At this moment Ned would, in fact, love to think that this was a hallucination. Truthfully now he wasn't sure if it was one way or the other, but he really wanted to just retreat into his kitchens at this point.

"If you're a hallucination and I'm not saying you are, I would really rather not be talking to you in front of my customers because that really speaks poorly of my establishment as it it entirely not normal. On the other hand if you are a bird I think that's some kind of health code violation."