"Marlin will come find me. Marlin will come find me," Dory chanted in the dark. Suddenly, the light streamed in as the lid of the cooler was opened and she was dropped into a small tank. Dory paced as she looked around. She noticed the room was full of tanks.

Two marine² center staffers approached, and one plunged³ a net into Dory's tank. "I'm glad we found this one." The other reached his hand in and clipped an orange tag to Dory's fin¹.

"Huh? What's happening? Help!" groaned⁴ Dory as the two staffers left the room.

Dory didn't notice that behind her, an inspirational poster on the wall had come to life! A large orange, seven-legged octopus⁵ emerged from the picture. He had camouflaged⁶ himself to look like a kitten holding on to a rope.

Dory continued to pace nervously⁷ as the octopus slinked over to her tank. He watched her spin a few times before reaching in and suctioning himself to her tag.

"Hey, you. Spinner!" he said.

"Oh, thank goodness!" said Dory. "Hi, I'm Dory. I'm —"

"Name's Hank," he said. Then he looked at her. "How sick are you?"

"Sick?" Dory asked, alarmed. "I'm sick?"

"Why else would you be in Quarantine?"

"Oh, no. How long do I have? I have to find my family!" said Dory.

"All right, now — don't get hysterical," he said gruffly. Then he spotted⁸ her tag. "Uh-oh. Not good."

"What? What is it? What happened?" Dory asked anxiously.

Hank pointed⁹ to her tag, and Dory turned to see it. She gasped¹⁰. "What's that?"

"That there is bad news," said Hank. "It's a transport tag — for fish who can't cut it inside the Institute. They get transferred to permanent digs. An aquarium¹¹." Then Hank leaned in and whispered gravely, "In Cleveland."

"Cleveland?" Dory said, gasping¹². "No, I can't go to the Cleveland! I have to get to the Jewel of Morro Bay, California, and find my family —"

"That's this place," said Hank, interrupting her. "The Marine Life Institute. The Jewel of Morro Bay, California. You're here."

Dory couldn't believe it! "You mean I'm from here?" Then it dawned on her. "I'm from here!" she repeated.

Hank tapped on the glass of her tank. "So, what exhibit are you from?"

"Wait, I'm from an exhibit? Which one? I have to get there."

Hank sighed. "That's a hard one, kid. Unless ..." His voice trailed off. Then he said, "Nah, it'd never work. It's too crazy."

"What do you mean? Just tell me! I'm okay with crazy," said Dory.

"You know, I could see that," Hank agreed. "Well, there's one thing I can think of to help you get to your family." He started moving one of his tentacles¹³ toward the tag on her fin. "If I just take —"

Dory suddenly moved out of reach. "Yes! Great idea! You take me to find them! Why didn't I think of that?"

"Uh — no. If I just take your tag, I can take your place on the transport truck. Then you can go back inside and find your family. All you have to do is give me the tag."

"What tag?" Then Dory gasped. "There's a tag on my fin!"

Hank squinted¹⁴, trying to figure her out. "How could you forget you have a tag on your fin?" he asked, confused.

"Oh, no. I'm sorry. I suffer from short-term memory loss," Dory explained.

"You don't remember what we were talking about?" asked Hank.

"Not a clue. What were we talking about?" asked Dory.

Hank thought for a moment and saw an opportunity to get what he wanted. "You were about to give me your tag," he said.

"Well, I kinda like my tag. Why do you want it?"

"So I CAN GO TO —" Hank paused, wrapping his tentacles around the tank to pull it closer. Then he whispered, "So I can go to Cleveland." He was getting frustrated¹⁵.

"Cleveland? Hmm. I hear good things about Cleveland. Why do you want to go?" asked Dory.

"Because if I stay here, I'm gonna get released back to the ocean! And I have extremely unpleasant memories of that place! I just want to live in a glass box, alone. It's all I want!" Hank said, reaching for her tag. "So give me your tag!"

Dory flicked¹⁶ him away. "Hey, man, don't touch my tag."

Hank sighed. He slumped¹⁷ into the sink, looked around, and spotted a coffeepot. He grabbed it and guzzled¹⁸ down the little bit of coffee that was left inside.

"Look, I don't work here. It's not like I have a map of this place," he said.

"A map," said Dory. "Great! You can take me to a map, and I can figure out where my parents are. Oh, boy."

"All right. If I get you to your family, will you give me —"

"I don't have much ... Um ... how about if I give you this tag?" she offered.

Hank stuck the empty coffeepot into Dory's tank and scooped¹⁹ her up along with some water. "Great idea," he said sarcastically²⁰. Then he carried the coffeepot toward the door, with Dory swishing inside.

 

“马林会来找我的。马林会来找我的。”多莉在黑暗中反复地念叨着。突然，随着冷却器的盖子被打开，一束光亮射了进来，她被放入了一个小水箱里。多莉一边缓缓地游动一边四处张望，她发现这个房间里都是水箱。

两名海洋中心的工作员工走了过来，其中一人将一个网兜伸进了多莉的水箱。“真高兴我们发现了这条鱼。”另一人将手伸了进去，把一个橙色的标签夹在了多莉的鱼鳍上。

“哈？这是怎么了？救命！”两名员工离开了房间时，多莉呻吟道。

多莉没有注意到，就在她的身后，墙上一幅极富灵感的海报突然动了起来！一只橙色的七爪大章鱼从海报上爬了出来。刚才他把自己伪装成了一只抓着绳子的小猫。

这只章鱼朝她的水箱偷偷地溜过来时，多莉还在焦虑地来回游动。他盯着她转了好几次圈，然后靠过去，被她的标签给吸引住了。

“嘿，你。转圈圈的！”他说。

“啊，谢天谢地！”多莉说。“嗨，我是多莉。我是——”

“在下汉克。”他说。然后望着她，继续问道：“你病得有多重？”

“病？”多莉惊恐地问道，“我病了吗？”

“不然你为什么会在隔离检疫所？”

“啊，不。我还能活多久？我必须得找到我的家人！”多莉说。

“好了，现在——别歇斯底里了，”他粗声说道，然后瞥见了她的标签，“啊哈。不妙啊。”

“什么？怎么了？发生什么事了？”多莉紧张地问。

汉克指了指她的标签，多莉随之扭头看了一眼。她倒吸一口冷气：“那是什么？”

“那个就是坏消息，”汉克说。“这是运输标签——贴在那些不能再待在研究所里的鱼身上。他们得被运送到永久居住地去。一家水族馆。”然后汉克倾身上前，严肃地低语道：“在克利夫兰市。”

“克利夫兰市？”多莉气喘吁吁地说道。“不行，我不能去克利夫兰！我得去加利福尼亚的明珠莫罗湾，去找我的家人——”

“这里就是啊，”汉克打断她，说道，“海洋生物研究所。就是加利福尼亚的明珠莫罗湾。你就在这里啊。”

多莉听了简直不敢相信！“你的意思是，我就来自这里？”然后她醒悟过来。“我来自这里！”她重复道。

汉克敲了敲她的水箱。“那么，你是来自哪个展厅？”

“等等，我来自哪个展厅？哪一个呢？我必须得去那里。”

汉克叹了口气。“那可不是件容易的事，孩子。除非……”他的声音渐渐小了下来，“不成，这可行不通。这太疯狂了。”

“你是什么意思？快点告诉我！我不怕疯狂。”多莉说。

“要知道，这点我倒是看出来了，”汉克承认道，“好吧，我想到有种方法可以帮你找到你的家人。”他摆动着自己的一只触角，指了指她鱼鳍上的标签。“只要我能拿——”

多莉突然闪到汉克碰不到的地方。“对的！好主意！你带我去找他们！为什么我就没有想到呢？”

“呃——不是。只要我拿走你的标签，我就可以代替你上运输车。然后你就可以回到里面去找你的家人。你要做的就是把那个标签给我。”

“什么标签？”然后多莉屏气道，“我的鳍上有个标签！”

汉克眯着眼，想要弄明白她是怎么回事。“你怎么会忘了自己的鳍上有个标签？”他困惑不解地问道。

“啊，不。对不起，我有短时记忆丧失症。”多莉解释道。

“你不记得我们刚才聊了什么吗？”汉克问。

“一点儿也不记得了。我们刚才聊了什么？”多莉问。

汉克思索了一会儿，发现可以趁机得到他想要的东西。“你打算把你的标签给我。”他说。

“喔，我还挺喜欢我的标签。你为什么想要它？”

“这样我就可以去——”汉克停顿了一下，用他的触角缠住水箱将其挪近了一些。然后他低语道：“这样我就可以去克利夫兰市了。”他有些不耐烦起来。

“克利夫兰市？嗯。我听说克利夫兰市不错。你为什么想去那里？”多莉问道。

“因为如果我待在这里，就会被放归海洋！我对那地方有着很不愉快的回忆！我只想生活在玻璃箱里，独自一个人。这就是我想要的！”汉克说着，伸手去拿她的标签，“就把标签给我吧！”

多莉轻轻躲过：“嘿，老兄，别碰我的标签。”

汉克叹了口气。他滑落到水槽里，四处张望，然后看见了一个咖啡壶。他一把将它抓起，喝光了里面剩下的一点咖啡。

“你瞧，我不在这里工作。虽说我没有这个地方的地图。” 他说。

“地图，”多莉说，“好极了！你可以带我去找张地图，这样我就知道我父母在哪里了。啊，好家伙。”

“好吧。要是我帮你找到家人，你可不可以给我——”

“我没什么东西……呃……我把这个标签给你怎么样？”她提议道。

汉克将空咖啡壶伸进多莉的水箱，把她连水一起舀了出来。“好主意。”他挖苦道。接着他拿起咖啡壶朝着门口爬去，多莉在壶里随着晃动沙沙作响。

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