In the midst of a struggling black community in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, twenty-five-year old LeMar Early is handsome, intuitive, and well-liked by nearly everyone. Despite being orphaned at six and on his own since he was eighteen, LeMar still manages to have a positive outlook on life-until his best friend, Chip, and his girlfriend, Venetia Waits, are kidnapped by a gang commissioned to snatch victims for a scientific experiment. Drama quickly unfolds as LeMar sets out to find Venetia, but when a private eye with brains and an attitude to match enters the investigation, LeMar quickly becomes immersed in a mission to solve the mysterious disappearances. Little does he know that he, the gorgeous sleuth Prudence, and the neighborhood philosopher Widemouth are about to become embroiled in a web of deceit and corruption run by street gangs, greedy corporate investors, and technologically enhanced humans preparing to establish a new world order. To top it off, LeMar now realizes he is nurturing a growing attraction to Prudence. Guided by myth and the musings of Widemouth, LeMar and his friends must employ everyone and everything to save Venetia and Chip-before it is too late.

The Camel's Shadow Has Four Humps

African Myth, Urban MysteryBy Akmed Khalifa

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Akmed Khalifa
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-6010-8

Chapter One

Skyscrapers and other tall buildings awkwardly stick the sky

in a jagged assault on an otherwise peaceful canopy angry young clouds sling rain at the city and its appendaged ghettos streets glistening and wet flank gathering puddles of shallow water pumps and wingtips slosh pat stomp stand waiting various hair blows in rain washed air tree tops like thick afros wave to and fro the undeterred hunch at the shoulders faces wet in warm rain scurry like tightly wound playthings

a crawly metallic caterpillar on wheels coughing up thick black smoke pauses up on and in it LeMar Early finds a sitting space between the last thought and the next

his eyes wander half seeing, and fix upon another roving pair. Surprised at meeting his, they dart quickly upward pretending to hang onto words above his head. Shifting his focus, LeMar's eyes settle on a kind old face that genuinely smiles at him. For a quick second the many things that make them different from and strange to each other disappear as they exchange a first and last,

"Hello."

Lumbering through the hood, between final drops of rain, the laboring bus stops where LeMar's nights often meet his days. He jumps off and into the streets. The hard, blank cornering pavement meets the harder, more blank air there as he pounds the sidewalk and heads home.

The avenue is alive. Cool fools, pants creased, hats ace deuce, court leather-clad honeys in storied stilettos and fluorescent lipstick. LeMar passes the masses and rounds the corner toward his crib. Leaning in the doorway of his apartment building is Widemouth, with one shoe on and a paper bag on the other foot held there by a rubber band. Widemouth grips a bottle of wine in one hand and the door frame in the other.

"Hey man, where's your other shoe?" LeMar asks.

"If I knew would I have this damn bag on my foot?" Widemouth replies. "I may be drunk but I ain't stupid."

LeMar laughs as he wishes Widemouth luck finding his other shoe and climbs the stairs toward his flat. Even though prone to episodic drunkenness, Widemouth has earned LeMar's respect. He is known to just about everyone as the resident street philosopher, always ready with a story or an opinion about everything. Widemouth is experienced enough for three or four lifetimes and like the old African proverb, "has seen the elephant and heard the owl."

Twenty-five-year-old LeMar, orphaned at six years of age by the death of his parents in a car accident, and on his own since he was eighteen, has also seen and experienced life beyond what his years on the planet might indicate and still manages to have a positive outlook on life. He hustled and schemed his way through three years of college with no visible means of support. Somehow LeMar has managed to use every advantage and seize every opportunity available to him since leaving the foster care system immediately after his eighteenth birthday. His good looks and persuasive talents lend much to his ability to survive, but he's also intuitive, smart, and well liked by most people he meets, especially women, young, and old alike.

It is late and now in his apartment sitting on the couch, LeMar lays his head down on a cushion and drifts off to sleep listening to John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" walking out of the huge speaker against the wall. He sleeps every night to a chorus of jazz riffs and chords streaming from his computer that is wired into the sound system he has rigged to play all over the apartment. Morning arrives unannounced and soon out of the shower and out of the front door of his apartment, LeMar greets the new day and Widemouth, who is sitting on the building steps sipping a steaming cup of coffee.

"What's up man, did you find your shoe last night?" LeMar asks.

"I woke up and it was in my back pocket," Widemouth replies. "That explains why I was so tired this mornin'. I walked my ass off last night. You should try it. Sleep with your shoe in your back pocket and see how far you get."

"You know you're out of your damn mind don't you?" LeMar says.

"Beyond a shadow of a doubt. I wouldn't have it any other way. Speakin' of shadows I got a story for you straight from the mother land. You ever heard of the camel whose shadow had four humps?"

"I can't say I have man, but I don't have time for it now."

"Hold on now, hold on, you need to catch me when the thought is fresh or it might not come back around for years. I can't remember the last time I thought about this story, and who knows when it'll cross my mind again. In fact I heard it from a old brother when I was 19 or 20. I was on the back of a broke down old truck about a quarter mile from the banks of the Mississippi in the heart of the Delta. The night was crystal clear, bright enough to read by. It looked like God had reached out and touched every star above me one by one. I'm tellin' you LeMar, on top of that the moon was all over the sky. You couldn't miss it with your eyes closed. Any which way you turned it was starin' you in the face, just hangin' there like a big yellow ball of cheese, like you could just stick your hand up and cut off a chunk and put it on a samich.

"Okay, you got my attention, run it," LeMar says, "but don't make it too long man I got some business to take care of."

"Well, if you stop interruptin' me I can throw down some knowledge. So, smack dab in the middle of that sweet summer night, here comes this old brother leadin' a Georgia mule down the little old Mississippi dirt road I was sittin'on. He stopped and pulled a handkerchief out of his back pocket and wiped the sweat off his face. I asked him if he wanted to sit a spell, and as we sat there listenin' to the crickets make background music, he told me this story.

"You see, a long time ago there was this African village that fell on hard times. Things got so bad that they had to sell all their camels except one, and they were on the brink of extinction as a village. If things didn't improve they would all have to pack up and move someplace where they could make a livin' off the land. Then one day a young boy named Jamal was walkin' with the last camel in tow and tied it to a dyin' tree so he could get some water from a nearby well. On the way back he noticed that the sun was beamin' through some branches on the tree and shinin' on the camel in a way that it cast a strange shadow behind it.

"He put the water down, walked behind the camel and there on the ground was the camel's shadow, but the shadow had four humps. The young boy looked at his camel and the one hump on its back and then looked back at the shadow. He walked all the way around the camel, but couldn't figure it out. He decided to get another opinion and left the camel tied there to run to the village and ask the elders about the strange shadow.

"Now, when the village elders heard his story they decided to go see for themselves. When they all got to the spot, the shadow was still on the ground. The elders realized that it was the sun shinin' through the branches and onto the camel's hump in a way that cast the strange shadow, but they were more interested in what it meant. They walked around the camel strokin' their beards and mumblin' to themselves. Then one elder raised his hands and said, `Prosperity. Anyone who stands in this shadow will become prosperous.'

"Everyone stood all quiet like for a minute. Then one by one, each of them walked over, stood in the shadow, turned, and...