Dory zipped through the pipes until she finally shot out into the dark, empty ocean. Panting, she helplessly called for her parents. "Mommy! Daddy!"

Searching for help, she raced up to a nearby fish. "Can you help me? I've lost them."

"Lost who?" asked the fish.

"Um ... I ... I," said Dory.

"Sorry, honey. I can't help you if you don't remember," said the fish, swimming off.

Dory looked around desperately and swam up to every fish she saw, asking for help, but she couldn't remember enough for anyone to offer any assistance. With each fish who turned her down, she became more and more frantic. Finally, feeling like there was nothing more she could do, she began to cry.

"I've lost ... everyone," Dory said to herself. She headed out toward the open water, feeling hopeless and blaming herself for everything that had gone wrong. Her face crinkled as she thought about how she was always so forgetful, and how that seemed to cause all her trouble. And even in that moment, the memories she so wanted to hold on to seemed to be slipping away. "I just forget. I forget ... and I forget," she muttered scolding herself. "I've lost ... something. Something important. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?"

Suddenly, Dory stopped. "What would Dory do?" The sound of that phrase made her pause. She took a few deep breaths to calm down. "I would ... look around," she said nervously, glancing up and down at her surroundings. "And ... um ... there's just water over there. And a lot of kelp over here. Kelp is better.... Okay." She swam toward the kelp forest. "Okay ... now what? Lots of kelp.... It looks the same. It all looks the same, except there's a rock ... over there. And ... and some sand this way. I like sand. Sand is squishy."

Something caught her eye. It was a shell. She swam toward it and noticed more shells. They were all lined up in the sand, forming a path.

She followed the shells, curious, until they led her to a little home made out of an old tire. Paths of shells led out from the house in every direction. "Wow!" Dory said, looking at all the neatly lined paths stretching out, far and wide. She swam into the tire, looking for its owners. "Hello?" she called. She swam around and continued to explore. Then she saw two fish off in the distance. She swam toward them, calling out, "Hello. I'm —" When she got close enough to see their faces, she was speechless. It was her mom and dad!

"Dory!" they shouted and rushed to her, smothering her with kisses and hugs.

"You're here .... You're really here .... You found us .... My missing girl .... You're here," said Jenny.

"Dory! Oh, my baby! Let me look at you. I'm never letting you go again!" shouted Charlie.

"It's you," Dory finally said. "It's really you." She couldn't believe it!

The family hugged each other tightly, and Dory burst into tears. Then she began apologizing. "I know I've got a problem," she said through tears. "I know, and I'm so sorry. And all this time I've wanted to fix it, and I can't." Her parents watched with sympathy and understanding as she struggled to find the right words. "And I try — I try. But my thoughts — they leave my head and ideas change. And I forgot you ... and I'm so sorry."

"Dory, Dory, Dory," said Jenny. "Don't you dare be sorry! Look ... look what you did!"

"What?" asked Dory, trying to stop her tears.

"You found us!" exclaimed Charlie, overjoyed.

"That's right! You found us!" said Jenny.

"I did?"

"Oh, honey, you found us. And you know why you found us? Because you remembered. You remembered in your own amazing Dory way."

"Why do you think we never gave up after all these years? And started making paths for you to find? Because we believed one day you'd find us again," said Charlie.

"Exactly!" said Jenny.

"But ... I thought you were gone," said Dory. "How did you —"

Jenny and Charlie explained what had happened all those years before, after Dory disappeared. They went to Quarantine to look for her, and when she wasn't there, they figured she must have gone through the pipes. So they left the Institute and had been waiting for her to find them ever since.

"We thought you might come back. And every day, we lay out —"

"Shells," said Dory, touched.

Jenny held Dory's face lovingly in her fins. "And you found us."

"I did," said Dory. "All by myself."

"Oh, honey. Really?" said Charlie. "Have you been ... by yourself all these years?"

"My poor little girl," said Jenny.

"Oh, I haven't been all by myself," Dory shouted. "Marlin and Nemo!"

 

多莉飕飕地滑过那些管道，最后被抛入黑暗寂寥的海洋里。她喘着气，无助地呼唤着她的父母：“妈咪！爹地！”

为了寻求帮助，她冲到了附近的一条鱼身旁。“你能帮帮我吗？我把他们弄丢了。”

“把谁弄丢了？”那条鱼问。

“嗯……我……我，”多莉说。

“对不起，亲爱的。如果你不记得，那我就没法帮你了。”那条鱼说着就游走了。

多莉走投无路地环视四周，只要看见有鱼，她便游上前去寻求帮助，可她只有零星的记忆，谁都没法提供帮助。鱼儿们纷纷拒绝了她，她也变得越来越狂乱。终于，她感到无能为力，哭了起来。

“我把所有人……都弄丢了。”多莉自言自语道。她朝着汪洋大海游去，感觉绝望无助，她不停地责备自己什么事情都做不好。她皱着眉头，回想着自己怎么会如此健忘，怎么会这样为自己惹来无穷麻烦。即便在那一刻，她非常想要抓住的记忆似乎也在一点一滴地消失。“我老忘事。我忘事……我忘事，她嘟囔着责骂自己，“我弄丢了……东西，重要的东西。我该怎么办？我该怎么办？我该怎么办？”

突然间，多莉停了下来。“多莉会怎么做？”脑海里响起的这句话让她停了下来。她做了几次深呼吸，冷静了下来。“我会……到处看看，”她紧张地说道，上上下下打探着周围的环境。“而且……嗯……那里就只有海水。那里还有许多海带。海带要好些……好吧。”她朝着海带密林游了过去。“好吧……现在呢？许多海带……看起来都一个样。看起来全都一个样，除了有块岩石……在那里。而……这边有些沙子。我喜欢沙子。沙子软绵绵的。”

某个东西吸引了她的目光，是贝壳。她朝那里游过去，发现了更多的贝壳。它们在沙地里依次铺开，形成了一条小径。

她好奇地跟着这些贝壳，一直游到一座由旧轮胎构成的小屋。房屋四周是通往四面八方的贝壳小径。“哇！”多莉望着所有这些四面扩散、绵延不绝、铺排整洁的小径说道。她游进轮胎屋内，寻找着房屋主人。“有人吗？”她喊道。她四处游动探寻着。这时，她看见远处有两条鱼。她一边朝着他们游去，一边喊道：“你好，我是——”等到她看清他们面庞之时，她却说不出话来了。那正是她的妈妈和爸爸！

“多莉！”他们叫喊着冲向她，又是亲吻又是拥抱，快要令她窒息了。

“你在这里……你真的在这里……你找到我们了……我失踪了的女儿……你在这里。”珍妮说。

“多莉！噢，我的宝贝！让我瞧瞧你。我再也不会让你走了！”查理喊道。

“是你们，”多莉终于开口道，“真的是你们。”她觉得难以置信！

这一家子相互紧紧地拥抱在了一起，多莉喜极而泣。然后她开始道歉。“我知道我有问题，”她含泪说道，“我知道，我真的感到很抱歉。一直以来我都想要治好，可我不行。”她拼命地想要找到合适的字眼，她父母则怜爱地望着、深表同情。“而且我努力——我努力了。可是我的记忆——它们从脑子里跑了出来，念头也就跟着转了。于是我忘了你们……我真的很抱歉。”

“多莉，多莉，多莉，”珍妮说，“不准你说抱歉！看看……看看你都做了什么！”

“什么？”多莉竭力止住泪水问道。

“你找到了我们！”查理欣喜若狂地大喊道。

“没错！你找到了我们！”珍妮说。

“我吗？”

“啊，亲爱的，你找到了我们。你知道为什么你能找到我们吗？因为你都记得。你用多莉特有的神奇方法记住了。”

“你觉得为什么这些年来我们一直都没有放弃？为了让你能找到我们，还建造起了贝壳小径？因为我们相信，总有一天你会找到我们。”查理说。

“确实如此！”珍妮说。

“可是……我还以为你们都去世，”多莉说，“你们是怎么——”

珍妮和查理解释了多莉失踪之后的这些年来都发生了些什么。他们去隔离检疫所找她，可发现她不在那里之后，他们就觉得她肯定是经由管道出去了。所以他们便离开了研究所，自那以后就一直等待着她来寻找他们。

“我们觉得你很可能会回来。每一天，我们都去铺——”

“贝壳。”多莉感动地说道。

珍妮慈爱地用双鳍捧起了多莉的面庞：“于是你就找到了我们。”

“我做到了，”多莉说，“全凭我自己。”

“噢，亲爱的。真的吗？”查理说。“这么多年来……你都一直独自生活吗？”

“我可怜的宝贝女儿，”珍妮说。

“啊，我不都是独自生活，”多莉喊道，“马林和尼莫！”