PAST → PRESENT → INTERGALACTIC

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

Exercise Bright Star 85 ran from July 22 through August 17, 1985, and was a major U.S. Central Command exercise involving more than 9,000 American military personnel.

The exercise included operations throughout Egypt and naval and amphibious training along the Egyptian coast.

Elias “Eli” Redfeather, a young enlisted U.S. Navy SEAL, was there with his team, training alongside Egyptian forces near Alexandria.

At the same time, Iman, a young Ethiopian nurse, was in Egypt as part of an internationally sponsored medical program connected to the humanitarian crisis unfolding across Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.

Working alongside Egyptian and international medical personnel, she was providing medical care and support as part of the broader regional humanitarian response.

1985 was a dangerous period regionally.

In June, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked and a U.S. Navy sailor was murdered. Later that year would come the Achille Lauro hijacking and the November EgyptAir hijacking.

But Alexandria in August 1985 was sufficiently secure for Eli and two of his teammates to have liberty and spend an afternoon at a civilian café.

They wore civilian clothes but retained the situational awareness expected of American military personnel operating in the region.

· · ·

Something extraordinary happened that afternoon at a café in Alexandria.

Two tables sat next to each other.

At one, two empty chairs.

At the other, a woman sat alone with one empty chair beside her.

Iman.

· · ·

“Do you mind if we borrow this chair?”

“No.”

· · ·

Eli sat closest to Iman.

There was immediate chemistry.

Her features carried the unmistakable beauty of the Horn of Africa—strong, elegant, and unlike anyone Eli had ever seen.

Her naturally thick, curly hair framed large, almond-shaped eyes that Eli found enchanting.

· · ·

Iman couldn’t remember who started the conversation.

While Eli’s teammates talked, she and Eli struck up a conversation of their own.

They talked over coffee.

Eventually, Iman invited Eli to move his chair to her table, just inches away from his teammates.

· · ·

What seemed like hours was a brief exchange between two strangers in a foreign land.

Nothing serious.

Just pleasantries.

Eventually, Iman looked at the time.

She had to leave for her shift.

Before she left, she tore a piece of paper from her journal and wrote down her address in Ethiopia.

She handed it to Eli.

“Write me.”

He folded it and put it in his pocket.

· · ·

Months went by.

Then one day, a letter arrived in Ethiopia.

American postage.

Iman opened it.

Hi Iman,

It’s me, Eli.

It was the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

· · ·

AMERICA: PRE- AND POST-AMERICAN REVOLUTION

Jimmy would often say he was a walking encyclopedia of American history.

His own family history was the reason.

On his father’s side, Jimmy’s grandmother Helen was approximately 70 percent African and 30 percent European, according to an AncestryDNA test later in her life.

Helen descended from a family of enslaved African Americans who had lived on the same Virginia plantation for generations, including after emancipation.

Jimmy’s paternal grandfather, James, was mixed race—half African American and half Irish.

His great-grandfather Edward had Irish roots in America dating to before the American Revolution.

The family had originally settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Family lore held that Jimmy’s Irish great-grandfather was somehow related to President William McKinley.

No one knew whether it was true.

It was simply one of those stories families carried forward.

· · ·

Jimmy’s mother’s family carried a different American story.

His maternal grandmother was half Polish and half Russian.

Jimmy’s grandmother told him that her father had left Russia in the late 1800s to work in America so he could eventually marry Mary, a Polish Catholic. The cultural and religious barriers between them had made marriage difficult in the world they came from.

Jimmy’s maternal grandfather was half Sicilian and half Greek.

Then there was Uncle Jim.

Family and neighborhood lore held that he had been involved with the Mafia.

On the South Side of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, people simply knew him as Uncle Jim.

Both sides of Jimmy’s family eventually put down roots in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.

Generations stayed.

· · ·

Decades later, those histories would converge with another.

Northern Arapaho.

Ethiopian.

African American.

Irish.

Polish.

Russian.

Sicilian.

Greek.

All of it eventually finding its way into two children.

· · ·

THE TWINS

Dakota told Jimmy she was pregnant in October 2016.

Neither wanted to know whether they were having a boy or a girl.

Finding out there were two had been enough of a surprise.

On June 6, 2017, Ella and Eddie were born.

· · ·

By nine, their personalities had become unmistakable.

Ella was quiet, observant, and difficult to fool.

She had Dakota’s long dark hair and much of her mother’s stillness—the habit of watching a room before deciding what she thought about it.

At nine, she already possessed an unusual confidence that didn’t require attention.

Eddie was more kinetic.

Lighter hair, freckled face, perpetually testing whatever boundary had just been explained to him.

Where Ella watched first, Eddie usually moved first.

He had Jimmy’s curiosity and Dakota’s stubbornness, an entertaining combination until you were the adult responsible for him.

But together was where they became dangerous.

They were best friends, co-conspirators, and completely comfortable being different from everyone around them.

· · ·

GENERATION AI

Saturday dance night had become a family tradition that Jimmy and Dakota started before the twins were born.

After dinner, Jimmy walked over to the McIntosh.

Dakota looked at him.

“Let’s do it.”

Jimmy smiled.

The twins already knew.

“Come on, Dad.”

“Do we have to dance?”

He turned on the amps.

The illuminated meters came alive.

Dakota pulled an album from the extensive record collection.

Jimmy placed it on the vintage Denon turntable.

He cranked it.

Bass pumping through the vintage Klipsch La Scala horn-loaded loudspeakers.

“Intergalactic.”

Beastie Boys.

In unison, they danced freestyle.

The robot.

Popping.

Old school.

Within seconds, the twins took over.

· · ·

This was Jimmy’s second family.

He had an adult son.

As Jimmy looked at the twins dancing, he knew this moment was special.

They grow up fast.

The age of AI would move even faster.

■ ■ ■