In late 1999, Sophia came back from the mall with food poisoning. She drove home with the back of one hand over her mouth, and once inside her apartment she felt dizzy, and the air seemed much hotter, the smell of everything stronger. After vomiting in the bathroom, she pressed the flush lever and her false teeth fell into the toilet bowl. The flushing blue water quickly resolved—her denture had been washed away. Sophia laughed as if it were happening to someone she didn’t like. Then she looked at the bathroom floor, and the dismal green towel hanging behind the door. What if all she could ever be was the person she’d already become?

That same day Sophia called the district sewage treatment works and explained about the missing false teeth. How expensive they were. How she didn’t have a job per se.

She said: ‘Is there anything you can do for me?’

‘Sure we can—these things happen all the time,’ said the voice on the phone, which went on to advise Sophia to wait two days before visiting lost and found at the North-West Sydney Sewage Works. ‘Once a week we find personal items at this end, when we drain the filter tanks. You’d be amazed by what turns up. And you’d be horrified.’

On the suggested afternoon, Sophia stood at the gates, watching shift workers arrive. The smell of fuel drifted over the building with a mote-strung breeze. A sewage plant employee named Gerry came to meet her and escorted Sophia inside, pointing out they had ten minutes maximum to find the missing false teeth. His workday was ending.

‘This is interesting work you do,’ she said.

‘Think so?’

Inside the treatment building, Sophia could hear sewage water in the process of being washed. The long vibrations made her want to press her ear against the wall and listen to the hum. Lost property was stored in a cupboard near the lunchroom, all the rescued items kept inside large Tupperware containers on wire shelves. Sophia saw a tray of spectacles, and two boxes of car keys. Maybe someone had thrown their wife’s keys in the toilet. What people did to each other no longer surprised Sophia.

Gerry pointed to a box on the top shelf. ‘Your teeth might be up there,’ he said. ‘I’m supposed to watch in case you steal anything.’

‘Fine if I try them on?’

‘If you’re willing.’