Objected created in test database is not found by controller - ruby-on-rails

Question

This test clicks a link that hits show_fretboard in static_pages_controller.rb:
describe "StaticPages" do
subject { page }
let!(:key) { FactoryGirl.create(:key, user: user, name: 'C') }
.
.
.
describe "the fretBoard" do
before { visit root_path }
it 'should appear when clicked', js: true do
puts key.name
puts key.id
puts Key.find_by(name: 'C').id
click_link 'fretBoard-side-link'
page.should have_selector("#fretboard-key-header", :text => "Showing Notes in the Key of")
end
end
.
.
.
end
The test's failure shows this:
Run options: include {:line_numbers=>[141]}
C
9
9
An error occurred in an after hook
NoMethodError: undefined method `id' for nil:NilClass
occurred at /Users/user_name/rails_projects/my_project/app/controllers/static_pages_controller.rb:69:in `show_fretboard'
The key exists as it is outputting the key's name and ID. When static_pages_controller.rb tries to find the key, as seen here:
def show_fretboard
#key = params[:key] || Key.find_by(name: 'C').id
This error is thrown:
undefined method `id' for nil:NilClass
Why is this query not finding the Key object with name 'C'?
EDIT: This post (http://justinleitgeb.com/rails/common-rails-testing-mistakes/) says that:
Javascript-enabled tests in Capybara run in another thread
Database elements (from factories, etc) you create in the test example won’t be visible in the server thread
It looks like this is my issue, so my question becomes, how can I use JS tests to test my ajax calls while still querying the database.
EDIT: Database cleaner setup:
RSpec.configure do |config|
puts 'in database_cleaner.rb'
config.before(:suite) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean_with(:truncation)
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :transaction
end
config.before(:each, :js => true) do
DatabaseCleaner.strategy = :truncation
end
config.before(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.start
end
config.after(:each) do
DatabaseCleaner.clean
end
# source: http://devblog.avdi.org/2012/08/31/configuring-database_cleaner-with-rails-rspec-capybara-and-selenium/
end