Act 1, Scene 3 Summary

On a train stopping over in Baltimore, Reba's daughter, Sunny, sits reading when she's interrupted by Joe. He introduces himself, and then tells her he was asked to look in on her by Adolph, who gave him some money to give to her in case she was running short. When he asks what she's reading, she tells him that it's a book by communist writer Upton Sinclair. Joe says she doesn't look like a communist, and Sunny says that reading communist writing doesn't make a person into one. She tells him she's a sociology major, at which time he reveals that he was an art major but had to drop out of college because his father died and he had to go back home to work. He comments that since she's studying, she'll have a lot to do over the holidays...