Thanks to Literotica member, Smoothed for help with editing.
*****
Audrey Reynolds cried as the monitor was clamped around her ankle as she sat on the dining room chair. Her eighteen-month sentence for possession of a controlled substance began today. In this case, several doses of a certain psychedelic that she had brought back with her from college that she had slipped into the cellophane wrapper of a cigarette pack. Audrey had carelessly left the pack out in the open on the console of her car during a DUI checkpoint.
Her father, James, stood over her wearing a blank expression.
"Audrey, you should feel lucky that you're not going to jail." James rubbed his daughter's shoulder lightly as she slumped in her chair.
"I know, Dad. I'm so sorry!" She began crying again, turning to her father and wiping her tear-streaked face in his flannel shirt.
The technician from the monitoring service finished the adjustments to the device then left some paperwork about the monitor before leaving. Actually, the thing was considerably smaller than James envisioned it would be. It was about the size of a man's sport watch and didn't look too cumbersome at all.
Audrey's sentence was fair in her father's eyes: eighteen months under house arrest with no outside privileges. Aside from having to report to her case manager every 60 days, and medical appointments, she was confined to her home. Thankfully, Audrey had no criminal record and had just graduated from university with honors. The judge considered these factors as well as the fact that he knew Audrey's mother who served as a prosecutor in his courtroom for ten years prior to her death last year after losing her battle with breast cancer.
James and Audrey had a difficult time adjusting to the loss of their beloved wife and mother. Audrey had drifted her senior year in college but was somehow able to maintain her grades despite getting involved with a wilder group of students who liked to party. Perhaps if her school was closer to home, James would have noticed the change in her personality and would have been able to intervene.
James and his deceased wife, Deena, had raised Audrey to be a strong, independent woman. Curious, yet cautious, and remarkably intelligent. James could recall only a couple of grades that dipped below an "A" in her entire academic career.
When Deena passed away, Audrey sought to escape the sadness by any means possible. Partying and sexual promiscuity were the two outlets she seemed to gravitate to immediately. James felt her interest in these wild activities could also have something to do with her being so uninterested in anything other than grades in high school and for most of college. He figured that she had gone through a period of rebellion. After graduating, she moved back in with her father and two weeks later, she was busted.
"What now?" Audrey looked up at her dad as he stood next to her.
"Now, you serve your sentence. Audrey, there's more to this than just the legal issues. I am also restricting you from having any friends over that you have met in college, or any that get high. They could require you to submit a urine sample to test for drugs at any time."
"All my friends from college are too far away to visit. Besides, I wasn't really close with any of them."
Audrey broke into tears again. This time, her father leaned over to hug her tightly.
"I love you Audrey." He rubbed her back lovingly before standing up.
"I have some suggestions as to what you can do during your time at home, and some mandatory chores that you will be responsible for."
Audrey was wiping her eyes with the bottom of her T-shirt.
"What do I have to do?"
"You will clean the house, organize rooms, prepare meals for us, work on your resume...we can create a more detailed list together. I will also be sure to keep you in books and anything else you might want to pass the time."
"Okay, Dad. That sounds fair." Audrey stood up and hugged her dad again.
"I want you to appreciate how fortunate you are to have your life, and that you're not serving your sentence in jail." James pulled back and looked his daughter in the eye.
"I know, Dad. I know I'm lucky, I really do."
Audrey looked down at her ankle monitor and shook her leg to check its tightness and weight.
She told herself, 'It's not that bad. Dad's right, I'm really fortunate.'
James watched his daughter disappear down the hallway and into her bedroom. She took after her mother in so many ways. She had her mother's long, toned legs, straight blonde hair, and deep blue eyes, but her narrow waist, perky breasts, and perfectly curved butt reminded James of his sister. Audrey was a beautiful young woman. James always thought she looked like an elf princess; like one of the elf women from the Lord of the Rings. Audrey loved his description of her and used to ask that he invent bedtime stories about his "elf-princess" as she fell asleep. James loved his daughter and despite her current setback, he was still very proud of her.
In contrast to Audrey's petite size, James was large and burly. A few inches over six feet and just under 210 pounds, James was a large, muscular man. Audrey called him her "Daddy-bear" growing up as he had a lot of hair on his chest and, at that time, wore a beard. James had dark blue eyes and thick brown hair that he kept cut short. He was a handsome man.
James owned an insurance agency with thirty employees. His office wasn't too far from his home, and he could work out of his home office if he was needed to help Audrey with anything. James would typically work from home a couple of days a week just to keep Audrey company, and on the days he went in to the office, he tried to come home early. He had done well to maintain his business, even after the death of his beloved Deena.
Over the next two weeks, James and Audrey settled into a routine. They had created a detailed list of things she could do to pass her time, which she posted on a small bulletin board in her room. She was also making progress on the various projects that her father had for her.
One of the routines that was quickly established was watching movies. James and Audrey began to watch movies together, a couple of times each week at first, then every night, and sometimes during the day when James stayed home from work. While Audrey was at school, James had converted the den at the back of their home to a media room. He hung dark, thick drapes over the windows, bought a large, HD TV with a sound system, and had purchased a big, comfortable couch stretching across the room in front of the TV. It was a movie watcher's paradise.
After a busy day at work, James came home to a quiet house. He saw that Audrey had already eaten and guessed that she was most likely in the media room. He entered the room and must have startled Audrey who jumped in her seat on the couch as he came in.
"What's on the marquee tonight, Princess?" James settled down on the couch with his daughter.
Audrey was scrolling through the browser, using the Internet feature on the TV.
"Umm. Well, I've been searching on the Internet for information about gardening so I haven't checked yet," she replied, sounding slightly nervous for some reason.
"That's a great idea! There's all kinds of room out back where you can grow vegetables and still be within the boundaries of the monitor." James looked down at Audrey's ankle.
"That's what I was thinking." Audrey switched the TV back to cable and was now searching movie titles.