After a few days thought i realise part of my sense of anticlimax is that the failure to announce "he says the message is...." leaves me hanging. My desire to retain it as a secret in the hope some future wizened old lady in a market square may approach me with the words one day means im unable to announce my guest's possible "achievement" and get the feedback of others like yourselves as to where they do, and I ought to, place it on a scale of paranormal impressiveness.
So I've decided i can tell you the story in all its important details (im anonymous after all and you've never been in my home) by simply substituting the "target" with a fictional replacement for the purpose of the story.
So I can reveal for the first time that what was agreed between my brother and myself as his post mortem proof of ID was a very specific object with a distinct name.
I was away on a weekend break when he took ill and was hospitalised, and only told on my return. A day or so later he moved in here and the subject of arranging an afterlife coded message was the first conversation he had with me. Thinking the topic had moved on I retrieved and showed him a souvenir of my trip. He misunderstood and thought i was suggesting this souvenir object should be the "code".
For the purpose of this tale lets now pretend that the object was an ornamental elephant (I again emphasise its nothing of the kind, but conceptually it works for recounting what the guest did/said). It sits , distinct but not attention grabbing, in the house. No one else has ever commented on it.
In the first week, when the guest was so deeply into the idea that he was communing with my brother and trying to piece the attempted communication together, and was either offering nothing or throwing failed suggestions of allegedly meaningful things or descriptions my way, he drew attention to this "elephant". (He was looking away so didn't see my eyebrows raise). 10 minutes later looking at something else nearby, he again felt compelled to say there was something about this elephant. But in his usual way he moved on. Nothing of use was mentioned again and after another few days away myself this last weekend, i gave up pursuing the subject. I was sitting trying to decipher my brother's totally illegible notebook, when the guest - at the back of the room and having his coffee - suddenly said "what's the significance of that elephant?"
He obviously got my attention. I told him it was a holiday souvenir. He said "But it has meaning to you and your brother?". I said...it does. You have my interest. Why are you asking about the elephant?
In his telling he was in the back garden smoking late the night before, again asking my brother to spell out the intended communication, when he heard a very unusual sound. It got him interested enough that he went to his room and googled a category of sounds and identified what he had heard as (obviously this makes no sense here but remember I'm using a substitute for the story) the sound of a baby elephant. He came down again and entered the living room. It was the night of the full moon and a beam of moonlight was coming through the window falling directly onto the elephant.
Hence his conviction the object was significant and by implication my deceased sibling was drawing his attention to it. At that point, short of simply verbalising its name and saying "this is what your brother's coded message was" I couldn't hold out for him to do/say any more and acknowledged he'd "got it".
And that's it.
Anticipating speculative questions:
Does the real object stand out and grab the attention? - Its distinct but not extraordinary. No one asks or talks about it. It's not oversized. I don't and didn't at any point draw any attention to it.
Is it the only such object in the room, or surrounded by others? - its not a room full of bric a brac or ornaments. But there are little things dotted here and there, some more distinct.
Did the guest know, or did I ever hint, that the "message/code" was a physical object or present in the house? - No, never. Not a word, not a hint.
Was it the only object he drew attention to? - On the first day of his attempts to communicate (when i use that term my understanding, perhaps incorrect, is he would have a monologue in his head with the target person and interpret spontaneous thoughts or notions as possible replies) he asked about different people in some photos, took a great interest in a small icon of the virgin mary tucked behind a photo (his interest of course has its own origin in his earlier story in all likelihood) and asked a question about another object that was sitting on the window sill. He never mentioned it again.
So, Forteans, you tell me what you think. I'll answer any questions. On the believer side I'll advise you to put this account into the context of the earlier business that started it all of the pen down the sofa.