One Son
by
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She couldn’t wait the whole week. On Thursday night, she told her parents that she needed to go to Wal-Mart to look for a new CD. Knowing that Wal-Mart was pretty dead right before closing time at 9:00, she waited until 8:30. As she suspected, Wal-Mart was not busy. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she didn’t ask any employees where the do-it-yourself pregnancy tests were. A few aisles later, she found them. Doing some quick label reading and price comparison she went for the mid-priced one, took it off the shelf and then headed for check out. Before she got there she took a $20 bill out of her purse to make the transaction go as quickly as possible. She then got close to the cashiers and did some scouting: no one in line, no one she knew nearby. She quickly proceeded to a cashier and placed the Home Pregnancy Test face down on the counter and as close to the cashier as she could. The cashier, a middle-age woman who had been working at Wal-Mart for years, turned the Home Pregnancy Test right side up, saw what it was and then looked at Jenna. Jenna looked down, unable to make eye contact, and watched as the cashier’s hand swiped the box across the UPC reader and dropped it into an open and waiting bag. No one (other than the cashier) saw. Jenna paid for the test, almost forgot her change, and left. She opened it up and read the instructions: “For Best Result Use With First Urine of the Morning.” Now she’d have to wait until morning, which should be no problem, since she was the first one up. The test took thirty minutes to produce a result, so she’d have to get up a little earlier. A circle was unlucky. Every thirty minutes or so Jenna woke up and looked at the alarm clock, all night. At about 5:15 she had had enough. Pulling the pregnancy test out from under her mattress, she wrapped a towel around it and headed into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. Following the instructions she got a couple of drops of urine into the test tube with the solution, placed it in the little holder and set it next to the sink. She now had to get ready--and stop watching the test tube. A long shower, shampoo, condition and rinse and a little once over with the razor on her legs took a good twenty to twenty five minutes. Drying off thoroughly she proceeded to apply some moisturizer. Surely thirty minutes had passed, but she had been so good at not looking that she’d go all the way and dry her hair. Five to seven minutes later the dryer went back into the closet, a few brushes of her hair, look down (a circle), mortification, put the brush away, look down again, a circle. Numbness. Study the tube: a circle. Dump the contents of the tube in the toilet and put all of the parts of the test back in the box, wrap the nightgown around the box, unlock the door and go back into her room and lock the door. Sitting on her bed, Jenna pulled out the instruction sheet from the test and studied it. Generally, the results are very accurate. However, sometimes the test can produce a “false positive result. Women who get a positive test result should contact their physician or obstetrician.” That was it Jenna thought (hoped), she must have a false positive. Just to be sure, before she had to tell her mother that she might be pregnant, Jenna would go back to Wal-Mart in a few days and get an expensive test. This cheap test must have produced a false positive result. Well, you get what you pay for.
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About the Book
One Son, Stefan Kalogo's first novel, explores the lives of teens in rural, Middle-of-Nowhere, Illinois. Jenna Sanders, a wall flower, has recently blossomed and attracts the attention of some of the more socially prominent young men. After an ill-fated parking adventure, her date lets it be known that she puts out. Despite her soiled reputation, Jenna still manages to land the biggest fish in the local pond, Tyler VanOpdorp.
Tyler, while smitten with Jenna, keeps his distance. He has managed to cultivate a certain dignified image that he doesn't want tarnished by some loose social climber. Still, he is more than a little interested.
Jenna and Tyler fall in love, or whatever it is that teens feel for one another. Both are bright, get good grades and plan on going to college. Until the inevitable happens: Jenna gets pregnant.
Teen pregnancy is an all too common occurrence. Social conventions of generations ago have worn away; right and wrong are not necessarily relevant. Self-interest and personal desire are now perfectly acceptable guidelines for tackling such problems. Tyler and Jenna pursue divergent courses that each believe is best for them, with little consideration for the other. The results are disastrous.
One Son begins with the line, "Western Illinois isn't what it used to be." The same could be said of anyplace else.
About the Author
Stefan Kalogo lives with his wife and three children in a small town in Illinois. A graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, Stefan toils by day as a faceless, petty federal bureaucrat. A Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's Corps, Stefan also has over twenty years of military service.
After serving an enlistment in the U.S. Navy, Stefan attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he majored in History. Like most Liberal Arts majors who think they're smart, Stefan proclaimed that one day he would write a book. One Son is his first novel and a product of that boast.