Gold

Rural central Texas is a land ruled by horned lizards, buzzards, and the legendary chupacabra. Few people call it home. Into this land Central States Drilling sets up three natural gas exploration wells. The well outside the small town of Cranfills Gap finds the shale too thin for gas extraction, however, below the shale, at 8000 feet below the surface, they discover a layer of gold one inch thick.

Terry grew up in the small town and returned with his daughter when he was laid off in Dallas. He and his daughter operate a small tavern that is slowly draining away his life savings.

Erik is Terry's childhood friend who never ever left the small town where he was born. Bored by a life of tedium and near poverty. Now he dreams of finding gold under his family's land. However he resents the changes the strangers have brought to the community. He wishes his life would return to the way it was before the discovery of gold.

Jenny, Terry's daughter, and Cathy, Jenny's high school friend, see the easy money from the rig workers as a way to escape from Nowhere, Texas.

This story contains adult language, sexual situations.