The pier was empty, the streetlights jilted, barely illuminating the pathway. The sun was still lazy, lying underneath the cloud covers. The nauseating smell of diesel oil lingers around the pier. Crates of solid wooden boxes piled up around the jetty. The lights were out and a silhouette of a man casually walked along the pier as the swift winds flirted with him. Haizal was humming, the butt of his fishing rod rested on his palms while the body of the fishing rod lay on his right shoulder. He was carrying an ice box on his left hand. He walked to the end of the pier.

"Ah another new day, another new catch, another day to find that darn stingray." He said to himself as he took a deep breath of stinky fuel oil, and immediately coughed violently like a sick old man.

It was a few days ago when he overheard that his uncle proudly declared that he caught a 5 kg stingray right on this pier. Everyone was excited, including Haizal. Ever since the stingray story, he vowed to catch such a stingray like his uncle's. Four days have passed and still nothing, he said to himself, someday the day will come.

The sun managed to peeked through the cloud covers by the time Haizal took out his lures and setting up his fishing rod, revealing himself. He was lanky and his hair was a mess of black and red. His eyes looked yellow and his teeth were crooked. His white t-shirt was a masterpiece of dirt and splatters all over it and his brown khaki pants was crumpled with creases.

The fishing rod was ready to be casted as Haizal stood at the edge of the railing, raised his rod and swung it to the ocean. But he found himself on the ground instead. The lure hooked onto his T-shirt and pulled him to the ground as he swung his rod. He giggled at his silliness as he unhooked the lure from his shirt. He tried again, hoping that the same thing will not happen again. This time he successfully casted the lure into the ocean, he took a sigh of relieve.

The sun was out full force and glaring. The winds have died down. The waves danced around while the casting line stood there stagnant. The heat was killing him and the stench was not helping at all. So there he was, the only things accompanying him are his barely moving line, his fishing rod and his ice-box.

"Hi there" Someone broke the silence. It was a little girl. Haizal didn't move at all he just stood there under the burning sun. The girl was carrying an umbrella. There was more awkward silence

"I'm Lilly" the girl said as she proceeded to danced around the pier singing "I'm singing in the rain". Her umbrella lying on her shoulder. That was the only lyrics she knew. Haizal was still focusing on the line. Sweat was beading around him; suddenly he found something knocking slightly onto his head. It was an umbrella. He looked around and saw Lilly holding her umbrella as high as she could. She was standing on a crate almost tip-toeing. He smiled to appreciated her kindness and bend his knees a little so that the umbrella could shade him. He stood in that position while the girl shaded them both with her umbrella. An awkward silence falls back again.

"I love cats, once I brought a cat home to play, it was lovely and I was at the top if the world at that time. Then the next day he took a massive dump behind the television and my father chased him off. I never saw him again." It was a very random moment when Lilly said that. A second later, Lilly burst into fits of laughter while Haizal smiled. He sincerely thought that it was the most hilarious thing he had heard the entire week.

Suddenly the line was moving frantically, Both Haizal and Lilly sucked in some air as the line dance around the water. Slowly, Haizal reel his potential catch slowly, not trying to agitate the fish or whatever it is. As he pulled on his rod and reel in his catch, a silhouette was slowly emerging and with a final tug, he lifted the rod up. And up comes a fish violently shaking for its life. The girl was cheering and clapping while Haizal was contented he put the fish into the bucket of water he already prepared. The fish stopped shaking as it entered the bucket of water. The girl glanced from a bird's eye view of the fish as it swam in circles, totally forgetting her duties. Haizal put the rod away to take a quick bite. He took some sandwiches he earlier prepared and give it to the girl, who was now dancing as though she had a sugar rush. She saw the sandwich.

"Thank you uncle!" She rushed forwarded to grab the sandwich. However as she ran to get her food, She tripped on the bucket and fell, the bucket flip and spilled everything. The fish was dancing frantically again as the water painted the dry flooring. The girl had a bruise on her knee and she was holding back tears. Haizal quickly took out the medicine kit he had and he applied some medicine on her knee. She sucked in short breaths as the medicine stung her knee. Haizal took a gauze and a bandage to cover the menacing looking bruise on her. He told her that everything would be alright as Lilly started to cry.

A few minutes later, Lilly stopped crying and grinned at Haizal. Haizal was relieved and he grinned back. When he looked at the bucket, he was shocked. The fish was nowhere to be seen. Instead, wet puddles are seen going to next to the railings. Apparently the fish bounced all the way to the railings and dropped all the way back to the ocean. All Haizal could do was drop his head and sigh.

It was 3pm and the sun was high up but it wasn't that hot though. Haizal casts the fishing line while Lilly was sitting on the wooden crate with her umbrella above her head.

"So why are you here?" Haizal suddenly asked out of the blue since it was weird for a little girl to come to the pier all by herself.

"I live near here. See that house over there? That's my house" Lilly pointed over to mansion over the hills. True enough it was just near the pier. "My parents are always working, and my maid, Maria is always sleeping. So I snuck out while she's sleeping"

"You should get back; your maid should be worried about you." Haizal said while he was still focusing on the fishing line

"Let her worry, no one cares about me. Maria always doesn't allow me to do my things, but at midnight, her boyfriend comes into the house. She always locks her room when her boyfriend comes in, I don't even know what going on, but I heard noises. They are always laughing; do you think they are playing a game?" Lilly said with a grimace

"Maybe" Haizal muttered as he reeled in a fish. "Alright you can stay as long as you want, but when I'm gone you go home too promise."

"Ok, you're funny, I like you!" Lilly said with a smile. Haizal grinned while recasting the line.

The sun was turning 45 degrees down as Lilly kept talking and talking to Haizal. Revealing what she wants to be when she grows up, she wants to be single all her life because boys are hopeless, and at the same time she wants to be a singer, a lead singer in a fabulous play. With her dressing up in all sorts of beautiful clothes, she giggled at the likes of what she said. Haizal was all but solemn. Not that his facial expression changed that much. In a train of thought, he wonders at his aspirations, he has none. He wanted to be a kindergarten teacher when he was a kid though, does that count? He wondered. Nothing has change for him, it's like everyone grew up and moved on, except for him. He was still in his sea of memories thinking about his past when Lilly cut into him.

"So why do you come here." Lilly asked

"To fish." Haizal sarcastically said that as if what he's doing isn't obvious enough

"Don't you have anything you want to do?" Lilly asked him.

"My dreams? You're talking bout? None, I have none."

"So fishing is all you have got?" Haizal nodded. Lilly hesitated for a while.

"That is so sad." Annoyed, Haizal continued to fish ignoring the silly little girl

Soon it was 6 pm, the sun was heading south and the place was cool. Haizal was still fishing while Lilly was laying on the pier singing "raindrops falling on my head" followed by a string of "la la la"s, her umbrella was now on the floor. Haizal was smiling, a couple of fishes swam in circles around the bucket and there were no 5 kg stingrays for that day too. He remembered about the stingray, and considered it for a while. Maybe catching a giant stingray is his aspiration now; He did a mental smile as he can finally have a dream for real.

He decided to call it the end of the day. Even though there were still 2 more fishes from his daily target catch, he was tired. He disassembled his fishing rod and called to the girl that he was leaving. He took his ice box and the bucket and his fishing rod. The girl left with him and they saw a frantic man at the pier. It was Lilly's father and he took a sigh of relieve and ran to hug her. Apparently everyone was looking for her. Her father was grateful for Haizal for taking care of her daughter. He clutched onto Lilly's hands

"You see, everyone cares about you." Haizal says to Lilly

"Yeah I guess you are right." Lilly looked at her father and smiled. She looked at her Haizal and said in a softer tone. "My maid is so gonna get fired for this."

"Oh you betcha I will" Her father overheard their conversation and responded. Both Haizal and Lilly laughed and they all parted ways hopefully to see each other again.

The pier was once again empty, as the lights became alive again, the smell of the pungent oil still stayed while an open umbrella laid there peacefully