"Bitter Grounds" is a short story by Neil Gaiman, collected in Fragile Things.
The nameless narrator is running from his life, having tossed out his phone and driving into the South. A chance encounter with an anthropology professor leaves him with the man's wallet and hotel reservation at a conference in New Orleans. After failing to find a room in the city, the narrator decides to impersonate the professor so as to have a place to stay, and deny what he knows.
Tropes for this include:
- Bittersweet Ending: After attending the conference and sleeping with one of the attendees, the narrator seems to realize his time is up. A coffee girl appears and offers him a steaming cup of chicory coffee. He drinks the cup and goes with her, to wherever the afterlife is. Yet the narrator regrets nothing, realizing he felt alive for the first time in ages after going to the conference.
- Dead All Along: Granted, the narrator told us this in the first line; at the time it seemed to be hyperbole. We find out at the end that he was not joking.
- Dead Person Impersonation: Inverted; the narrator impersonates the presumably-alive professor Jackson Anderton at the conference. He seems to be hoping that the real Jackson will show up and bust him.
- Doing In the Wizard: The short story discusses that zombie powder is essentially dried poison-dart frog venom, and that it was very addictive. Thus, you can coerce a living person to become a zombie after getting them addicted to the drug.
- Implausible Deniability: The narrator believes that the real Jackson Anderton is alive, somewhere. He refuses to consider the other possibility.
- Limited Wardrobe: A plot point; the narrator has been wearing the same clothes for the story's duration. Another professor tells him he should get some more from the hotel gift shop, as well as a toothbrush, because he smells bad.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Professor Anderton says it's unclear if the coffee girls were zombies or a product of child labor. He points out that kids can be persuaded to sell coffee at early hours in the morning, while keeping blank faces.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We don't know what happened with the professor and the tow truck driver. The narrator only sees the car in a wreck and the professor's folder in a ditch.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: The narrator confuses Zora Neale Hurston with Zelda Fitzgerald, F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife. Much to his relief, the other conference speakers don't notice.
- Shown Their Work: Zora Neale Hurston did die poor and unappreciated for her works as a historian and novelist.
