Liam specialised in the unusual. When we had once appeared incredulous regarding his assertion that he had four pet snakes, and that one had bitten him, he duly appeared the following day with a selection of shed snakeskins. So, our faces this time didn’t register disbelief, just puzzlement.

“I can bring it in.”

What was it? Some ghastly easter bunny whose electronic innards emitted a squeaky seasonal greeting?

Next morning Liam was in early, diving into his rucksack and pulling out a dreadful foot-high Schwarzenegger figure. The android was placed on the table. Liam, pressed a button on the panel on its back and the terminator doll squawked mechanically.

“Hasta la vista, baby!”

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