Mittwoch

Mittwoch is the time marker that links Samson Woodford’s planned departure from San Francisco with Delilah Sheridan’s deadline for examining the company’s books. Its significance lies less in a specific event on that day than in the converging schedules and unfinished intentions that gather around it.

Travel and Separation

Samson tells Delilah that he will remain in San Francisco until Mittwoch, then take a night flight back to New York. The itinerary gives their time together a clear limit: his departure is already planned, even as their intimacy makes the prospect of separation more immediate. In a later exchange, he tells her he will be gone when she wakes because he has an early start and conferences all day, but promises to see her that evening. The account establishes an impending absence and a promised return without fixing that morning explicitly to Mittwoch.

Delilah’s Audit Deadline

Mittwoch also bounds Delilah’s work. She has until then to examine entries for which she has not yet obtained some original records, and she expects to determine whether anything is wrong. Her confidence comes from a record of finding what she is looking for; this assignment, she explains, is a special investigation rather than an ordinary audit. She already has indications that someone is defrauding the company and still needs to establish who is responsible.

Narrative Function

The recurring deadline places Samson’s private plans beside Delilah’s professional purpose. His stay and her investigation both have a stated endpoint, but neither is simply resolved by the calendar: Samson’s departure competes with his desire to remain close to her, while Delilah’s missing records leave the suspected fraud unconfirmed. Mittwoch therefore gives these scenes a shared measure of time and pressure, tying the possibility of separation to an inquiry whose decisive answer has not yet been found.