"Twelve people. Twelve patients in the same ward. Twelve people from all over the vast country. A ward code-named Twelve. That's a special ward. This ward is generally the final stop before transferring into a different dimension. All the patients here have one thing in common: the diagnosis. The diagnosis is all about the malfunctioning of a very important fork-shaped gland, the thymus. People end up in this ward in very rare cases. In fact, the ward is the only one of its kind in the entire country. The ward is located in St. Petersburg, the former city of Leningrad.

 Twelve is a holy number for many nations. Historically, the preference for the number twelve goes back to the twelve zodiac signs. In Bible stories, Jacob had twelve sons, who were the progenitors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. In Ancient Greek religion, the Twelve Olympians were the principal gods of the pantheon. The New Testament describes twelve apostles of Jesus. The Book of Revelation 12:1 mentions a woman ─ usually interpreted as the Virgin Mary ─ wearing a crown of twelve stars. In Shi'a Islam, there are twelve Imams. There are twelve thousand people sealed from each of the twelve tribes of Judah (the 144,000) in prophecies found in the Book of Revelation. The number twelve is often used as a sales unit in trade and is often referred to as a dozen… and so on. As for me, the word “twelve” reminds me of past memories associated with years of teaching in college and my long-gone friends..."

                                                                -  Rachel Madorsky

Maestro