has a paint job that uses liquid crystals to change colors. There are also translating carbon paper, an olfactograph that can smell out a criminal's specific scent, and bookworms that feed on words, giving back synonyms of the words they are given. These bookworms...