We must all do our part

When I'm here by myself on Sunday nights, sometimes people will come down to the desk to request things like pillows, blankets, a plunger, etc. On Saturdays, Yusuf takes care of those kinds of things, but on Sundays I have to go down to the basement and get them myself. Since I'm the only person working at the hotel at that time, a lot of times there's this sort of unspoken question in the air around the guest, something like, "Is he really gonna leave me here alone beside this mysterious font of all the hotel's power, the front desk?"

So I usually try to alleviate the tension by calling something out to them as I'm loafing off to the basement. For a while, it was, "Try not to rob the place blind!" When I was real tired or if the supplicant was a bastard, it was just a gruff, "hold the fort down" Sometimes, I'd ask them to "take over or a few minutes, will ya?"

But the last few weekends, I've come up with a go-to routine. First I tell them something like, "Keep an eye out for bad guys, eh?" Then, after they tell me, "I'll try," or, "I'll do my best," I call out to them, echoing from the stairwell, "Don't let the terrorists win!"

I think maybe it works for me so well because, really, this is the only situation that the phrase hasn't been used for yet.