process you could fix instead of a theft. Particularly a theft of drugs.”
“It has always bothered me that theft was considered almost on a gradient scale. Like, maybe a stolen pen was nothing. If you stole a pad of paper from the office, it was nothing. If you stole a partial pack of printer paper, it was nothing because the pack was opened anyway. You know? Things like that? But it amazes me, as I’ve gone through a few companies now, just how much all that adds up to. Although the company itself doesn’t like it, the employees often don’t even worry about it and take it almost as if it’s their due. I’ve seen people steal coffee filters, tea bags, saying, ‘The corporation can afford it. I can’t.’ Everything from office supplies to toilet paper,” she said with a bewildered look. “And you know the office toilet tissue is never very nice and soft.”
“I can’t imagine, as an employee, doing that to the person who signs my paycheck,” Kai said. “And from the employer side, I have my own company, plus I see Levi’s company. I can’t imagine employee theft at either place. Not with the people we hire. They are all a cut above the rest.”
“And yet it probably happens.”
Kai shook her head. “At Levi’s place it doesn’t happen, because their mind-set is, if you need it, take it,” she said. “And I’ve tried to emulate that level of trust in my own company.”
“Is that working out?”
“It is. Granted, we hire the best. They work odd hours at odd locations. So taking a pad and a pen to the local park to sketch out the cityscape to invent ways for our military to get inside buildings and to stop others from gaining entry is all part of their job. If it’s office supplies, I consider it already used. So, if they take a pad home, I don’t care. I don’t expect them to be doodling on napkins from restaurants or their paper towels at home,” she said. “To me, it all comes out in the wash. Granted, I bet we have such a low percentage of such internal ‘thefts,’ that it would hardly be measurable. Still, I know a lot of companies don’t look at employee theft that way. Probably because they’re not hiring the right people, who are then stealing from them. So sad.”
“And it’s never a good thing when it comes to drugs.”
“No. That is not allowed anywhere. Especially something like ketamine,” she said thoughtfully. “I mean, they use that stuff to knock out a horse. So vets would have it. Any medical supply house would have it. Pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies would have it. It’s also a common drug used by serial killers and rapists,” she said, “because it pretty well knocks out the victim.”
“But it’s different from roofies though, right?”
“Yes, much stronger,” Kai said. “Though, once it’s on the street, there is no way anyone can really know what they’ve got.”
They wandered around the small pond, stopping to admire the ducks, the sunshine, and the bright flowers. “It’s a nice area,” Kai said.
“It is, but it’s still busy out here,” she said. “I should have moved to the outskirts area, so it would be more country instead of this suburbia feel.”
“The thing about suburbia is that everybody gets to live there but must work somewhere else,” she said. “At least you’re working and living close to the same area, so you don’t have so far to commute.”
“I could technically walk to work if I wanted to,” Joy said. “And, maybe come bad weather, I would, if the driving was treacherous.”
“Well, it would save you on car costs.”
“And I did consider that,” she said. “But there are just enough mornings that I’m late, making me think I’d end up running half the way there.”
Kai chuckled. “And here I’ve been looking at increasing my morning runs,” she said.
“But you were always into fitness and weapons and self-defense and martial arts,” Joy said. “How come we’re friends, since we’re complete opposites?”
“Maybe that’s why? Opposites attract and all that. I think you are the prettier version of me,” Kai said.
“I think you’re damn beautiful,” Joy said quietly.
“Yeah, see? And you’re blind too.” The two women laughed and hugged each other.
They had been friends for a long time, having come together at an odd moment in a hotel at a conference that Kai was attending. Joy was attending a conference as well but different events within the same venue.