September 2
Boy, it is really slow this week. Of course, school is back in session and summer vacations are over, so it’s not unusual. We were at 80 percent occupancy, which is really low, and everybody is well-behaved and we are averaging about 3-4 calls a night in the hotel.
Here was your Henry lineup last night:
Henry 1 – moi
Henry 2 – X-Ray
Henry 3 – Shaggy
You remember X-Ray. He was with me, as a trainee, on that historic night last month when we had both the bachelorette hot tub party and the naked Canadian girl (she was from Ontario and worked in a bank) in the stairwell. It was his first night on his own in the hotel and he did well, but he needs some work, which only experience can take care of. For example, we had a welfare check late in the shift that he never did get to. It was on 24 and afterward, X-Ray said he happened to be on 13 when he got the call. The only elevators that go directly from 13 to 24 are the bellman’s elevators in the 100 wing, which go from the ground floor all the way up to 32.
But if you’re not in the 100 wing, it just might be quicker to take the maids elevators in the 200 wing. But to get from 13 to 24 you have to go from 13 to 16, get off on 16 and switch to the 16-32 elevators.
Or you can take the guest elevators, but to do that you have to go from 13 down to two, then switch banks. It’s really not all that hard, but it does take some time to get used to.
September 3
Working in the hotel you are basically unsupervised and if you are not responding to calls you are free to construct your night’s work as you see fit. MCSD does have a way, though, to keep track of us rascal Henry units, who, left to our own devices, would probably spend the night lounging in a vacant room watching porn.
Throughout the hotel there are electronic buttons. They resemble a watch battery and are about the size of a quarter and there are eight of them on each floor: one in each of the three stairwells, one in the fire extinguisher locker in each wing, one in the E-Core and another in each maid’s room in the 200 wing. There are no written guidelines that I know of dictating how often one of these scan points need to be hit with the scanner you are issued before shift, but it is considered good form to hit them every few minutes and I do not like to go more than 10 or 15 minutes without hitting one. At about 0615 or so a Henry unit will collect the other’s scanners and take them to the office, where information concerning what scan points were hit when can be downloaded directly from the scanner. It’s a pretty slick way to keep track of us. Outside units are issued scanners as well.
To show just how effective the scanner system is after we turn them in we retire to the 12th-floor maid’s room where we sit and fuck off for the rest of the shift. This is not a state secret, either. The dispatchers were once Henry units themselves and know what’s going on, too, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when we got the following call last night.
– Control, Henry 2.
“Crap!” I said to Jose. “I gave orders we weren’t to be disturbed.”
We had just entered the 12th-floor maid’s room for our debriefing session.
– Henry 2, sir.
– Yes, welfare check. 24-312. 24-312.
– 10-4. Can you get Henry 3 to assist, just in case no one answers.
Jose laughs. He’s Henry 3 and is sitting right next to me.
– Copy. Control, Henry 3, can you assist Henry 2 at 24-312.
Junior, who has a pretty good idea Jose is right next to me, can be heard trying to stifle a laugh. For his part, Jose is laughing pretty hard.
– 10-4. I’m 85 (on the way).
All three of us ended up responding as we ran into Fred in the hallway as he was returning from the office and he joined us, because we all respond to calls after we turn our scanners. I’m not entirely sure why; you don’t need three officers responding to every call, but that’s the way we do it in the hotel. Sometimes we will even be joined by day shift’s Henry 1, who reports for duty at 0600.
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