he knew precisely what silvia meant : at that moment , such was his concentration focused on the words of the young woman , he felt as though his own exterior world had shrunk ; the cool sea lapping at the beach ; the blue sky ; the desert sands beyond ; all distant horizons had been sucked in and distorted , like the convex reflection on the back of a shiny spoon , such that his current universe did not extend to any point beyond the extremities of silvias face .