A short ghost story about Gumanthong

Chapter 1: Bought a Gumanthong

After I read about the stories and origins of Gumanthong, translated as the Golden Boy, I was very much fascinated about it.

Gumanthong amulet or statue supposedly contained the spirit of a dead child in it.

One fine day, as I was walking back to work after lunch, I passed by a shop selling various Thai amulets.

I walked in and asked about Gumanthongs.

The seller was very knowledgeable, and showed me a number of Gumanthong amulets and statues.

I held them up for a closer look.

When I held one particular Gumanthong statue with my left hand, I had a mild electrical shock from it travelling up my left hand.

I nearly dropped it, but I took it as a sign that I should buy this Gumanthong.  I had it wrapped and got back to work.

Nothing out of ordinary happened at work.

Chapter 2: Strange things happened at Night

I placed the Gumanthong on a table in my bedroom and proceeded to place some sweets and soft drinks for it.

That was the advice given by all the experts in occult art.

When I was having dinner, I dropped my hold on a fish ball.

The fish ball bounced and rolled a distance from the dining room to the living room, and it ended up under the sofa.

With a sigh, I got up and tried to reach under the sofa for the fish ball.

My hand closed on a thin metal, but not the fish ball.  I fished the metal out and saw that it was a silver necklace.

I was certain that this necklace did not belong to any of us at home.

We bought the house with the furniture intact after the former owner, a 96 years old lady passed away.

The necklace must be hers.

It seemed strange that we had been vacuuming the place, and the vacuum cleaner did not suck up the necklace.

Eventually I found the fish ball.

After dinner, I took a shower.  I was surprised to see the TV on when I came out of the bathroom.

There was nothing at home.  My partner was away on a business trip and would not get back for another week.

None of us watched cartoon anyway.  The TV was showing cartoon.

That night, I had an unforgettable dream.  I dreamt of buying a life insurance with critical illness rider with coverage of $300,000.

I continued to dream that 6 months after the purchase of insurance, I got cancer, and the insurance company paid out the money to me.

Chapter 3: Second day after getting Gumanthong

The next day at work, I received a call from my school pal.  She had quitted her job, and became an insurance agent.

She called to promote a new insurance product that came with a rider for early stage cancer.

I recalled the dream, and promised to meet her after work.

The dream scenario was still fresh in my mind.  I decided to buy the insurance from her.

The monthly premium of $300 was enough to dent my saving plan. 

My monthly saving decreased to just $50.

I was starting to worry about my finances and perhaps I had over-committed myself to that insurance.

That evening, on my way home, I was still thinking about the insurance matter.  I wonder if I should reduce the premium, and got a lower coverage instead.

I tripped.  I did not notice that the ground was uneven, and I fell in the carpark near my house.

As I picked myself up, my eye caught the number plate of the car.  It was 9947.

That night, I had a dream of buying 9947 for the thrice weekly lottery draw, and won the first prize in the lottery.

Chapter 4: Winning Lottery

I bought the lottery ticket for 9947, and won $10,000.

It was the first time I ever won anything more than $10 in a lottery draw.

I treated my friends and family to buffet in a hotel.

Since I was feeling lucky, I bought $50 worth of lotto tickets.

To my surprise, I did win.  I won a princely sum of $126,000.

It was enough to make me sleepless, and I was so happy that my face ached from grinning all the time.

I just could not help it.   To a person who had never won anything more than $10, and never could have saved up this princely sum, winning $126,000 was a big deal.

In fact, I did not even dare to dream of such a big win.

I was getting quite cocky at that point.  Right after I got the check for $126,000, I bought lotto tickets again.  This time I bought $100 worth of tickets.

I won again.  This time the sum was $46,000.

I started to dream of owning multiple properties for rental income.  I started to dream of early retirement and traveled the world with my partner.

Chapter 5: Things I should have done

In my happiness, I started to get careless at work, and I forgotten all about my Gumanthong.  I did not buy anything for it. 

The way to please a Gumanthong was to serve it with soft drink or milk every day, and to buy toys or sweets for it occasionally. 

The monks in Thailand taught that when Gumanthong served you well, and made you rich, you should make a donation to charity and dedicated it to Gumanthong.

That will allow Gumanthong to accumulate good merits for better rebirth.

I did nothing.  I had totally forgotten about it.

Chapter 6: Strange things happened

Due to my carelessness at work, I got a warning letter and a suspension from the company.  I made a grave mistake that almost cost the company a multi-million dollars contract.

As I was suspended from work, I went home in a desponded state.

I was walking with my head hang low when out of the blue, a slipper hit me on my head.  It was the kind of slipper that little girl wore.

I looked around to see if any giggling sound was made by the naughty girl.  I heard nothing.  I saw nothing too.

That night, at about 12.30 am, I was woken up by loud knocking sound.  I opened the door to see two policemen standing outside.

They wanted to know why I kept calling 999 from my mobile, and hang up when the operator answered.

They returned call to my mobile, but I did not hear it.  I had kept it in silence mode since I did not have to wake up early the next morning.

In desperation, the two policemen came to check on my welfare, and to give a stern warning.

At 2 am, I was woken up the second time by the sudden loud sound from the TV.  The TV was on with volume at the maximum.

I switched it off and went to bed.

At 4 am, I was woken up the third time. It was my neighbors from the apartment below mine.

They were annoyed, and they accused me of letting my children played marbles at such unearthly hour.

They threatened to call the police if the marbles sound did not stop.  As I did not have any kid, there should not hear children playing with marbles in my house.

That was the time when I realize that the Gumanthong was behind all these. 

I apologized to the Gumanthong, and promised to make it up to him.

All these strange things happened when my partner was out of country again. 

Chapter 7: Peaceful life

I made good on my promise to Gumanthong. I made a donation of $3000 to a children cancer charity and I silently dedicated this deed to Gumanthong.

After that, life was peaceful again. 

After I got back to work, I worked doubly hard to make sure that all my work was up to standard.  I was ashamed of my carelessness, and everyone knew about the suspension.

I was getting very lucky at work too.

Somehow I managed to get out of all the thankless tasks.

When my boss wanted to assign the thankless task of archiving the files to me, I was down with a bad flu for nearly a week.

The thankless task was given to my colleague.

When the management wanted a report urgently, I had an outside meeting, and the client was late, so I did not get back to the office after the meeting.

My poor colleagues stayed till 10 pm just to finish the report.

When we had the Christmas party, I was telling my colleagues about a funny experience.  The Managing Director overheard it, and guess what!  After a few minutes, we were chatting as if we were old friends!

Since then, the Managing Director had a few lunches with me.  We discovered a couple of common interests. 

I guess I was really lucky.  Thanks to my Gumanthong.

Chapter 8: Cancer

It was now 6 months after I had Gumanthong, and the purchase of life insurance policy with critical illness rider.

I discovered a hard lump on the neck near the ear.

I panicked, and I made an appointment with a cancer specialist in a private hospital.  The company would bear part of the medical cost should it turn out to be cancer.

I had been expecting it, and the dream from 6 months back still haunted me.

It was cancer!  It was really cancer.

It seemed like I was reliving the dream. 

I had the operation to take out the cancerous lump, and I could go home after a day in hospital.

2 months after the operation to get the cancerous lump out, I received the insurance payout of $300,000.

I was lucky. The rider was an early stage cancer rider. 

My cancer was an early stage cancer.  There was no need for chemotherapy, and I had to undergo just a few sessions of radiotherapy to kill off the remaining cancer cells.

I was away from work for a year.  Though I was strong enough to return to work after the end of radiotherapy, I asked the doctor to keep on issuing me medical leave to keep me away from work.

That was the time when I was emotionally unstable.  I held Gumanthong and cried.  I could feel the same electrical shock travelling up my arms when I held it.

I guess having a little friendly ghost at home was a blessing.