My penchant fro pediatrics began at medical school. My parents were surprised when I told them I wanted to be a pediatrician, because I had always been peevish around kids. Kids had peeved me because I thought I couldn’t communicate with them. That had changed when I saw a penurious pedestrian get hit by a car. I helped out and talked to the pensive daughter of the woman who had been hit. She was peery whilst I treated her mother, sealing a wound on her pellucid leg with a peg, and so I explained exactly what I was doing. She asked questions with great penetration and told me about her family’s life of penury. Her mother peddled various cheap goods, such as pens, to get a little money. Their compared to the pelf the driver had. I hoped the police would penalize him, but doubted his penalty would be severe. You didn’t need a degree in penology to know that. I felt penitent when I realized I had been wrong about kids-or at least wrong about one kid. Perhaps being a paediatrician is my penance for being pejorative.

I have a fine pedigree-but I’m certainly not peerless. Both of my parents are doctors and so were both of my grandfathers, who are now enjoying their well-deserved pensions. I wear a pendant that my paternal grandfather had given me. Now, I spend my days racing pell-mell from pending case to pending case, dispensing penicillin and other medicines. I put bandages on arms and legs and peel them off days later. My peers might peek into my room if they think I need any help. Their faces remind me of the peeps kids give me when I’m patching them up after their latest scrapes. Though I love my job, I must admit to breathing a sigh of relief when I’m told I’m on my penultimate case for the day.

I walk along the pendent cliffs on the peninsula near my home in the evenings, looking out for ships pennants and watching seabirds penetrate the water to get fish. I sometimes daydream of a pelagic life. I sit on the pedestal of a statue and watch pendulous plants swinging like pendulums from the cliffs as the wind blows them. I pelt rocks into the waves. Once, I observed an eclipse here and marveled at the penumbra, at last until a peon had brought me a message to go to the hospital.