Gold

This story is approximately 64,000 words. It contains adult language and sexual situations.
Central States Drilling , a natural gas exploration company, comes to a rural central Texas county and starts drilling three exploratory wells into The Barnett Shale formation.
They discover a layer of gold an inch thick 8,000 feet below the surface and their lives and the those of the nearby small hamlet forever are changed forever. The discovery shatters the status quo of the foreign gold merchants and brings the spotlight of the world onto them all.
Matt, Johnny, and Dan Hargrove work on the drill rig and will never forget the felling of holding thirty pounds of gold in their hands.
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. Bored by a life of tedium and near poverty.
Jenny and Cathy have just graduated from high school and see the easy money from the rig workers as a way to escape from Nowhere, Texas.

This story contains adult language and sexual situations.