There were some questions about this entry. I probably know no more than anyone else about it, despite being the author. It's my view that when the reader brings some meaning to a text, then that may (or may not) be as valid an interpretation as that of the author. And, by extension, I do sometimes find things in my writing that I did not consciously place there. I imagine that this is a common experience for anyone trying to write seriously, and that it is independent of the merit of the writing.
As people noticed, this does go together with "Vlad" to produce a reference to the characters in Becket's "Waiting for Godot" (Estragon and Vladimir), in itself suggested by the competition title.
But as soon as the fragment of the name is chosen, it starts to mean more. An agon is a conflict or a struggle.
I chose to avoid names for most of the people mentioned. I suppose "The Traveller" suggests a commercial traveller, and also De La Mare's traveller who asks "is there anyone there" in the Listeners. (I have not read De La Mare's long poem "The Traveller.)
But in this case there is an (unspoken) answer, with its own implications.
A café suggests that there is some normality here; but where is it? Is it sited in the landscape of "Waiting for Godot" or even among the dry rocks of the "Waste Land".
just echoes traveller
It's all run down.
So, what is the topic? But the topic is not clear.
The jukebox is preprogrammed, predestined, to play just Beatles songs. Some of the snatches of lyrics (they are all real) are significant, but only in the sense that they sometimes comment on the situation.
Again no name, just a job title. And he (or she) gives literal directions.
The best known Theophilus may be the dedicatee of St Luke's gospel and Acts. (But then Mozart's middle name - Amadeus - is Theophilus in Latin.)
A McGuffin is "the element of a film, book, etc that drives, or provides an excuse for, the action, of supreme importance to the main characters but largely ignored by the audience or reader". Was the entire point of the piece to create a McGuffin that was the name "McGuffin"?
Waiting, of course. Is there such a thing as a "traindriver's"? This section seems more interested in the ordinariness of the café than in any story.
More Beckett (as is the single tree), but it pulls in Vlad Dracul the impaler, and Dracula. The sunset, although impressive, is an ending, a fading.
Such story as there is occurs in this section. The café is not empty, but it is the traveller who listens to people from many places.
Theophilus was addressed as "excellent" by St Luke.
There is no reason to suppose the name of the waiter was more than coincidentally that of the alias of the person the traveller sought. In any case I think he was just a boy, rather than the eminent personage implied by the full name.
So, to sum up, four meanings of "waiting" and some unanswered questions.