If you have
ever been lied to, than you immediately understand how much your heart drops
when you find out the cold truth.
In the short story "Bluffing" by
Gail Helgason, a seemingly normal relationship takes a turn for the worst when a couple goes hiking and encounters a grizzly bear. During this head on collision,
Gabriella and Liam are faced with two choices: run, or play dead. In this
instant, Gabriella orders Liam to "try backing off slowly" but he
refuses by taking a moment and then hurriedly "running away as fast as he
[can]." The aftermath of Liam’s poor choice of movement resulted in him
being hospitalized, leaving Gabriella wondering why he chose to flee. In the
beginning of the story, we learn that Liam is a predominant character who has
the potential to lie as seamlessly as possible. But, there is one question left unanswered; is Liam really lying to Gabriella? Yes. Throughout this short story Liam is very controlling and seems to lie when he tells the hikers near the lake that it "might not be such a good idea" because they saw an "Elk carcass... and they always come back to the kill." This shows that Liam is a potential, pathological liar, which may push Gabriella further and further away as she notices it more and more. In the end, Liam states that he "wasn't trying to run away" but rather, that he was trying to get "the bear to come after [him] instead of [her]." While Gabriella would like to believe this, she can not because she knows that he has a recent past of avoiding the truth and that pushes Gabriella over the edge.
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