Returning *char problem

Hello everybody... I'm new here. I have strange problem. My code look something like this

char* point(transform z){
char *a;
...
//here goes some code where a gates some content
...
printf("%s",a);
return a;
}
void main()
{
...
// here goes some declarations that doesn't affect this problem
...
char *p=point(y);
printf(" %s ", p);
}

so first printf (where i print a) give good result but the second (where I print p) just write some strange symbol. I don't see any mistake in my code. Can anyone help?