The Stuff of Dreams

Chart a Course

Po darted his way across the sea of cubicles and ran into Mei-Ling's office. "Po! What are you doing here? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," He said, brushing his dress shirt. "Uh... is Mr. Wang in his office?"

"Yes, why?" 

"Because... I need to talk to you about something serious," Po said. Mei-Ling blinked. "But if you're too busy, I'll get someone else to-"

"Wait, wait. Okay, what is it?" Po smirked to himself. Cats are naturally curious. 

"Before I came here, I worked for this auto shop under this mean old manager."

"Sounds awful," Mei-Ling said as Po sat down.

"It was. He would bully the employees, verbally abused them, and when he chose me to lock up, he even complained to me that his office light was on. Oh and get this, him choosing me to lock things up caused me to miss an important meeting with my professor. And when he fired me, he tore my journal up." Po paused, gazing intensely to the side, "And that journal was given to me by a person who changed my life."

"Po, I'm so sorry," Mei-Ling said genuinely. "How long was this going on?"

"Two years." 

"Why did he fire you?"

Po shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe because he got stood up by a date or something stupid like that." 

"Why didn't you complain to the people above him?"

"He had privileges, and I didn't know until I left that the person above him admired him. What's worse was that the customers were complaining and wanted the manager gone, but the person above still wouldn't listen to them." 

"Then both of those people need to be punished," Mei-Ling remarked. Po could see the anger slowly crawling up in her eyes. 

"You know what's worse? I just got a phone call from my friend that the manager there is accusing him of stealing company money." Mei-Ling's eyes jumped out of their sockets. "My friend doesn't even know where the safe is. I think the manager has been stealing money from the company for a while, and my friend just happened to catch him." Po looked at his phone. No word from Tigress yet. 

"That... that's illegal!" 

Po shrugged, "The person above him has the same authority as the person in charge. There's nothing I can-"

"Give me the number of that auto shop," She snapped. Her narrowed eyes shot to the phone and quickly grabbed it. "You and your friend shouldn't have to pay for someone else's problem. I'll make sure that the manager gets what's coming to him. I can at least talk to the owner directly and talk about the problem. And who is this person above him? Someone like that should be put behind bars." 

Po sighed, pressed a button on his phone, and slid it across the table. A recording started playing. 

"Panda! What are you doing?!" Boqin growled out. "Didn't I tell you to lock up last night!"

 "You told me to lock up two days ago, sir,"

"Then you knew that my office light was on?!"

"O-Office light, sir?"

"YES!" Boqin shouted.

Mei-Ling slowly put the phone down. "Wait... is that... I know that voice... isn't that."

"Boqin," Po said calmly. "I don't know where you put the papers, but I can tell you that each and every one of them is true. He's verbally abusive, ripped up my journal, and now my friend is facing potential criminal charges if I don't get this fixed." As the recording played, Mei-Ling gasped and covered her mouth.