carver did not answer , his mind recalling some of the happier times he had spent with kim : the way he used to cover his mouth with his hand when he spoke when he was embarrassed ; the appearance of the thick veins in his forearms that he found so attractive ; his nave innocence when it came to so much of twentieth century popular culture , the result of so many years spent in the isolation of the hermit kingdom prior to the great reawakening .