Character Analysis
Valencia is Billy's extremely large and extremely good-natured wife. She never thought anyone would marry her because of her size, so she bursts into tears with gratitude the night of their honeymoon. She loves Billy so much that, when she hears he has been in a plane crash, she drives to the hospital with her eyes so full of tears that she can't see the road. She winds up having a car accident that leaves her vehicle so damaged that she dies of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Like Billy, Valencia has her own ways of coping with the disappointing realities of life. When Billy is making love to her the night of her honeymoon, she imagines that he is Christopher Columbus and she is Queen Elizabeth I of England (never mind that they weren't even alive at the same time). It's this kind of active fantasy life that leads her to ask Billy to tell her about the war. She thinks the details of his fighting life will be hot. But Billy doesn't really seem to want to tell her anything. They share lives, but neither of them is passionate or smart enough to talk about the things that really matter to them.