By James H. Burns:  Somehow, if I was “Andromeda Strained,” I never expected it to be happening almost entirely out of view, or, with nary a word….

Last night, around 6:30 p.m., I saw the siren lights bouncing off the living room walls.

I looked out the window, and it was an oddly angled reflection, as a police car was parked a good distance away, on the main thoroughfare, Franklin Avenue, in Franklin Square, in Long Island (New York).

The patrol car was blocking southerly traffic, and the policeman placed flares in front of his car.

And there were more police cars, about one a block, seemingly to five blocks away, down to Hempstead Turnpike.

I’m a big believer in not bothering police as they are trying to do their job. I figured there had been a car accident further along the way, and an investigation was proceeding.

If it had been a robbery, after all, there would have been sirens blaring, conceivably…

But after about an hour, the Mets spring training baseball game playing in repeat on TV, I decided to, unobtrusively, find out what was going on.

I walked to the Dairy Barn across the street, but the clerk was as in the dark, as me.

The equal mystery, in a way, was that traffic was being allowed in one direction, but not the other…

I walked over to the Avenue, and was surprised to see that the police car being used as a roadblock was empty.

The same was true for the vehicle one block away.

I wasn’t going to go any further, figuring I could only get in the way if I got closer to what seemed to be the hub-bub’s nucleus. But then an officer appeared across the street, and I called out, explaining I lived across the way, and was concerned.

He said that there was nothing to worry about, that there was a medical issue. I thanked him, and began walking back through the icy snow that still sides our byways.

What had most concerned me was that there might be a gas leak nearby.

I watched some Jeopardy!, shaved, finished getting ready, and went out for the night, surprised that even at 8:15, half of Franklin Avenue, for about four blocks, was still shut down.

I never expected to wake up this morning, and discover this had been an Ebola scare. As channel 12 reported —

An Ebola scare in Franklin Square temporarily shut down roadways surrounding a medical office Friday evening.

Police say there was no case of Ebola at Franklin Immediate Medical Care on Franklin Avenue.

The incident was sparked by a woman suffering from flu-like symptoms who told doctors that she had recently traveled to Africa.