Olaf

Olaf is a client whose late-evening appointment becomes an example of time lost to indecision. The narrator’s portrait contrasts the elaborate preparation of the Studio with the difficulty of sustaining the encounter, which she ultimately steers toward an ending.

Identity and Introduction

The narrator calls Olaf a specialist in dead time. He has booked an appointment for ten o’clock at night, a choice that leads her to suppose he has had the whole day to consider what he would enjoy. In her account, however, that apparent opportunity for forethought does not translate into direction once he arrives.

The Encounter at the Studio

The session is prepared with conspicuous care: Satie is required as background music, Olaf arrives formally dressed, and the Studio is turned upside down in a search for the most exotic instruments. Yet after twenty minutes the narrative thread is losing momentum. The contrast makes the preparation seem almost disproportionate to the encounter that follows, and gives Olaf’s passivity its defining place in the narrator’s account.

The Narrator’s Response and the Ending

At one point Olaf asks what she should do to him next. The narrator responds by counting aloud, which gives him something to attend to and brings her some quiet. The encounter concludes with the narrator’s irritation replaced by relief; she even feels renewed. Looking at the clock, she sees that fifteen minutes remain and says she is sorry for him. The remaining time underscores the scene’s central imbalance: the appointment has a fixed duration, but the narrator has had to supply the direction that Olaf did not.