Cloud Cuckoo-Land (Storycuts)

Roy and Muriel are the retired champions of their local community: ardent charity fundraisers, enthusiastic volunteers, cheerful adopters of maimed or abandoned animals, and proud all-round do-gooders. But something as simple as a new pair of glasses brings everything into unpleasant focus for Roy, as suddenly he sees the reality of his decaying home, his corpulent and ageing wife and his own sunken features, as if through new eyes.
Disturbed and shaken, Roy's darkening thoughts turn to the root of his obsessive philanthropy. Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection The Atmospheric Railway.