Question Thursday

Today is already Thursday! Where do my days go? I thought a lot about the question that I wanted the answer to this week and decided to focus it on a secondary character in the book. Biily Black.

He is a fascinating character to me. In the book he is described as heavyset, heavily wrinkled face, russet skin. He sits in a wheelchair. In Eclipse, Jacob mentions that Billy was basically chief of the entire tribe until Sam became a werewolf and became leader of the Quiluete pack. Sam then took over as chief. Billy maintains a distance from the Cullen family to the detriment of his friendship with Charlie. It is written in Twilight that the tribe is not visiting the hospital because of Dr. Cullen and Charlie defends the Cullen's. The knowledge that Billy holds, throughout the first book, about the Cullen family and is unable to share must be so frustrating for him. Yet, he does not come out and tell anyone, including Jacob. He upholds the treaty his grandfather made. That leads me to believe he is a most honorable man.

I could go on and on because I am in a rambling mood today, but I will get to my question.

Why is Billy in a wheelchair?

In either Eclipse or Breaking Dawn, I can't remember which, Jacob mentions the car accident that killed his mother. At that moment, I assumed that Billy was involved in the accident and that he was paralyzed. That is not the case.

According to correspondence between Twilight Lexicon and Stephenie Meyer, Billy has diabetes and as a result has nerve damage to his legs and feet and will never walk again.

I am fine with this answer, but in a way it was anti-climatic. I guess Jacob has enough drama for the entire family.

Do you have a question you would like me to research? Let me know!!