From inside the tank in the gift shop, Marlin called desperately for Becky. “Loo-loo!Loo-loo!”
“Dad, stop. She’s not coming back,” said Nemo.
“She might,” said Marlin and he continued to call for her. “Loo-loo!Loo-loo!”
“Dad! She’s not coming back. Because you made her feel like she couldn’t do it,” said Nemo. Then he turned away and swam to the bottom of the tank. Marlin swam down to join him.
“You’re not talking about Becky, are you?” asked Marlin.
“I miss Dory,” said Nemo.
“Me too,” said Marlin with a sigh. He came nose to nose with a blue tang robot fish and pushed it away. “Truth is, I’m just so worried about her.”
“She’s the one who should be worried about us,” said Nemo.
“Well, she’d definitely have an idea of what to do if she were here. I don’t know how she does that.”
“I don’t think she knows, Dad. She just ... does.”
“Well, then, we’ll just have to ... think.”
They both fell into deep thought for a moment. Then they said simultaneously, “What would Dory do?”
“Yeah, what would Dory do?” said Nemo, excited.
“She would assess her situation, and then she’d evaluate. Then she would analyze her options —”
Nemo cut him off. “Dad. That’s ‘What would Marlin do?’”
“Right,” said Marlin. “That’s what I would do. She wouldn’t even think twice,” Marlin looked around. “She would just look at the first thing she sees, and —” He looked out through the glass of the tank and saw a series of fountains outside, across a plaza. A jet stream of water appeared to jump from one fountain to the next. An idea popped into Marlin’s head, but he sighed — could they really do that?
“Dory would do it,” said Nemo. He knew what Marlin was thinking.
Marlin took a deep breath and swam to the surface of the water. “Hold on to me!” They leapt out of the tank, bouncing off the top of a nearby stroller, and caught a stream of water as it shot out of the ground.
Like surfers catching wave after wave, the two managed to hop from jet stream to jet stream, making their way across the plaza. It was like flying!
But suddenly, all the jet streams shut off, and they plummeted to the ground. They flipped and flopped on the concrete, helplessly gasping for water.
“What ... would Dory ... do,” chanted Nemo.
“Just ... keep ... gasping,” said Marlin.
Suddenly, a burst of water shot out and carried them high up into the air. All at once, the jet streams had turned on again! Then Marlin and Nemo fell into a shallow outdoor tidal-pool exhibit with a SPLASH!
“Are you okay?” asked Marlin.
“Yeah! What would Dory do now?” asked Nemo.
A cheery voice piped up behind them. “Who’s Dory?”
It was a giant clam, attached to the wall of the tank.
“Oh, boy. Are we happy to see you,” said Marlin.
“Happy to see me? I’m happy to see you! I haven’t had anyone to talk to in years,” said the clam.
“Years? Wow. Well, unfortunately, we can’t stay long. We have to go because —”
“Now, why would you want to go? You just landed. Stay a while. Tell me all about yourself.”
“Well, I would love to, but my son and I have to get to Quarantine, so —”
“Wonderful thing, to have a son,” said the clam. He paused for a moment, lost in thought.
“Course, I didn’t have a family. I dated a nice scallop for a while.”
“Well, that’s fascinating,” Marlin said.
“But scallops have eyes,” the clam continued. “And she was looking for something different.” The group shared an awkward silence before the clam continued. “I’m kidding! Well, not about scallops having eyes. They do. And they see into your soul and they break your heart. Oh, Shelley! WHHHHYYYY?” The clam broke down into hysterics, crying and whining, as Marlin and Nemo watched uncomfortably.
Marlin turned to Nemo. “Now what would Dory do?”