Any Day
The silence was driving him crazy.
Back 'home', he could count on the blare of a car horn, the shout of a bum on the street, someone blasting their radio too loud in the neighbor's appartment. No one had prepared him for the deathly silence of Nebraska.
He watched Mister Kotter boost one of the twins up onto the lowest railing of the cow's pen. He kept telling them that the cow went 'moo', and she and her twin would hold out handfuls of hey. This only seemed to frighten the horses.
Juan watched the scene intensely, trying to commit it to his memory. Maybe he could paint it; no, sketch it. He hadn't lain hands on oils since the mural disaster back at Buchanan.
He turned to focus on the broken fence at the corral, grunting as he dragged the lumber into place. For all of the work Mrs. Kotter's family made him do on the farm, they treated him very nicely, especially for someone who was all but courting their Jenny.
Hell, considering where he'd come from, his luck was incredible. Getting a scholarship to college had been a miracle; passing through his courses and even bigger one. That the veterinary college would allow him to get some of his working experience at the farm was just a relief, however. Mister Kotter had agreed to take all of the Sweathogs to his wife's family farm, but one by one they had begged off. He couldn't blame Vinny; between his job and Judy Borden, he had no time to take off. Freddie had landed a job in Boston after he had torn a muscle in his knee playing college ball, and he couldn't get time away from the station, either. Horshack and Mary were glued at the hip, and Mary's mother wouldn't let her travel, anyway, due to her pregnancy. Considering that it was April, Gabe and Julie had been lucky to get time off from their jobs.
Deep down, secretly, Juan was glad that he was alone with the Kotters. He couldn't exactly tryst with Jenny out in the open, but sneaking around behind the barn with her had a weird romantic appeal that he couldn't resist. And now that her boyfriend was finally out of the picture...
He started whistling a Santana tune, lowdown and with soul. He found her in the barn, currying her horse's mane.
She and the horse protested simultaneously when he grabbed her around the waist.
He held her until her protests changed in tone, until she was almost giggling her joy.
"Are you sure you wanna hold me like that after I've been mucking out stalls?"
"I stepped in worse down in the subways back home." She turned to face him.
"You finish the fence?"
"Yeah, it's up."
She pushed against his chest gently. "Come on, I gotta finish curry-combing Starlight."
"Yeah, I gotta check Daisy. She's ready to drop her foal."
"It's any day now?" Excitement in her voice sent a pulsation of electricity through him.
"Right." He echoed. Temptation to reach into his pocket and fish out what he'd been holding since February touched his heart, but no, now wasn't the right time.
After all, Jenny deserved a proposal set by the starlight or the sunset, and he didn't particularly want to kneel down in manure and hay.
He headed to Daisy, Santana's black magic replaced by Donna Summer, loving to love.