She had read the passage at least four times now – but could remember little of it.
She shuddered as the noise from above grew in intensity.
Almost every day she heard them yelling obscenities at each other, throwing stuff around and smashing the place up.
Sitting further into her chair, she drew her knees up, balanced the book on her thighs and put her fingers in her ears. But this did nothing to filter out the tumult overhead.
She tried to read more slowly – almost speaking each word.
Still the noise broke through.