“The code phrase is ‘Octopus finds a ukulele in a haunted house.’ Make sure you memorize it.”

Oscar turned the phrase over and over in his head. How the devil was he supposed to remember something so nonsensical? Visualize, Bowyer had said. Visualize. That was the secret.

Frowning, Oscar tried to visualize the scenario. How did the octopus get into the haunted house? It needed water to breathe. Maybe it had hopped off an aquarium truck? Perhaps it WAS the ghost.

No, no, that was too complicated for a mnemonic. The haunted house was on a cliffside, Oscar decided. It had fallen into the sea, along with all its contents and all its ghosts. An octopus had slimed in, dodging the now-drowned phantasms, only to find and curiously pluck at the waterlogged strings of an old ukulele.

“All right, can you repeat the code phrase back to me?”

Oscar was jolted out out his visualization abruptly. “Oh, uh…ukulele finds a haunted house in an octopus?”

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