The Project - Courtney Summers Page 0,47

happening in The Project and she finds herself so eager to share it with Lo. But when is not for me to know.

They pull up to his apartment. Before Foster leaves the truck, he tells her to wait a moment. He has something he needs to say to her, something he needs her to hear.

He wants her to know how empty his life was before her. He wants her to know how he’d get up every morning feeling his purpose as a healer, but day by day, it was slowly ripped away from him, buried under bureaucracy, until he had none. He wants her to know he never thought he would be able to live in the aftermath of that dead child, and all those fingers pointed at him, but she arrived with God’s forgiveness in her open hand and gave him the will to continue. He tells her that he read in the Bible to take hold of hope and that hope is an anchor of the soul.

She gave him hope, she anchors his soul, Foster tells her, reaching into his pocket to produce a small jewelry box.

He wants her to know how grateful he is.

JANUARY 2018

“We’re family,” Casey explains. “You take care of your family.”

I’m sitting in her office. My recorder sits on her desk, capturing every word between us. I’ve brought everything I thought I’d need for an interview and everything Google told me I would. An audio recorder, my phone to play backup for it, and a legal pad playing backup for them if they should somehow both decide to fail me. A pack of pens. A small Moleskine with all of my notes and the questions I’ll ask Lev when I’m in front of him. It shouldn’t seem like I’d need more than that but it wasn’t like I could ask Paul for advice.

Casey gave me a tour of Chapman House. I saw bedrooms, offices, recreation spaces for adults and children alike, the kitchen. Now she’s breaking down how The Unity Project’s work is possible. There’s a reason Casey plays spokesperson for the cause. She’s incredibly polished, poised. She speaks in a tone of voice that would sound perfect on TV, in the same way her sermon voice sounded perfect for the sermon, and the way it sounded so perfectly cold when she was telling me my sister wanted nothing to do with me anymore—and to please stop calling.

“Project members are housed together in residencies across Morel, Bellwood and Chapman,” she says. “We’ve invested in multiple properties in those areas and some members have donated their own homes to invite their brothers and sisters in. We have a system in place that ensures the care of our membership.”

“Walk me through it.”

“All right.” She clasps her hands together. “Let’s say you work full-time for The Unity Project. You’ll live in Project housing and we’ll assume all the financials—living expenses, groceries, utilities, medicine. Whatever ensures your personal well-being, we handle. There’s nothing you need to worry about. If you work part-time for The Unity Project, we’ll offset certain expenses to make it easier for you to contribute to the cause. We arrange travel, childcare, things like that.” She pauses. “What it’s really highlighted for me is how many people want for the opportunity to be a part of something this meaningful and important—but they just can’t afford to. The red tape of living gets in the way. We want to remove that, to get rid of all burdens or obstacles—financial, physical, emotional, whatever—so they can. Not only do we care for our members, we invest in them. We sponsor members—”

“Sponsor?”

“We’ll pay for their education or professional courses if they pursue or are on a career track that can give back to The Project’s work. For example, we have some members who are pursuing employment in the healthcare field. We’ll assist them, and in turn, they’ll volunteer their services at The Unity Centers and avail themselves to members in need.”

“Where do you get the capital to do this?”

“Donations, tithes, fundraisers, we have several benefactors—”

“Your father?”

“This is completely off the record, but yes. He’s made significant contributions to our work over the years.” She moves the conversation along before I can pursue this. “On the record, what I’m most proud of is the way we all come through for one another. The Project represents a wide-ranging group of people with varying skill sets and talents. Their assets help us determine their placement—full-time members are assigned to communities that can