“Martin! Hurry up! You'll be late for school! And you too, Jeannie! What are you doing? You'll miss the bus!”

Sally shouted up the stairs. On the stove, the kettle whistled loudly.

A voice from the landing yelled back.

“Sally! Where's my shirt? Have you ironed it?”

“Use your eyes, Bill!” she answered, equally loudly, trying to make herself heard above all the noise.

Moments later, her thirteen-year-old daughter appeared and threw her gym bag onto the kitchen table.

“Where's my P.E. Kit, Mum?” she shouted. “You know I have sports on Fridays!”

“For heaven's sake, Jeannie! Do you always have to yell at me like that? It's in the airing cupboard!”

As she spoke, her twelve-year-old son came thudding down the stairs and crashed through into the kitchen, closely followed by her husband who was still buttoning his shirt.

As they all dropped onto their seats around the table, Jeannie and Martin squabbling as usual, she pulled the tray from under the grill. The six slices of bread she had placed thereupon were still white, and only slightly warmed.

“Oh, what's happened to the gas? It's gone out!”

Outside, she could hear the clattering of men working. The pneumatic jackhammer was rattling at a volume that made her head hurt.

The clamour of voices in the kitchen seemed to echo inside her skull.

“They must be digging up the gas pipes again! Marvellous, innit? First day back at work of nineteen-sixty-six! Blimey, nothing changes. Can't even get a bit of breakfast before a hard day's graft!”

Bill got to his feet as he ranted about the state of the roads, the country, the government and everything. He kissed Sally as he left before slamming the door closed behind him.

“What about us, Mum? Don't we get any breakfast either?”

Before she had the chance to answer, the two children continued to shout at each other about something or nothing. Sally opened the kitchen drawer and took out her purse.

Giving Jeannie a ten-shilling note, she told her to get them something from the corner shop on the way to the bus stop.

“And don't spend it on sweets!” she shouted as they, too, crashed through the door and slammed it behind them.

At this point, Sally would normally have a few moments of calm, but not today, today was all about noise. The roadworks immediately outside, the traffic, which was snarled up because of the roadworks, and the blaring of car horns from drivers frustrated by the roadworks.

The water in the kettle was still hot enough to make coffee so she scooped out a teaspoon of granules from the jar, added a little milk and poured the not-so-hot water into the cup. Then she sat down for a moment and held her head in her hands.

Even above the noise from outside, she could hear her own heartbeat, like a bass drum pounding and pounding.

“Oh God!” she whispered. “Just a little peace and quiet. It's not too much to ask, is it?”

She took a mouthful of the coffee. It was horrible, but better than nothing.

For the next couple of hours, Sally cleaned and tidied around the house, but her headache was becoming unbearable. The only thing she could think of was to get some fresh air. Maybe that would clear it. They needed groceries anyway so she wrapped up warm in her heavy winter coat, pulled on her hat and gloves and headed towards the town.

The traffic was still heavy and the buildings on either side of the road just seemed to amplify it. Even the shops were noisy. Not all the schools were back and there seemed to be an inordinate number of screaming babies and yelling youngsters, or, maybe, she was just hearing it more because of her headache. To make matters worse, it was beginning to snow quite heavily!

The fresh air hadn't helped at all. It was the constant noise that was the problem and she didn't know how to escape it. She walked slowly home carrying her shopping in two large carrier bags.

Outside her house, Sally saw that the rattling Jackhammer had gone, as had the hole it was making. Instead, there was a large road roller, clanging back and forth across a patch of fresh Macadam.

She walked over to the workmen.

“Have you finished?” she yelled, in an effort to be heard.

“Yes!” the man in the black Donkey jacket yelled back. “The gas has been back on for a while now!”

“Oh, thank goodness,” she sighed as she headed for her door. “I can at least get a cup of tea.”

Sally put the key in the lock and turned it. As she pushed open the front door, the house erupted in an immense explosion of flame and dust. The sudden blast of pressure threw her back out into the garden where she lay, unmoving.

When she opened her eyes, Sally realised that she was lying on a hospital bed which was enclosed on three sides with curtains. Bill was by her side.

“Where am I?” she asked. She saw his mouth move but no sound came out.

Just then, a doctor in a white coat appeared. He too spoke to her but she heard nothing. Gradually she realised that it wasn't just their voices she couldn't hear, there were no other sounds either!

“I can't hear you!” she said aloud, but her voice seemed weird. It was as though she were feeling it rather than hearing it.

Bill wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to her. Your eardrums were destroyed in the blast, she read.

She looked at the doctor.

“But they will heal, won't they?”

He looked sad as he shook his head slowly.

Sally's eyes filled, and a tear escaped down the side of her face.

All she wanted was a little peace and quiet but now, even the silence was too loud...