Over the past few months, he had dreamed more than once of Emily Riddle and of the partially buried bodies he had seen in a cellar in Leeds, toes poking through the dirt.

They could march, arms extended to show technicolor fingernails, laminated toes poking proudly from flip-flops showing off those months of disciplined cuticle hygiene.

A popular commentator's curse incident highlighted was where the commentator stated, "Now, here comes Arjen Robben, look at the speed at which he goes at," before subsequently toe poking it to the opposition.

So there I was at 9 A.M., standing on the platform, my ankles fastened together, my toes tentatively poking into the abyss.

He doesn't particularly look like one, either, padding around his offices in kneepads and wool socks with toes poking through, or being engaged in his seemingly futile midwinter tire-pounding rituals, proof "you can build these things even in the dead of winter with bozos," as he called his crew.

He seemed baffled when I withdrew the purple shoe from my bag, then he looked at my feet, at the shiny black stiletto on one foot and the big toe poking through the hole in the tights on the other.

The nearest clump wasn't mushrooms at all, it was a cluster of human toes poking through the dirt.

He was perhaps eight, thin and pale, with his toes poking out of his ragged sneakers.