The Aggravation of Elmer

"The Aggravation of Elmer" by Robert Arthur is a mid-20th century science fiction short story about a boy named Elmer with incredible scientific talents that creates a lot of problems for grownups. Combining humor and adventure, the story looks at what happens when kids and adults don't see eye to eye, using the chaos that happens when someone is too smart as an example. It all kicks off when Bill Rawlins sees a huge traffic jam because of Elmer's "unhappen genii," which can shut down anything electric, causing trouble everywhere. Bill wants to use Elmer's inventions to get rich, but things get out of hand when Elmer's anti-gravity experiments cause a big explosion, launching his whole garage, and maybe Elmer too, to who-knows-where. It ends up being a funny but serious story about being too reckless with scientific knowledge and how tricky it is to deal with young geniuses.