But in the meantime she was to have a few near misses.   That day she was almost spotted twice by Bernie Ling, floating above his head when he reached up to fill the cigarette dispensers.   To her dismay, she realised that it was harder to hover unseen overhead for hours in bright daylight, than in the murky gloom of night.   The small service booth did not have its own fluorescent lighting, so it was gloomy enough to provide suitable concealment at night.   But by day sunlight flooded into the booth from two windows making up the bulk of the walls at the back of the booth.

So, to avoid being spotted till she perfected her invisibility, Dryadia took to hovering centimetres off the ground at the other end of the store, trying to pretend to be a customer.   Although it did not take her long to realise that most customers only spent a minute or two in the store, instead of lingering for hours down the rear near the fridges.

*      *      *

At the front of the store, Bernie Ling tried his best to ignore the ghostly white woman who he saw from time to time.   At one point he was almost convinced she was hovering above the ground rather than walking.   But since she stayed mainly at the other end of the store, it was hard for him to be certain.

From time to time she was gone.   However, Bernie had never seen her walk out of the door.   Then a few minutes later she would be back.   Although it might be half an hour since he had heard the whoosh of the electronic doors.

“She can’t really be a ghost, can she?” Bernie wondered.   However, he had half begun to believe that she was by 10:30 AM.

He had tried his best to ignore the ghostly woman all day.   Although he could not help noticing that the candy continued to vanish from the boxes in front of the service booth, and he was almost certain that the tall, alabaster woman was stealing them.   Though he had never seen her eating them.