Dentures Without Molars

While the man was wrapping the dentures in plastic wrap, his cat walked between his legs. It took a few steps forward, then turned its head back and looked at the man. The rustling sounds had caught its attention.

The man made eye contact with the cat, and they looked at each other for a few seconds. When the rustling stopped, the cat lost interest and continued walking forward. The man went back to what he was doing and wrapped the dentures three more times.

When the sound came again, the cat turned around and looked back. This time, it was a little more curious than before. It was an unfamiliar sound; it sounded different from footsteps, doors and windows opening and closing, and the other little noises around the house. Changing its course, the cat slowly started walking toward the man. The man had now rolled the dentures into a tight little bundle in his hand, and the cat stared at the plastic object, thinking that a toy was being made for it.

Seeing the cat’s interest, the man pretended to throw the object into the air, and the cat eagerly took the bait. Then, to satisfy the cat’s expectations, he tore off a long piece of plastic wrap and rolled it into a ball. He pretended to throw it to the cat again, this time with the plastic wrap ball.

The cat had taken the bait again. The man left the dentures on the table and started walking toward it. The cat stayed where it was, expecting to be given a plastic, sturdy, durable ball instead of a ball that would get tangled in its claws like a ball of yarn or fall apart in a short time like a paper ball, so it could finally get the ball.

Just as the man was about to reach the cat, it made a sharp turn, slipped between his legs, and ran toward the table. It jumped onto the table and knocked the plastic-wrapped ball containing the dentures onto the floor with its paw. And the door opened, the man’s wife walked in, witnessing the scene firsthand: before the man could reach the cat, it had already struck the plastic-wrapped dentures on the floor twice more with its paw.

“Aren’t those my grandfather’s dentures? Charlie, why are you letting the cat play with them? Don’t you have any respect for the dead?”

“It wasn’t my fault. It happened so suddenly.”

“My grandfather ate his best meals with these. These dentures are full of memories. Show some respect, Charlie.”

The woman bent down, picked up the dentures from the floor, and put them back on the table. The cat was nowhere to be seen. It had probably taken the other ball into another room.

“Why did you wrap the dentures up so much?”

“Aren’t we sending the dentures to your brother in Sweden?”

“Sure, but did you really need to wrap them this much? The post office would have taken care of the wrapping anyway.”

The man had been very careful with the dentures because his wife cared about them deeply and he didn’t want them to get damaged. The dentures were important to both her and her brother. They had agreed that the dentures would stay with her brother for one month and with her for the next.

“Okay, okay, you’re right. But think about my suggestion again. You keep the lower dentures, and your brother keeps the upper ones. That way, you won’t have to keep mailing them back and forth to each other.”

“No, Charlie. We’ve talked about this before. These dentures belong to both of us. They can’t be separated or divided. They need to be kept under constant supervision and protected from damage. Think about it: if I send the upper dentures to him, who knows when I’ll see them again? The man hasn’t been here in ten years. Jason could do whatever he wants with the dentures. He could make a necklace out of them, or hang them from his rearview mirror as a decoration. That’s too risky. I don’t trust him.”

“Then why not ask him to send you a photo regularly?”

“Of course not. I might as well tell him, ‘I don’t trust you at all. You’re an idiot. You’re so pathetic you can’t even take care of a set of dentures.’ No way.”

“Why are these dentures so important anyway? I don’t get it. No, I really don’t. Your explanations are very inadequate. There are all these memories in the dentures, they represent your father, and so on. Take the shoes, for example. Why did we donate the shoes to people in need? Don’t the shoes have memories too? Shoes have even more memories in them. They’ve been to all kinds of places, they’ve traveled around. You’re doing the shoes a disservice by ignoring all the memories they carry, but you’re obsessed with the dentures. Why?”

“That has nothing to do with it. That’s ridiculous. Do you really think shoes are the same as dentures? Compared to dentures, shoes are nothing when it comes to collecting memories. Do you know how many meals those dentures have tasted, how many letters of my grandfather’s words his tongue touched those dentures for? Living things came out through those dentures. Ideas, conversations, advice, laughter. How can you possibly put shoes and dentures on the same level?”

“Another inadequate explanation.”

She paused again and stared angrily at Charlie. Then, suddenly, she grabbed the dentures and threw them at the opposite wall. The cat, having entered the room without any of them noticing, leaped toward the dentures as they hit the wall and batted them once more. With that hit, the dentures struck the television and then fell to the floor.

“He loved my grandfather very much. That’s why he’s doing this.”

Charlie immediately stepped in and picked up the dentures. Some of the teeth had come loose, and the plastic-wrapped ball made a rattling sound whenever he shook it. He shook it, then shook it a little more. Since the plastic wrap was so thick, he couldn’t see whether anything had happened to the dentures, so he tried to figure it out from the sound they made. He brought his ear closer to the dentures and shook them a little more.

“Why did you do something like that?”
“The plastic wrap was wrapped really well. I thought nothing would happen.”
“Something did happen. Three or four teeth probably came loose.”

He shook them a little more, trying to figure out how many teeth had come loose.

“What are we going to do about your inability to control your temper, Anna? It’s always the same with you. You threw a knife at me, remember? What kind of relationship do you have with objects, honey? You threw that knife at me when I said it had gone dull and wouldn’t cut anymore, remember? What are we going to do now?”

“Why don’t you open it and see which teeth came loose?”

Charlie went to his room, took a utility knife from the drawer of his desk, and came back. He carefully cut open the plastic wrap and took the dentures in his hands.

“Oh wow, quite a few came loose. It didn’t make this much noise when I shook it. Let me see… hmm… all the molars are gone.”

‘’The teeth used for chewing and breaking down food in your mouth.’’

‘’Unfortunately.’’

Anna’s eyes filled with tears. Her lips began to tremble. She put her head down on the table and suddenly burst into tears. The dentures had been damaged, and their sentimental value had diminished. On top of that, the most useful teeth were gone, dealing an even greater blow to the sentimental value of the object.

“We can glue them back on, take them to the dentist, get implants or something. We’ll figure it out somehow, Anna. Come on, don’t do this. Pull yourself together.”

“But the other teeth are still there, right?” she asked in a trembling voice.

“Of course, of course. Look, the front teeth are perfectly fine. See? I’m pulling on them, and they won’t come out. The front teeth are important too, Anna. They have sentimental value as well. They show when we smile, and, as you said, they help us speak. Our tongues are constantly in contact with them. Look at how sturdy they are. I’m pulling and pulling, and they won’t come loose.”

She sniffed a couple more times. She got up and took a tissue from the kitchen. She blew her nose into it, then went back into the kitchen and got another tissue to wipe her eyes.

“We’ll take them to the dentist tomorrow and get them fixed. Whatever they need to do, glue them back on or whatever. Then we’ll send them to Sweden.”

“Okay, whatever you want.”

She suddenly started laughing. The cat was still there in the corner, watching the two of them go through their emotional breakdowns. Charlie was used to her emotional outbursts, so he didn’t ask why she’d suddenly started laughing. He was just happy for her because the problem had been solved. It wasn’t as though the dentures meant anything to him.

“Such an idiot, my brother. I’m going to send him dentures whose sentimental value has been greatly diminished, but he won’t even notice. What a complete idiot.”