The Devoted Wife | Campfire Stories with MrBallen

The story was recommended to me by a fan actually, and I had never heard of it before.

“But the second I started looking into this, I knew that I had to tell this one, and not”

just tell it. I had to tell it sitting in front of a campfire, and you'll see why. This is like classic scary campfire storytelling. But before we get into tonight's story, if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you come to the right campfire because that's all we do,

and we upload two, three, even four times a week. So if that's of interest to you, the next time that you and the follow button are around the campfire together, offer them some nice hot coffee. But don't tell them you put hot sauce in it. Also please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications so you don't miss any

of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into tonight's story. One morning, in the early 1850s, a young man named Mark wrote a small boat through

“a canal in Paukenong, Thailand, which is a very rural community southeast of Bangkok.”

And Mark was rowing as fast as he possibly could, because where he was going was home and he could not wait to get there. So Mark had been away for almost an entire year by this point, and that was because around a year ago, he'd been drafted into the time military and forced to go fight in war against the neighboring country of Burma.

And for Mark, getting drafted had really come at like the absolute worst possible time. Because at the time, his wife, may knock, had been just a couple of months pregnant with their first child.

And so he had had to just, you know, basically leave her behind to give birth on her own,

which was obviously really difficult for her, and for him, like he wanted to be there for her and he couldn't. And also this is 1850s in rural Thailand. So once he was gone, like there were no phones or really any way to send letters back in fourth.

“So really, ever since Mark had left, he'd had literally zero communication with his wife.”

So he has no idea how she's doing, how the baby's doing, nothing, and, you know, he's off fighting in a war. And in fact, he actually got hurt while he was fighting and had to spend months in a military hospital recovering, but his wife had no idea. So Mark rode even faster, and finally, he saw his home in the distance.

It was a wooden house that stood on tall stillts right on the edge of the canal with a large balcony that overlooked the water, and it was surrounded by lime trees and thick forest. And it was at least a mile away from the nearest neighbors. So it's a pretty secluded place, but it was a place he desperately missed. As Mark neared these small dock in front of his house, he began excitedly calling out

for his wife. And as he did, he began tying up the boat, expecting at any moment, to see his wife come running outside with the baby, but his wife didn't. She didn't call back, she didn't come out, it was just quiet. And for a moment, you know, Mark had this horrible thought that maybe something had happened

to her while he was gone, like, how would he know? But then he heard the door open, and out came his wife with a big grin on her face, and she was clutching their baby against her chest. She began calling out to him, and Mark saw the were tears of joy streaming down her face, and he leapt out of the boat and he ran to her.

A few days later, Mark woke up inside of his home and he rolled over in bed and saw his wife still asleep, and he also saw their baby sleeping in a small hammock right beside the bed. And as Mark looked at his little family, he felt almost deliriously happy. I mean, ever since he had gotten home, it was like Mark had entered this just perfect life, like just utter domestic bliss.

His baby would turn out to be a boy, which he was really excited about, because he had sort of secretly wanted a son.

And you know, over the last couple of days, he had had a chance to basically tell his wife

all of his crazy war stories, and she had listened really intently, and she also had gone out of her way to cook them all his favorite meals. And so he was just so grateful to be back here that he literally had not left their home at all since he got back. He just stayed home and just enjoyed this unbelievable home coming.

But on this particular morning, Mark knew he would have to leave, because he had to go to the market because their kitchen was basically empty, so they needed food. And so Mark, he climbed at a bed, and as quietly as he could, he got dressed, you know, trying hard not to wake up the baby or his wife. And then when he was ready to actually leave, he walked over to his wife, and he gently

leaned down and just told her that, "Okay, I'm going to leave now, you know, I'll be back soon." Now, Mark didn't really expect much of a reaction from his wife.

But no, as soon as she heard he was leaving, it's like her eyes opened wide and she almost looked panicked, and she sat up and bed, and she grabbed Mark's arm, and she actually shouted, "No!" And in fact, she said it so loudly that she woke up their baby, and so the baby's crying

and Mark, at first, he just stared at his wife in total confusion, like, "What are you

doing here?"

“And then he said, "You know, like, what's going on?”

Why do you care so much if I leave?" Like, "What's wrong?" And "May knock, as wife, you know, still clutching his arms." She just kept shaking her head, saying, "No, you can't leave." And then she looked away, like, she was, like, trying to find the words or something.

And then finally, she looked back at him, and it was clear she had sort of calm down a little bit. And she said to him that, "You know, you've been gone for so long." She just didn't want him to leave again. She said what she wanted him to do was just stay home, right here.

Like, don't leave her, don't leave their son, please, like, something bad's going to happen if you leave. You've got to stay here. And when Mark heard this, it was actually kind of touching. The idea that his wife was, you know, so protective of him, that she didn't want him

to leave, you know, he liked that.

“But he, you know, he smiled and he told her, like, "Yeah, but somebody has to go get food”

here." So I'm going to go, I'm going to get his food, I'll be back, you know, in a few minutes. This is not a big deal, and then he gave his wife a hug and a kiss, and she's looking at him like, "Don't you do this," but he said, "Look, I'll be back as soon as possible and then he turned and he left."

A little while later, and Mark had arrived at the fruit stand in the market. The market was in the village center, which was a few miles from his house, but he had walked here as quickly as he could, because, you know, he had promised his wife. He'd be back as quickly as he could. And when Mark went to the man who owned the fruit stand to purchase, you know, the items

that he'd picked out, the owner of the fruit stand looked at Mark and seemed genuinely surprised to see him. And then he gave Mark a, an almost sympathetic look, and then asked him, like, "How are you doing?" Now, Mark and the fruit stand owner were not friends, but this village was so small that

“everybody who lived there knew everybody else, and so, like an interaction like this was”

not unusual. Not to mention the fact that, basically, everybody knew Mark had gone to war, but they didn't know he had just gotten back, and so, Mark assumed that what he was asking about was basically like, "Hey, you know, I can see your back from the war, how are you doing?" Mark told the owner that, you know, the war had been terrible, but, you know, now he was

finally home, he was back with his wife, and his son, you know, he's so happy to have

a son, and so really, you know, despite the war, he'd never been better, like his life

was perfect right now. But the owner of the fruit stand, when he heard this, he actually looked back at Mark with a pretty confused look in his face, and was like, "Your wife is home?" And Mark was like, "Yeah, of course, like, where else would she be?" The fruit stand owner was confused for a second, and then just sort of shook his head and

said, "You know, I thought I had heard something different, so I was just confused." And then sort of awkwardly, the fruit stand owner changed the subject and just said, "Okay, you know, what do you want to buy?" After that morning, Mark returned to his home, now carrying several bags of food. And as he approached his home from a distance, he saw his wife out on the balcony feeding

their baby. But from the looks of it, his wife was just sort of staring off into space. Mark called out to her, and it kind of snapped her back to reality, and she turned to him, and she broke into this huge smile, and then she got up, and she walked off the balcony into the house, and then when Mark got inside, she found her waiting for him in the kitchen.

And for the most part, she looked really happy and relieved to see him back. It was like, "Few, thank goodness, nothing happened to you while you were away for 20 minutes." You know, her panic was gone. She was happy to have him back. And Mark was happy to see her, but at the same time, he also couldn't stop thinking about

that strange interaction he had had with the fruit stand owner. How he had been like, "Oh, your wife's home?" Like it was a question as if he knew something that he wasn't saying, and, you know, Mark was just thinking about it, and so as he put the food away, he told his wife, you know, what the guy had said, and how odd it was.

And Mark's wife, when she heard this, she got really angry, and she told Mark that this

was exactly why she had worried about him leaving the house in the first place.

She said that ever since he had left to go to war, people in their village had been talking about her nonstop, spreading all kinds of horrible rumors. And so, Mark asked her, like, "What kind of rumors, what are you talking about?" But his wife did not elaborate, she just angrily shook her head, and then stormed back out onto the balcony.

A couple of days later, Mark was out in the forest that surrounded his home, chopping down

He and his wife had not talked anymore about the situation with the owner of the fruit

“stand, and, you know, the rumors that people in the town were supposedly spreading about”

her. Ultimately, just sort of puzzled by his wife's behavior.

Before he had left for the war, she'd always been very logical and independent, and so

the fact that she suddenly seemed to care so much about what other people were saying about her, and the way she never wanted Mark to leave her sight was just odd. The only reasonable explanation Mark could come up with was that, you know, for the last year, his wife had spent a lot of time all alone with a brand new baby, and with lots of fear that her husband was never going to come home, like that would take a toll on you.

And so his hope was that, you know, now that he was home, that she would just, you know, get better. So he was trying his best to just go about his life like normal. But I mean, just that morning when he had told his wife he was going to go out and get some firewood, she had started sobbing and begging him not to go, and it had taken him like

a full half an hour to calm her down and convince her to let him go, because they needed the firewood.

“And so Mark really didn't know what to make of this.”

He just hoped that, you know, in time, this would get better. And so Mark just went about his morning, you know, chopping down trees to get some firewood. And at some point, as he was literally chopping down a tree, he heard footsteps coming from behind him. And when he turned around, he sort of half expected to see his wife, but he didn't.

He was sort of surprised to see it was this elderly man in a long robe walking directly towards him, like clearly the sky is coming to talk to him.

Now, for a second, Mark actually didn't know who this guy was, but then he realized

based on what he was wearing that he was a monk, and then as he got closer, he could see that it actually is someone who lived and worked at a Buddhist temple in their village. And so this was not a total stranger. In fact, this monk was more like a community leader of sorts. And so as Mark is sort of putting this together, he figured that the reason this guy was

coming over was just to, you know, welcome him home from the war.

“And so Mark lowered his accent, smiled and waived, but the monk didn't smile back.”

Instead he walked right up next to Mark really close to him, and he looked around the forest and sort of a paranoid way, and then in almost a whisper, he asked Mark if he was alone. Mark was definitely weirded out by this, and didn't have any idea why this guy was acting this way, but, you know, Mark said, yes, I am alone. At this point, the monk seemed to relax and he told Mark that he really needed to tell

him about his wife, and Mark kind of perked up like what he was talking about, and the monk said that Mark's wife had become convinced that people in their village were spreading rumors about her, and she'd begun going around town, terrorizing people, to get back at them. At this point, the monk leaned back and gave Mark this expectant look.

He thought maybe Mark was going to apologize for his wife's behavior or something, but to Mark, this information didn't make sense. His wife definitely had talked about people spreading rumors about her, and she was acting pretty strange and paranoid, but to Mark, this information didn't make any sense. On the one hand, you know, his wife had, you know, mentioned that she believed people were

spreading these awful rumors about her, so Mark had heard that. But the idea that she was really doing anything about it other than being upset was just false. I mean, how could she be out terrorizing anybody when she literally was at the house with him, like all day long?

She couldn't. He was with her. He would have seen it. So, as respectfully as he could, Mark told the monk that he must be confused, because there was just no way his wife was acting on any of her suspicions.

She might be upset about this stuff, but she's not terrorizing anyone. But the monk just shook his head and told Mark straight up that, "No, you're wrong. Everyone else in the village knew there was something seriously wrong with his wife, like everybody knows it. You're the only one who doesn't."

And before Mark could say anything else, the monk said to him, "If he was smart, he

would leave his wife right now and he would never look back."

And when Mark heard this, he did not believe the monk. Instead, he actually realized that his wife must be telling the truth about how awful everybody was being spreading these terrible rumors about her, like she wasn't being paranoid at all. She had all the reason in the world to think people were out to get her or something.

So at this point, Mark dropped the polite act and just told the monk to leave him and his family alone, and then Mark gathered up the wood that he had chopped down and began heading back towards his house. But the next morning, Mark just couldn't get the conversation he had had with the monk out of his mind.

I mean, mostly he was just angry at whoever was making up these weird rumors about his wife that was causing people like the monk, maybe the fruit standown or to say the weird

But also, Mark didn't know what these rumors actually were.

“He just knew that something was being said about his wife.”

It was upsetting his wife, but he didn't know what the details were. He figured if he did have the context, have the details, then he could shut the rumors down much more effectively. But he also really didn't want to bring this up to his wife again, because he knew it would just really upset her.

So he decided that what he needed to do was go back into the village market and go talk to that fruit standowner, clearly he knew more than he was letting on. So that morning, Mark got up and this quietly has he could, he snuck out of the house wall, his wife and son were still asleep, and he hurried off to the market. And even though it was barely dawn by the time he got there, there was already a bunch

of people that were setting up their stance.

However, when Mark made his way over to where the fruit stand had been when he had gone there a couple of days earlier, he found it was empty.

“And for some reason that Mark just couldn't even explain, this immediately gave him a really”

bad feeling. So instead of waiting around to see if maybe the owner of the fruit stand showed up later, Mark decided he would just go to the guy's house and see where he lived. So Mark left the village center and jogged to this guy's house, it was a wooden building up on stilts, just like Mark's house, except it was further away from the canal.

When Mark got there, he climbed up a ladder to the porch and then he knocked on the front door. But nobody answered.

So he knocked again, but still there was no answer, and then Mark pressed his ear to the door,

but he heard nothing. It was like eerily silent. And at this point, Mark just could not shake this feeling that something was really wrong here, like with the fruit stand owner. So he just reached out and tried the door knob and the door swung right open.

But as soon as it did, Mark smelled something absolutely rancid inside of this home. And so at this point, Mark, he covered his nose with his hand and continued yelling for the fruit stand owner and began walking slowly into the home, looking around for the guy. But there was no movement inside of the home and he sees calling out over and over again.

And then eventually, he notices something on the ground and he looks down and he sees. It's the fruit stand owner and he was just covered in blood and obviously dead. Mark sprinted out of the house, he climbed down the ladder and just began running away as fast as he could. And he knew that what he should be doing is going back to the village center to tell someone

about what he had just found. But Mark just couldn't bring himself to do it because he just had this gut feeling that even though he had no idea if his wife was in any way involved with this death. He just felt like based on the rumors and the weird stuff of his wife that everybody was going to blame her.

So instead of running towards the village center, Mark just began running towards his own house and when he got close, he slowed down, sort of caught his breath and he hoped that it was still early enough that his wife and son would still be asleep and he could just sort of sneak back in and figure out what to do from there but without alerting his wife and having to explain what was going on.

However, just then he was close enough to his house that he could see the balcony that overlooked the water and he looked up and he saw his wife was clearly awake. She was out on the balcony with the baby on her hip. However, she didn't seem to notice Mark approaching and so Mark, you know, he's just walking slowly towards the house thinking you know how he's going to explain where he's been

to his wife. He figured she's probably upset with him, he didn't know but he's watching her and she again, not aware of Mark, she reaches up and she grabs a lime off a nearby lime tree that was sort of dangling over the balcony and so she grabs the fruit and she pulls it off the tree and she drops it.

She fumbles the lime and the lime falls on the balcony and actually goes and falls between one of the slats on the floorboards and this balcony is up on stills like the whole houses and so the balcony was seven feet off the ground and so when the lime fell through the floorboards, it actually fell seven feet to the ground below. And so Mark, you know, he's watching this happen and this is not like some meaningful event

to him. He's just sort of, you know, clocking that she's dropped this lime and he's thinking

“she's going to, you know, grab a different lime, right?”

But no, he watched as his wife sort of almost robotically kneel down and then put her arm into the slat that this lime had fallen through. Again, she still has not seen Mark yet and he watched as her arm began to like stretch away from her body and down her arm went, it stretched nearly seven feet until her hand grabbed the lime on the ground and then our arm was making these horrible crackling sounds

was at that point that she turned and looked at Mark.

“Mark at this point was horrified and he just turned and ran.”

In this time, he went directly to the center of the village to the Buddhist temple where

that monk had come from, the one that had basically tried to warn him about his wife.

And so Mark he begins pounding on the door of this temple, begging the monks to let him inside and to hide him from his wife and eventually the doors open, the monks immediately let him inside and they do hide him and for a little while he's just like beside himself Mark he can't even process what he just saw, he's telling himself that you know that couldn't

“have happened, her arm couldn't have stretched that far but like it looks so real he just”

he couldn't reconcile what he had just experienced and the monks for the most part was kind

of let Mark have his moment of just being totally upset but then eventually when Mark kind of calm down the monk who had originally come to him to warn him about his wife, he came over to Mark and he said I gotta tell you the truth about your wife but they told Mark that in order to do that, Mark was going to have to agree to do something that was going to be incredibly painful. They would need him to allow them to assume his beloved wife's long dead corpse.

It would turn out that whatever one in the village knew, but Mark did not know, was that his wife and son had both died during childbirth while he was away in the war. His wife's body had literally been in the ground for months but apparently her ghost was still around and very attached to Mark and would not let anybody get between them. It was not until Mark did give the monks permission to assume his wife's body that they could finally stop this

haunting. And so the monks ultimately carved out a circular shaped piece of her skull and performed a Buddhist ritual to trap her spirit inside the dome. Today in Procanong the village where Mark and his wife and his son had lived is now home to a permanent shrine to mainock. She seen by

Psalm as a very dangerous and terrifying ghost and by others as a symbol of love that is so powerful

it transcends death. A quick note about our stories, they are all based on true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Audio editing and post-produced by Whitlicasio and Jordan Stitham. Production support by Antonio Minata and Delana Corley,

artwork by Jessica Klogst and Kiner, theme song "Something Wicked" by Ross plugged in. Thank you for listening to the Mr. Ballon podcast and just a reminder, every new and exclusive episode we put out on the Mr. Ballon podcast you can also now watch on the Mr. Ballon YouTube channel that very same day and trust me some of these stories you truly have to see to believe.

“Again, my YouTube channel is just called Mr. Ballon. If you want to listen to episodes one week early”

and add free, you can subscribe to SiriusXM Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit SiriusXM.com/podcast plus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. So that's going to do it. I really appreciate your support until next time. See you.