That was the useful part of the story.
Selina did not return to being an “expert.” She returned to being a student . She started a new blog, not called “Selina Knows,” but “Selina Learns.” She wrote openly about the misidentification. She posted side-by-side photos of the woodtuft and the funeral bell, highlighting the tiny, life-saving differences she had once been too proud to double-check. She began each foraging walk with a new ritual: “I have been wrong before,” she would say. “Please question everything I show you.” selinas shame
For weeks, Selina hid. She stopped answering calls. She pulled down her foraging blog. The word “expert” now felt like a brand on her skin. She was certain everyone was whispering, “She nearly killed her own niece.” She avoided the woods entirely, as if the trees themselves might judge her. That was the useful part of the story