Very short story

I had nothing better to do on my journey home this evening, so decided to try and write a story that I could SMS to people, if the urge struck i.e. a tale in less than 160 characters. I'm still working on that but, in the interim, here's one I wrote that just fits into a concatenation of 5 messages:

I met a demon on my train yesterday.

“Make a wish,” it whispered. “Any human trait will be yours in abundance.”
“Why do you offer this?“ I asked. It shrugged and told a tale of mischief and punishment, and then repeated the offer. “Any one thing, in full measure.”
“The price?” I queried.
“It is a gift,” the thing demurred, then added, softly, “if the wish is selfless.”
I pondered this, then made to disembark as the next station arrived.
“Wait!” called the creature. “Do you not want your heart’s desire?”
I answered sadly, “And there’s the trap. You know that I would not ask for that which I do not want, and I dare not ask for that which I do.”
And as the doors closed, I heard the being screech in fury as it flared and burned to ash.

There is no demon on my train today.

(later) I worked out that, to write a 160-character story, allowing for an average of 4 characters per word, you would have to tell you tale in 30 words or so, with a little leeway for punctuation. It seemed impossible, but a little online inspiration led to this:

Petals fall where once was sand, where once we toiled and now we stand, in shade.

Only 81 characters, without serious effort! And a full story, as far as I can tell. Progression, characterisation, human interest; all there, if a little roughly sketched. Now I'm determined to produce something a damn site smoother, using my whole allowance. Watch this space.