Dory tumbled through the water and bumped into the glass enclosing an undersea exhibit. She blinked her big eyes and saw a group of children on the other side. They stared at her as their tour continued.
“Our next guest has been here a very long time. She’s a whale shark,” said the tour guide. “Her name is Destiny.”
“Destiny?” said Dory with surprise. “Really?”
“You’ll notice she’s extremely nearsighted and has trouble navigating her environment — Oh! Here she comes now!” said the guide, turning toward the glass.
A giant whale shark entered from the other side of the pool. She weaved uneasily, this way and that, as she swam toward Dory with squinted eyes. “Destiny!” said Dory. “You’re a fish?”
“Wait ... what?” Destiny said and swam haphazardly through the tank as she strained even harder in an effort to see. She swerved at the last minute to avoid hitting Dory and the glass.
“Can you help me?” Dory asked. “Whoa,” she said when Destiny nearly crashed into her. “All right, I’ll go with you.” She followed Destiny and tried to get her attention while Destiny zigzagged around the tank. “Excuse me? Hi. Can I just speak to you for a sec?”
Unfortunately, Destiny was distracted. She continued to twist and contort her face, trying to see clearly enough to avoid the walls. She was always crashing into them. “I got it .... I got it .... I got this .... I ...,” Destiny said. But she quickly lost confidence and began to panic. “Where’s the wall? Where’s the wall?” Destiny asked frantically. She was headed straight toward the viewing glass! The tourists on the other side began to panic, too!
At the last moment, Dory took Destiny’s fin and righted her. Dory smiled and waved as Destiny opened her eyes, sighing with relief. With Dory’s help, she’d avoided the crash.
“Excuse me —” said Dory.
“Who is that?” asked Destiny, squinting. “Is that blue blob talking?”
“Can you help me? I lost my family and —”
“You lost your family?” Destiny asked.
“Well, it’s a long story, and truth be told, I don’t remember most of it,” Dory admitted.
“Oh, that is so sad! You poor —” Destiny rammed into a wall. “Sorry. I’m not a great swimmer. Can’t see very well.”
“Oh, I think you swim beautifully,” said Dory. “In fact, I’ve never seen a fish swim like that before.”
“ThAAnkyooOoou!” she said, speaking in whale.
“Yooooouuuuuuu’reweeeeeeeelcooooooooome!” Dory answered in whale.
“Wait. Say that again,” said Destiny.
“You’re welcome!” Dory repeated.
Destiny paused for a moment. “Dory?” she asked, her eyes growing wide. She recognized this fish! “You and I were friends!”
“You know me?” asked Dory. She swam close to one of Destiny’s eyes so the whale shark could take a closer look.
“Aw, you’re so pretty!” Destiny said. Then she lost her balance and sank toward the bottom of the pool. But Dory stayed with her. “Of course I know you!” Destiny continued. “We’d talk through the pipes when we were little. You from your exhibit, me from here. We were pipe pals!”
“We were?”
“It was so much fun, because I’d tell you a story, and then you’d completely forget about it. And then I’d get to tell it to you over and over again. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“No. Well,” Dory’s eyes shifted downward. “I mean ... I don’t remember.”
Destiny reached the bottom of the pool upside down and stayed there, chatting with Dory. “Yes! See, that’s what I’m talking about! Oh, it’s so great to finally meet you!” said Destiny happily.
“So you know where I’m from?” Dory asked anxiously.
“Yeah,” answered Destiny. “The Open Ocean exhibit.”
Dory was thrilled! “Can you take me there?” she quickly asked.
“Uh ... kinda tough for a whale to travel around here,” said Destiny. She started to look around and realized she was upside down. Dory offered Destiny her fin again, and helped the big fish turn right-side up.
“So you’re a whale?” asked Dory. “Uh ... whale shark, to be exact. But let’s be honest, who likes sharks?”
Suddenly, Bailey, a beluga whale, appeared at a gate that divided the two pools. “Can you please keep it down over there?” complained Bailey. “My head hurts.”
Destiny sighed. “That’s my neighbor, Bailey,” she whispered. She explained that he had been brought to the Institute because of a head injury.
“I know you’re talking about me, Destiny,” snapped Bailey.
Bailey tried to move around to get a better view, but Destiny raised and lowered her fins, blocking him. “He thinks he can’t use his echolocation, but I’ve overheard the doctors talking. There’s not a thing wrong with him.”
“I’m right here. I hear every word you’re saying,” said Bailey.
“What’s echolocation?” asked Dory.
Destiny turned and faced Bailey. “Well, Bailey’s head is supposed to put out a call, and the echo helps him find objects that are far away. Oh, but apparently he’s still ‘healing,’” Destiny said.
“Now I know you’re talking about me,” said Bailey. “I really can’t echolocate.”
“Oh, I cannot have this conversation again. I just can’t,” said Destiny with a sigh.
“I hit my head very hard out there. See how swollen it is?” said Bailey, showing off his bulging head.
“Your head is supposed to be big! You’re a beluga!” said Destiny.
“Echo-lo-cation,” said Dory, puzzling over the word. “Oh! Like the world’s most powerful pair of glasses?”
“What?” asked Destiny.
“What are glasses?” asked Bailey.
“It’s sort of like you go ‘OoooOOOoooOooh’ and then you see things,” Dory said, pretending to echolocate. She paused for a moment. “Why do I know that?” she asked herself.
“Oh, that’s interesting,” said Bailey stiffly. He whispered to Destiny, “Your friend is weird.”
A pool toy splashed into the water, catching their attention. The toy unexpectedly transformed right before their eyes into ... Hank! He swam over to Dory. “There you are!” he shouted. “You and I are square,” he said firmly.
“Hank —”
“I took you to the map —”
Dory excitedly told Hank that she’d found out where she was from.
“Open Ocean?” said Hank. “I know where that is. That’s the exhibit located right next to” — he leaned in and whispered — “I don’t care.”
Destiny told Dory she could get to the Open Ocean exhibit through the pipes. “Take two lefts, swim straight, and you’ll hit it.”
“Oooh, that’s a lot of directions,” said Dory nervously. “Did you get that, Hank? All that?”
But Hank wasn’t interested. “I’m not going with you,” he said. “I won’t fit. You have to go by yourself.”
Dory was afraid. She didn’t trust herself to remember the right way to go. “I’m not so good with directions.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” said Hank. “A deal’s a deal. You want to get to your parents — that’s how you get to ‘em,” he continued, sticking out a tentacle and pointing toward the pipes. “Now give me your tag!”
“But, Hank, I can’t go into the pipes alone. I’ll just forget where I’m going,” Dory pleaded.
“Not my problem,” said Hank. He jutted out another tentacle and yelled, “Tag!”
“But I can’t get in that way!” yelled Dory.
“Well, I’m sorry, but there’s no other way!”
“There’s no other way,” said Dory quietly.
FLASH! Another memory popped into her head.
She could see the grass entrance outside her childhood home as her younger self tried to pull up a shell that was buried deep in the sand.
“There’s no other way,” little Dory said, ready to give up.
“Don’t panic,” said Charlie, swimming over to her.
“It’s okay,” said Jenny. “Not everything in life is easy to do. Isn’t that right, Charlie?”
“That’s right. When something’s too hard, Dory, you should just give up,” said Charlie.
Jenny was startled. “Charlie! How can you —?”
“A joke. I’m kidding! Just a joke ... Caution! Joker at work!” he said, chuckling.
“Oh, honey. Oh, a joke ... I got it,” said Jenny, relieved.
Charlie used his tail to wiggle the shell and pry it out of the sand. It popped right out, and little Dory joyfully plopped inside. Charlie pushed Dory and the shell back toward their coral cave house, lining it up with a bunch of others. “See, kelpcake,” said Charlie, smiling. “There’s always another way.”
Charlie hugged little Dory tightly as she giggled.
The memory vanished when Dory opened her eyes. She was hugging Hank’s tentacle as Hank tried to sneak the tag off her fin!
“Nope,” said Dory. “My father said, ‘There’s always another way.’” She quickly headed for the surface as Hank chased after her. Dory scanned the area, and Destiny pointed out the Open Ocean building over the hill.
“Open Ocean. It’s that building right there. The one that looks like Bailey’s head.”
Bailey surfaced. “Wait, what?”
Then Hank surfaced. “There is absolutely no other w —”
Dory pointed to a rack of baby strollers in the distance, across from Destiny’s pool. “There!” she shouted, interrupting Hank. “We’re gonna use one of those and take it across the park to locomotion,” said Dory.
“Open Ocean,” said Bailey and Destiny, correcting her.
“Exactly,” said Dory.