there's this incredible bit to start chapter 2 of the holes book by louis sachar where you know as context spoiler alert for chapter 1 he gets framed for this cartoonishly evil and also clearly improbable crime and is sent to a desert where they dig holes and the desert is clearly full of holes and it emphasizes not only how remote it is but how part of its remoteness is how it's covered in this moat of essentially their own graves. i don't know if the book ever says that part.
but chapter 2 starts and he just previously had one kid talk to him and tell him oh you think this is bad? the second hole is the worst. because the injuries beget their own pain now and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and then.......
second sentence. the third hole's the worst. the fourth. but stanley knew that wasn't true. he was getting stronger.
idk maybe that's the most improbable part of the text. but the slings and arrows can't rely on outrageous fortune forever. fortune can mean luck, wealth, fate. some of these end up reducing to the others but the transformation is one-way. information is lost.