I suddenly thought of the weird boy who used to live in the neighboring apartment when I see the Chinese film Resonate with many. And it suddenly occurs to me that I haven’t seen him for a really long time.

Resonate with many is a film aim to provide emotional supports for people during the outbroke of epidemic. The part impressed me the most is not how common people fights bravely with the virus, but a character that has mentality issue. He experienced a decrease in intelligence after a car accident when he was a child, so he acts as a naive and innocent child all the time. Despite this, he still spreads hope and gives off energy to others through his sincerity. This character in the film reminds me of the boy who has mentality issue living in the neighboring apartment.

He first appeared in our lives when I was still at the age where the only thing I care is playing with my friends in the neighorhood. I couldn’t recall when and how he became a part of our life, but he did occupy part of my childhood memory.

He loved singing with his micro phone loudly, didn’t care a bit about how the neighbors think of him. Sometimes when he saw us playing in the neighborhood, he would open his room’s window and sing it more loudly that we could all hear him. He sings awfully, so most of the time we just laugh at him, but if he happened to sing the song that we were all pretty familar with, we will sing along with him. At the end of every song, he usually shouts to us “How well do I sing?” We would applaud for him and shout “great!”

But not everytime is in such harmony. In some occasions, if he thinks we are too noisy shouting and chasing around in the neighborhood, he would open the window and stretch out his upper body out, pretending to be angry and shout at us “I will jump off the building if you keep making noise. I told you I will, I really will!” He kept shouting the same words, which we kept ignoring, and sometimes we shouted “You jump, then!” We know that he won’t dare to jump, and the truth is that he never did.

One of my friends told us secretly that he got some problem with his mind, so he behave like a child even younger than us. I asked what it means to have something wrong with his head, they said “It means he is stupid.” It is hard to connect him with a small child beacuase he is so tall and large. How could a person be like a child if he can lift me up like a chicken?

I asked my mother whether she knew the boy in the neighboring apartment, and she said she has heard of him. So I asked why he is stupid. My mother frowned and told me not to say that, and she said the boy has some mentality issue that he can not help with, and we should not laugh him for it.

But he is still a laughing stock of ours. Everytime he deliberately rides his squeaking bike passing by us and shouts “Come and chase after me!”making a face afterwards. We will laugh at him and pull his back seat to force him stop. He was never angry at us even at these occasions, instead he asks whether we want to try riding the bike.

We played a lot of tricks on him, but he was always smiling and never became angry once. He appeared silly to me when I was a child, and when I look back and see all those silly things we did to him, I felt regretful and ashamed. The young and ignorant me at that time never truly understand how some people ia born to be different with others and they couldn’t change it. The me grown up now understand he appeared as a innocent and, and I recalled . Although he might not know what kindness is, he is expressing it through his actions.

I remembered bouncing the ball with my playmate one summer afternoon on the playground in our neighborhood. It was so hot that people choose to hide in their cool house rather than spending time outside. For several minutues, only a couple of people passed by on the street. There is no sound except the cicadas chirping on the trees. The sound of the ball hitting the ground is so loud in the silence, as if the whole street could hear it. We were a bit tired from playing the ball, so we sit crossed-legged under the shade to cool ourselves and get some rest. Suddenly, a ringing sound broke the silence. When we looked up, a boy riding a bike stopped in front of us.

 “You little kids had lunch yet?” He asked, smiling.

Out of politeness, I said yes and asked what about him. He sounds really happy to hear me ask about him, and said enthusiastically “I had chicken for lunch. It is so delicious.”

Then he takes two candies out of his pocket and hands them to us. “Take these. They are my favorite ones.” The hands he reached out stopped in the air for a long time until I took the candies from them. “Mother told me not to eat anything given by strangers

The scene impressed me most is back in my primary school time, my mother walked me to school every morning. Sometimes when we pass by his window, he would stick out his upper body out the window, waving to us and shouting “You kiddo is going to school? Be careful on your way!” My mom will wave back to him politely and smiling to say thank you. And other times he stood at the neighborhood entrance saying goodbye to us and watching us leave. He always stood there for so long that when I look back at the end of the street, I could still see him waving at us.

I haven’t seem him for a long time, about two years? Or even three. Has he moved to somewhere else? Or maybe it’s just because I haven’t been out and play for a really long time, ‘cause every time we play, he will be in front of his window shouting at us. This reminds me of how long I haven’t been out and spend time with my playmates like before. We just all grew up and busy with our school work. We grew up, then we need to bear the consequences of it. I know that those hot summer days with cicadas chirping has gone forever and never will come back, along with it is my childhood, the good-old-days with no worries. All those silly things we did that cannot be finish telling for days and nights. I miss him, or maybe, I am missing the naive and ignorant feeling of him that reminds me of my childhood.