Chapter 11

We adjourned to her bedroom, where she demonstrated all the various ways that she and Garret had made love. Temporarily sated, we returned to the living room and Eve continued her story.

“I was devastated after I lost Garret. For the first couple of years I spent most of my time at the high country ranch, letting the ranch hands bring the herds down to the valley for the winter. In the isolation of the snowed in ranch I had a lot of time to think and to contemplate the long remainder of my life. I swore to myself that I would never get close to another human again. The beginning of WWII brought me out of the funk that I was in. Men were going off to war; women were working in factories to support the war effort, and everything was rationed; all for the noble cause of defeating Hitler and the Emperor.

“In anticipation of entering the war in Europe, the government began to acquire large tracts of land in order to construct military bases and airfields. There were fourteen military airfields built here during the war. In Tucson, they built a major air base for the training of bomber pilots and bombardiers; near Phoenix, Del Webb Construction built Luke Air Base, which would become the largest fighter training base in the world. Major corporations came to the state, building manufacturing plants in support of the military. Later during the war, the Government also built two large internment camps for the Japanese Americans that lived along the West Coast and several prisoner of war camps holding mostly enemy soldiers captured in Europe.

“I took a job at the Goodyear Aircraft Corporation loading parts for combat aircraft onto railcars destined for the west coast and eventual shipment to aircraft manufacturers in California and air bases in the Pacific. My boss laughed when I asked for the job.”

‘That’s no job for a pretty young lady like you. Maybe we can find you a clerical job, or maybe some place on the assembly line.’

“When I insisted that I was more than capable of loading boxes onto a pallet and hauling the pallet to the loading dock and onto a freight car, he just smiled at me saying,”

‘Alright, if you insist, but don’t come crying to me later telling me that you can’t take it.’

“He stopped laughing at the end of the day, when he tallied the output of the factory that had been loaded that day and discovered that I had loaded nearly twice as many boxes of parts as my nearest male coworker. I could have loaded a lot more but I didn’t think it would be wise to carry, three, one hundred pound boxes at a time.

“I worked in that plant until the end of the war; then without the war to motivate me, I quit my job and settle back into the life of a financially independent recluse. Only this time I chose to live at the valley ranch in what is now Scottsdale.

“After the war, the towns of Phoenix, Mesa, and Tucson experienced a major increase in their populations when service men returned from overseas and settled near the bases where they were stationed. There was a shortage of housing in the area. Builders, like Del Webb and John Shea, began construction of large tracts of single family homes in an effort to take advantage of this GI Bill funded demand.

“It was during this boom time that I began to get letters inquiring about the availability of several large parcels of land that I owned in Phoenix. At first I sent out letters telling them that the land was unavailable at the present time. But one builder was very persistent and, after several more letters and two phone calls, he showed up on my front porch one Sunday afternoon. He was a good looking young man, about six feet tall, lean, with broad shoulders and callused hands, a man who was no stranger to hard work; but his most appealing features were his warm friendly smile, piercing blue eyes, the color of the Arizona sky in the summer and his smooth as silk southern drawl, his name was Colin Marshall.

‘Be careful, ‘ I thought to myself, ‘ this boy can charm you out of everything you own.’

“Intrigued, I invited him to take a seat on the front porch and went inside to get us a couple of glasses of iced tea. When I returned he told me his story. He was stationed at Luke and fell in love with the Valley. He was originally from Alabama, had moved to the state of Washington and was convinced that here in Arizona we had as many sunny days as they had rainy ones. He then was sent to fly fighters in the southern Pacific, first at Midway, then Guam, then Guadalcanal, and then Manilla. After four years of flying, fighting and fear, he was only too happy that the war ended. He returned to Phoenix and got a job as a laborer with one of the large builders. For the next two years he learned everything he could about the construction of homes. He spent as much time asking questions as he did hauling lumber, cement and construction debris.

“He lived frugally, saving his money in hopes of starting his own company. He also went to night school, getting an associate’s degree in business management. The first year after going out on his own he bought two lots and put up two starter homes. A year later he bought a small tract of land and built twelve houses. Now he was looking to by a large tract that he could build on for years to come. This is what brought him to my door.”

‘I want to build a project similar to the one William Levitt is currently building on Long Island. I want to use an assembly like process, building thousands of similar or identical type homes, which will be easily built and inexpensive for the veterans to buy. By building the same house over and over again, I’ll be able to control my costs and still build a quality starter home. But I need your land to fulfil my dream.’

“Colin, I said, I’m not sure I want to sell my land. My late husband bought that land so I would have something to fall back on in my old age.”

‘Well, if you sell the land to me I’ll pay you top dollar and you can invest that money any way you want to make even more.’

“I don’t know. Well, how about this?” I said with a glint in my eye.” Why don’t we make this into a bit of a contest? We’ll arm wrestle for the right to own the land. If you win I’ll sell the land to you.”

‘And what do you get if you win?

“You.”

“I rolled up the sleeves of my cotton shirt and placed my arm on the table. Hesitantly he did the same, silently comparing our arms, and judging that he was much stronger than a mere woman. I gave him the advantage of allowing him to count down to the start. At the count of three he applied a great deal of pressure, trying to end it quickly. I let him slowly force my arm down to within several inches of the table, and then held my arm stationary. I was staring into those gorgeous blue eyes as his arm began to quiver as he strained to move my arm the last couple of inches. I enjoyed the shock in his eyes as I slowly but steadily began to bring my arm upright and then began to force his arm down to the table. With the last four inches to go I paused momentarily, smiled and blew him a kiss, and then slammed his arm down to the table.”

“‘I believe I won, ‘ I said as I reached over the table picking him up and dropping him over my shoulder. I headed into the house and down the hall to my bedroom. I’d been celibate for nearly ten years and the thought of taking this fine young stud for my own was just too much for me to control. I tossed him on the bed and began to strip off my shirt and jeans.”

‘You’d better get out of those clothes before I’m done with mine; if I have to take them off for you I can guarantee you that there won’t be anything left for you to put back on.’