Allegory of Ulysses.

Billy, left alone in the train, quickly becomes a target to a scammer who calls himself Pastor John. Before the thief manages to steal Billy’s coin collection, a veteran called Ulysses stops and shoes him away. Fascinated that the man has the same name as Homer’s hero, Billy asks him if he travelled far and lost his wife and child. Curiously enough, Ulysses’s story correlates with the Homer’s character’s, and touched by the young boy lets him stay in the train car with him. Ulysses enlisted to fight in WWII despite his pregnant wife’s threats to leave him if he does, and after his return, he discovered that she left him. It happened eight years ago, and Billy encourages him by telling him that Homer’s Ulysses reunited with his wife and child after ten years, and that the same will happen to him. He only needs to wait two more years.