The storm was, however, now over and the umbrella was no longer needed. Now, fully clothed and armed with an umbrella that Jones also lent her, Fenster opens the door to brave the elements and go home. Finally realizing that she was telling the truth, Jones lent Fenster some of his niece’s clothes. After listening to her seemingly “far-fetched” story, he mentioned that he remembered hearing about an actual incident where someone’s clothes were literally torn from their body as a direct result of being struck by lightning. Moreover, she also told Jones that her clothes were blown off by the electrostatic charge embedded within the bolt that hit her. Fenster emphatically explained to Jones, in hopes that he would sympathize with her, that she was “hurrying along, trying to beat out this sudden storm,” when she was apparently struck by lightning. When firmly asked by Jones to leave, so as not give the wrong immoral impression to his niece who was asleep upstairs in her bedroom, Fenster refused to go back out into the storm half-naked. Shortly after Jones handed her his suit coat so that she could cover her private parts, he temporarily permitted her to come into the house. Feeling somewhat sorry for her, though, he waved her over to go to the front door. Shocked and embarrassed by her nakedness, he quickly closed the window on her. She was standing naked just outside one of the windows of his home during a thunderstorm that Jones (unintentionally) just so happened to conjure up when he mentioned Zotz. Professor Fenster’s first appearance occurs moments after Jones first mentioned the name of Zotz in one of the early scenes of the movie. Jones, inferring that they were either already married, or that they were going to get married soon. Near the end of the movie, Jones refers to Fenster as Mrs. A new colleague and possible romantic interest, Professor Fenster, is startled by Jones' behavior, particularly at a party thrown by Updike's wife that turns into chaos. In the meantime, Jones and rival professor Kellgore are both in line for a promotion to take over from retiring Dean Updike as head of this California university's language department. (This is a metaphor for the age of nuclear weapons, as the novel was written two years after atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Both government and Communist agents immediately develop an interest in the amulet's possible military use. Whoever has the amulet in their possession can 1) cause great pain by pointing at another living creature, 2) cause time to go into slow motion by saying the word "Zotz!", or 3) cause instant death by simultaneously pointing and saying "Zotz!". A brilliant but peculiar professor of Ancient Eastern languages, Jonathan Jones, finds that an amulet sent to his niece Cynthia by a boyfriend from an archeological dig has magical powers.
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