Her trees introduced her to crime, Myakka City style. One morning she heard the roar of a helicopter. It was hovering over the pots in which she grows her oaks. The police wondered if she were growing pot in those pots. Marijuana long has been a lucrative sideline for some people here.
Crime makes Brewer nervous.
That's why she values snakes. A big one, coiled fearlessly, sometimes waits in the dark of her driveway. It's the rubber snake she put out to scare would-be burglars. People here have a healthy fear of the rattlers that lurk in the ocean of palmettos. Pickup trucks go out of their way to run them over.