These stories were inspired by actual people and events.

The Psychic Mechanic

Ruy is a psychic bum. He has a high-end motor repair shop hidden in a narrow street in Mandaluyong, but he does not look for customers. They look for him; he depends on walk-ins. He does not even have a name or a sign above the shop. But he has acquired a reputation among sports car buffs. One day, Gerry, a balikbayan knocks on the door.

GERRY: Got your name from a friend in California. I am mechanic. I have my own shop in Monterey. I need a tune-up. I brought my tune-up box that you can use.

RUY: I don’t use tune-up boxes.

GERRY: How do you get the proper oxygen-fuel mix?

RUY: I play it by ear.

GERRY: This I got to see.

RUY: The trouble with you Americans ….

GERRY: I am as much a Filipino as you.

RUY: Yes, by blood. But you think American. Depend on your instincts, not on machines. You have to listen to the engine purr. Forget your tune-up box.

Ruy puts in new spark plugs and a condenser; he adjusts the air and fuel intakes until he gets the right mix from the purring of the engine and the vibration of the carburetor.

GERRY: Wow. I apologize.

RUY: Keep your Pinoy wits about you. Don’t swallow everything American.

The Psychic Wine Taster

Soft-spoken Freddie is obsessed with wine tasting. He has been to wine cellars all over Italy and France. He meets Andrei, a famous French professional wine taster, who has his own television show. They are in a wine cellar in a small French village,

ANDRE: Let me give you a few tips about wine tasting. You smell more than taste initially. The aroma is important. Use your nostrils as much as your tongue when tasting wine. Where are you from?

FREDDIE: Filipino.

ANDRE: You Filipinos are not wine drinkers, I gather. You have a lot to learn.

FREDDIE: I am a wine taster.

ANDRE: But not professionally, right? I have never met a Filipino wine taster.

FREDDIE: Yes, it’s not my profession.

ANDRE: Okay, let me test how good you are. I have five unlabeled red wine bottles here. Pick any one and tell me about it.

FREDDIE: (Picking a bottle at random and taking a sip)

ANDRE: First of all, there is a procedure. You roll it in your tongue to smell it.

FREDDIE: (Ignoring Andre’s procedure) Roussanne 1974.

ANDRE: (Shocked) Wow, bull’s eye. How about this bottle?

FREDDIE: This is a Cotes du Rhone AOC.

ANDRE: What does AOC mean?

FREDDIE: Appellation d’origine controlee. It’s a labeling designation. This wine is made from Syrah grapes. In this case, it is blended with 20 percent white wine from a Marsanne vineyard.

ANDRE: I’m impressed. (Turning red) Sorry for looking down on you.

FREDDIE: You should be. Your apology for being a racist is accepted. Now I understand why my French friends admit French people can be so arrogant.

It’s my turn to give you some lessons. There are no rules in wine tasting because it is partly psychic. You can tell the village and the year of the grapes a bottle of wine came from by the thousands of inventories in your brain. It’s a combination of a photographic memory of smells in your brain and the history of wine making. (Freddie turns and walks away.)

ANDRE: I’m sorry.

The Filipino psychic is eastern and knows no bounds, like the psychic healers who can tell you have a broken rib by taking your pulse. Or like Efren the magician. I call him the psychic pool player. He knows by instinct if his shot will go in.