Meet the Family!

Thanks to MommyNinja’s amazing logistical planning skills, at 2pm L’N and the whole family were in the L’N Mobile and backing out of the driveway onto North BlackBerry Lane, headed to the ZOO! With his routine wink and four-finger wave to L’N in the rear-view mirror, Daddy reached up and hit the little blue button on the mirror. After the L’N Mobile automatically decreased the front and rear air conditioners, and lowered the volume on the XM Radio, there was an immediately familiar tone to which L’N responded, “Star-Star!” A very friendly Star-Star Navigation Advisor named Susie came on the line and asked Daddy “Where can On-Star take you today Mr. Oriani?” You have to understand of course, that this kind of super-secret satellite uplink to Star-Star Central HQ is highly classified; however, everybody in the vehicle has been cleared at the very highest levels of the L’N Hierarchy.

First there is MommyNinja, a former Lil’ Ninja and the youngest in history to graduate to Full Ninja, a status she achieved at only 16 years old. She trained on the elite United States Junior Olympics Equestrian Team, a highly classified cover group of Little Ninjas that operate across the nation, fighting crime and hunting Pirates on horseback – pretty cool stuff! Her current assignment has had her deep undercover for the last 8 years in a high-paying career as the Executive Assistant for a very powerful Billionaire with offices in New York City and London.

Next in order of classification-level is Carmine’s AWESOME 15 year old big sister and fellow crime-fighter, TrishaNinja. She is a very cool big sister and companion Pirate combater. Patricia, Trisha for short, is one of those rare teenagers who have not arbitrarily abandoned The Gift as she has matured into a beautiful, independent young lady. Perhaps it is because she enjoys exploring worlds filled with vampires, werewolves, demons, and the occasional Fairy Queen. When she isn’t chasing hot teenage boys (she IS a 15 year old girl, after all), busy with her school work, chatting on Facebook, or sending & receiving 6495 text messages in a single month, she can usually be found with a pair of ear buds in listening to an Audible.com title on her iPod. She typically listens to at least one audiobook every two-three weeks, which probably keeps her sense of The Gift sharp.

Next, there is Carmine’s 19 year old brother, Brandon; he is what is known as a Guide.  A Guide is a Lil’ Ninja friend or family member who has the security clearance to be “briefed-in” on the Lil’ Ninja’s secret identity, but who is not himself a Ninja.  Guides are an extremely important part of a Lil’ Ninja’s support network. They assist the Lil’ Ninja in any way they can, without becoming personally involved with the day-to-day crime-fighting itself. For example, a Guide might be a daycare provider, or a teacher at a local elementary school. They might make subtle recruiting suggestions if they come across a particularly bright young person in their group or classes. Guides are often family members, as is the case with Brandon.

Finally (for now) we have Carmine’s Daddy. He used to be an Air Force Officer, but at some point, Daddy had to make a very serious choice—keep doing what he was doing in his career and essentially miss out on most of Carmine’s childhood due to long- & short-term deployments; or make some major changes in his and his family’s lives. Thankfully for our story, he chose the latter. After some sincere sole-searching and many family discussions, Daddy walked away from his six-figure position with the U.S. Air Force, and instead took on a 24/7 position that paid far, far more albeit not in dollars. Daddy became the full-time caregiver, housekeeper, family chef, and pre-school educator for our Lil’ Ninja! WHAT A PROMOTION!!!

To be continued …