A normal person might quirk a brow if a stranger were to appear with seemingly endless knowledge about them. But Norman was not exactly normal. Not by any sense of the word. So he just stared at Ted with an expression of blank indifference. He was, admittedly, a little suspicious. And he idly wondered if this man were another Arbogast. Some detective sent to spy on him and make him give away his secrets. Not that he had too many secrets, but the ones he did have had a special place in his mind where they nestled and hid from the world. And they were definitely whoppers as he heard some kid say.
"It's been too cold for taxidermy. The birds all flew south."
Wherever south was in comparison to The City. Norman didn't actually know that they flew south, but he did know that it had snowed (he'd never seen snow before.) And he hadn't seen any birds since the weather had gotten cold. Then again, maybe the birds were getting smart and simply staying away from Norman's bird bath.
Norman reached down to his pocket at the mention of candy. That was a strange question, wasn't it? Mother would tell him not to worry. That this was one of those fluke City things. But that would have been easy for her to say. She understood The City better than Norman did. And Norman was paranoid. He wasn't strong like Mother.
But he did have a few pieces of candy corn in his pocket. The man was right! How could he know that? Very peculiar.
"... If you have your own p-place then I don't see how I can be of ss-ssservice to you. I'm sorry but this isn't an amu-musement park. It's a legitimate b-b-bbusiness."