He had never noticed the optometrists before, which was surprising because it looked as though it had been there in the middle of the block for years. It had a well worn, faded look. It also had a sign ``New Glasses $39 Including Exam.''
``What a deal!'' he thought.
He needed new glasses. He stopped in and made an appointment. It all seemed very ordinary. A bored young woman at the desk. A pale, fat optometrist in the exam area in back. Racks of glasses suspended on mirrored walls. Posters of people trying valiantly to look glamorous in their spectacles. He chose black frames. He thought they had a Clark Kent look to them.
He picked up his new glasses late on a Friday. He didn't try them on until Saturday morning. He wandered about his apartment enjoying his coffee and talking to his parrot and reading the paper.
Around eleven he went to the hardware store for some washers to fix a leaky faucet. The first thing he noticed was that everyone he saw was naked. Everyone. A faint mist of clothing was evident, but all he had to do was concentrate and even that disappeared. At first he was surprised and embarrassed. Then he was intrigued. How interesting to see the smart, impatient business man talking on a cell phone with his white breasts bouncing and his pale, hairy belly quivering slightly as he walked. The surprisingly enormous, muscular thighs of a woman cop. Of course there were the beautiful ones with bodies to put Greek gods to shame, but they were all so young he felt guilty for seeing them. At first he didn't realism that his new found visionary powers came from his new glasses. Then he took them off and the world was clothed again.
He didn't wear the glasses every day. He just wore them when he needed a little entertainment.
At business meetings he could lighten his mood considerably by putting on the glasses before presenting his sales plan. People liked his new relaxed, humorous manner.
It gave him a bit of a turn when he passed the optometrists and it was no longer there. Now there was a Check Cashers where the optometrist had been, and it seemed to him that the Check Casher had been there for years. He began to worry about his glasses. He did not want to lose them. He did not want to break them. He loved his new glasses.
One day it occurred to him that other people must have bought glasses when he did. People he recognized on the street. He looked at them hard through his magic glasses, seeing their nakedness and wondering if they could see his.