The Potential in Elliot

Sam Johnson is on his way to Elliot Richie’s house for help with a science report when Rodney Rathbone and Rusty Gordon insist on following. They have heard that Elliot keeps a laboratory in an old backyard playhouse and want to see what the strange young scientist is doing. An explosion and rising smoke make them run to the house, but Elliot claims he has merely burned hamburgers on the grill.

Elliot lets Sam through the gate for their study session. Rodney and Rusty slip in behind him and enter the laboratory uninvited. The playhouse is filled with chemicals, instruments, calculations, and equipment Elliot has assembled. When the boys pressure him to explain his work, he reluctantly admits that he is trying to find a cure for cancer. Rodney and Rusty have promised not to laugh, but they immediately mock him for imagining that a sixth grader could solve such a problem. Even Sam avoids saying that he believes in his friend.

At Whit’s End, Sam tells Whit how embarrassing Elliot’s announcement sounded. Whit asks whether Elliot has made any progress, surprising Sam by taking the idea seriously. Sam argues that Elliot is still a child and struggles in subjects outside science. Whit answers that every great person was once a child. Unusual interests do not have to end a friendship, and discouraging someone may prevent others from ever seeing what that person could become.

Rodney and Rusty enter and resume teasing Elliot through Sam. They hint that the Bones of Wrath have planned a “dose of reality” to make Elliot normal. Sam worries but does not yet know what they intend. Whit asks him to return after school the next day for a surprise.

The surprise is a new Imagination Station program that sends Sam to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1856. He hears someone calling for help from the middle of a lake and swims out, only to find a boy stranded in a boat without oars. Other boys had invited the stranger fishing, jumped overboard, and taken the paddles as a practical joke. Sam brings him safely to shore.

The rescued boy introduces himself as Thomas. His room is filled with homemade devices and experiments much like Elliot’s laboratory. Thomas is fascinated by electricity, telegraphs, balloons, and the possibility of flying machines. Sam shares descriptions of future inventions, which Thomas treats as wonderfully imaginative ideas.

Thomas then tries to make another boy float by feeding him seltzer powder. He reasons that because gas lifts a balloon, gas in a person’s stomach should produce the same result. Instead, his volunteer becomes sick. Thomas’s mother stops the experiment, and Thomas is punished for his recklessness.

Afterward, Thomas admits that his experiments have cost him friends, confused his parents, and repeatedly brought punishment. He asks whether he should abandon his strange interests and behave like everyone else. Still thinking about Elliot, Sam advises Thomas to play more and stop trying to discover things he may never discover because they are only children. Thomas sadly accepts that his work will probably never matter.

Then Sam hears Thomas’s mother call his full name: Thomas Alva Edison. Horrified, Sam realizes that he has discouraged the future inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, and movie projector. He shouts for Thomas to ignore his advice and keep experimenting, but Thomas has already left.

Sam appears to return to Whit’s End, only to find himself in a world without electric lights or motion pictures. Edison’s name is missing from the encyclopedia. Worse, Whit says Sam lives in an orphanage because his parents died in a gas explosion four years earlier. Sam believes his careless discouragement has changed history and destroyed both inventions and lives.

The program finally returns him to the real Whit’s End. The altered world was part of the experience; Sam has not actually changed history, and his parents are safe. Whit explains that criticism comes easily, while encouraging a person with an apparently impossible dream is difficult and often far more necessary.

Elliot arrives because Rodney has falsely told him that Whit’s End is hosting a lecture on fiber optics. Sam realizes the lie is meant to draw Elliot away from his laboratory. He and Elliot race to the playhouse and catch Rodney and Rusty tampering with chemicals. Sam orders them out and threatens to call the police if they continue. Once they leave, Elliot asks why Sam defended him after so much time keeping his distance.

Sam says that Elliot is his friend. He cannot know whether Elliot will cure cancer, but he now understands that ridicule should not decide what Elliot attempts. Remembering Whit’s words, Sam tells him that every great person was once a child and that he may be headed toward great things.