As soon as we saw him this afternoon, my mother and I noticed that my father did not have his dentures. This was the first time I have seen him completely toothless over an extended period of time. I also noticed that one of the women in the nursing home, Rosie, did not have her dentures, either. When we asked the staff about the matter, they told us that dentures are easily misplaced but difficult to find and restore to their rightful owners. “They take them out on the spur of the moment,” the argument went, “but then they cannot remember where they put them or which are theirs.” I immediately pictured the staff fitting dentures to different patients. “Open your mouth, Branko,” a nurse would say, “this must be yours.” “Nah,” the nurse would sigh a moment later and look around, “perhaps it’s Rosie’s…”