ENFanji game set-up

Sophie held up the box. Swooping wooden carvings decorated the top. Each corner was adorned with a small scene inside of a circle. One corner depicted a woman’s face looking very surprised. Another depicted a hand throwing a piece of cloth. The next had someone running through a sports arena. The final one had some kind of detective facing away from the viewer, their arms were held out to the side while their coat billowed in the wind like a superhero. The woodwork was ornate and it looked ancient, closer to something you’d find in a museum rather than a game store. The logo emblazoned across the center read: ENFANJI.

“Enfanji? Really?” asked Mia, “What does that even mea-”

“Uuuuuuggh! A new game? You always look up strategies onliiiiine… Can’t we play some more of that Dragon Inn game? I almost had you last time!” squeaked Faith, cutting Mia off with a storm of complaints.

“I didn’t bring Red Dragon Inn. All the expansion packs wouldn’t fit in the car after you packed your entire wardrobe! Anyways, you can’t look up strategies for this one. It’s an antique. No info online. Completely underground stuff,” said Sophie, smiling at the prospect of finding such a unique game.

Faith’s entire posture perked up. “Underground, huh?” she said with a sparkle in her eye. Her previous annoyance was replaced with curiosity.

Mia’s previous faux excitement was replaced with uncertainty. Uncertainty at the prospects of spending hours learning a new game, but also uncertainty at playing such a dusty crusty looking ancient old game. Sophie usually sprang for new releases and fancy shmancy modern games. “What’s it about?” she asked.

They cleared off the coffee table and put the rest of the cake back in the fridge. The bottom of the box had several more strange carvings that Sophie showed off for a few seconds. There was someone crawling through a tight crawl space, someone standing in a circle with their arms down and hair standing up, someone checking the mail, and someone getting ready for a medical exam with their legs elevated.

Faith wasn’t paying too much attention to the context of all the random scenes, since it didn’t seem like it would give her a leg up in the game. Sophie was just trying to find a description or some text to read off and didn’t pay the images any mind either. Mia couldn’t make heads or tails on why this game would include so many random carvings.

Sophie placed the game back down, and opened up the box. The whole thing folded outward like a double door and flattened out on the coffee table. The wooden carvings continued on the inside, and the trio studied what they were even looking at.

The board had several linear winding and branching paths weaving in a complex pattern toward one destination. One rectangular area seemed to be reserved for rolling dice, with a pair placed in the center along with several player game pieces to choose from Monopoly-style. More wooden carvings were laden along the edges depicting a hallway full of lockers, a beach, and a parking lot.

“What a weird motif…” Mia mumbled.

“Not a lot of game pieces-” said Sophie.

Faith interrupted with, “Where’s the instructions?! I don’t want you hoarding all the info to yourself!” She rummaged around through the game pieces.

“Right here,” said Sophie, pointing at the box’s rectangular dice-rolling area. It had large print words. She began reading aloud. “Enfanji. A game for those who seek to find a way to leave their clothes behind. You roll the dice to move your token. Doubles gets another turn. The first player to reach the end wins.”

“Did you say clothes-?” asked Mia, leaning in to read it herself.

Faith interrupted with, “Is that all? The game seems pretty simple. Did you just bring us Candyland 2.0, Soph? Lookin’ to school us in a kid’s game?”

Mia tried to pipe up about the weird tagline at the top, but the two others just kept bickering about one or the other getting the smallest edge in the game.

“Where did you say you got this thing? Did they give you any hints?” asked Faith.

“I’ve got a guy at the game store who hooks me up with weird finds like this. He didn’t tell me anything!” Sophie defended herself.

Faith further provoked the board game expert. “Oh you hooked up with a guy at the game store? Tell us more… After your passionate night of lovemaking, did he happen to tell you what all the colored spaces mean?”

She motioned toward the winding board and all the differently colored spaces.There were four types. Orange, green, teal, and red. Almost half the spaces were orange with a good number of green and a spattering of a few teals and reds.

“All he said is that the game’s not for the faint of heart and I should play it only with people I really trust,” Sophie said, completely shrugging off Faith’s lovemaking taunts.

“Guys, what does it mean by ‘Leave our clothes behind’?” Mia finally spoke up.

Sophie and Faith looked at each other, then shrugged.

Sophie said, “Well we don’t really drink in Red Dragon Inn, and you don’t really get a mortgage in Monopoly. Maybe it’s just a fashion game or something. I bet it’ll explain as we play.”

Mia wasn’t totally convinced. “I don’t know, I just have a weird feeling…” she mumbled.

“You make us get mortgages in Monopoly because you’re a big fat cheater, Soph!” said Faith, turning toward Mia. “But she’s right, I bet this is some kind of fashion empire simulator or maybe Candyland mixed with laundry for some reason?” As she said this, she picked up one of the player pieces in the shape of a laundry basket. “I’ve seen weirder games in Sophie’s favowite stowe that she just can’t bawe to not go to evewy day! Waah…” Faith’s voice morphed into a baby-ish tone to mock the brunette’s daily hang out spot.

Sophie ignored Faith and knew just what to say to get Mia back on board. “Weeelll I guuueeess if you’re not interested we can go back to the nudist show…” said Sophie, reaching for the remote and looking over Mia’s shoulder at Lucy’s open door.

“No, no. Let’s just get this thing started already!” chirped Mia. She snatched the remote and put it in the coffee table drawer.

Of the four game pieces, the girls each took the one that tickles their fancy. Faith took a high heel. Sophie grabbed the laundry basket. With only two remaining, Mia took a mailbox and left what looked like a pizza box unused.

They went to place them at the starting space, and the small metal pieces shot out of their hands, locking into place at the start.

“Magnets, gotta be,” Sophie reassured them. “So, who wants to go first?” she asked while grabbing the dice.

Faith plucked them from her grasp, triumphantly taking the dice from the board game tryhard. “The Birthday Girl, of course,” she stated, holding out the dice for Mia.