Cottonmouth snakes hiss from cypress knees. Alligators ambush deer that come for a drink. Bryant's dreadlocks fall to his shoulders. His beard and moustache are wispy like the Spanish moss hanging from the three live oaks ahead of him. The oaks sprout from a mound of grass and dirt.
Nobody knows how long the mound has been around.
Most people believe it existed even before the Seminoles arrived in the 1700s. Other runaways came to Florida, too. Escaped slaves, they preferred taking their chances among the snakes and alligators to remaining on the plantations. The Seminoles usually tolerated them. Eventually black people were allowed to have their own villages.